There was more than one reason as to why I went this route. The main reason was for my sanity (sometimes you have to be SELFISH in order to maintain your sanity) which I may or may not elaborate more on later.

I looked at different options; another house, an apartment, mobile home, and a camper. What struck me the most about living here is paying one price which covers: electric (which thank goodness cause I run the a/c every.single. day – damn hot flashes), water and internet. We take the garbage down to the main dumpster. The downsides are: no dishwashers ( I love paper plates – lol), no oven but I’ve become pretty good at using our crock pot and toaster oven to make meals. And now-a-days, there are so many food items that can be microwaved. Yeah! Yeah! Also, the bed is in the same area as the living area.

We’re in a double but I took the other bed/mattress and put it behind our T.V. to give us more space. There’s an elevator here which is nice. Although I’ve been using the stairs more since I’ve been trying to get better at exercising. I’ve felt pretty safe being here and haven’t had any problems so far. As a matter of fact, there are some people that have been here for well over 2 years. There are some school aged children here and the school bus actually picks them up (and drops them off) at the front door of the hotel. There’s no garage, so when it rains or it’s cold – well yeah!!

Housekeeping comes about once a week but you can pay an extra fee if you need the services more than that. There’s a laundromat downstairs and you can exchange the linens/towels if need be. I prefer to wash my own though. I also have to remind the hubster about not having the sound up too loud when he’s gaming. Since we only have one T.V. – if I want to watch a movie, I either grab my tablet or watch on my laptop. I’m not a big T.V. watcher anyway but if I do, the only show that I’m interested in watching is Law and Order:SVU

The noise isn’t too bad unless there are a ton of kids on the same floor. Usually the parents pick the 1st floor since the upper floors tend to have the smell of cigarettes. But come to think of it, I haven’t noticed much of a smell since the change in managers. Plus that all disappears once you walk into our space cause I love a good smelling room. I’m a bit O.C.D, so yeah….

We haven’t had the kids over to spend the night yet but what I plan on doing is buying them sleeping bags. The boys (3 of them) will stay with their dad and the girls (2 of them) will stay with me in another room. At the most we can pick them up on a Saturday morning. The goal will be to get out and do stuff since we’re only limited to one T.V. Before we moved we had a total of 7 T.V.’s and everyone was glued to some sort of electronics. Hoping to change all of that…

I do miss our things (which are in storage) but knowing that this is temporary, I plan on using the time here wisely. There’s so much I’d like to accomplish (and deal with) before being thrown back into taking care of a big house. Apartment living has been up in the air as well.

I tried to make it feel like a “home” as much as possible.