What You Have Now is What You Dreamed of Before

Original post by Sarah @ Renewed Upon a Dream, please visit her website for more great ideas!”

In the time since I graduated from high school, I have lived in 9 different places, in 7 different cities (not counting a short period of time returning to my parents house after college).  These places have included

-College-town dorm (1 year)
-College-town apartment with 3 roommates (2 years)
-College-town sorority house (1 year)
-Lake Michigan beach town 1 bedroom apt (6 months)
-Cheep, 1-bedroom apt on the “east side” (9 months)
-Larger 1-bedroom apt in HUGE apt complex (1 year)
-Smaller rented 1-bedroom condo in cute small town (8 months)
-Great single story 2 bedroom apt (so no one above or below me) with front porch & back patio in my most favorite picture perfect town (1 year)
-Current, 3-bedroom house in a different college-town (going on 4 years)

I tried to gather up some pictures of some of the places I used to live for this post, but have discovered that I don’t really have many.  Pre-blogging days you know? 

What I can say is that for the most part, each new place I lived in was a upgrade in some way.  I now live in a 3 bedroom house with a yard, which I never had before.  My place before this one, which was my favorite, was in a great town, but it was smaller & didn’t have a garage like my place does now.

My super small place before that was tiny, but it was just me & it had a huge closet & was in a pretty cute little town itself which was within walking distance.  It also had pretty real wood floors.  Plus it was a condo, so the rental agreement with the owner was really flexible.

Before that I was in a really large apartment complex.  The nice thing about apartment complexes is that they really do take care of everything.  Anything breaks, they will come fix it right away.  They have a whole staff just for that stuff every day.  So that was nice.  But their lease terms can be really inflexible & they almost always increase your rent after the first year.

My place before that one was kind bordering a not-so-great neighborhood.  It had a lot of subsidized housing right behind it with a playgound.  The children who played there found great enjoyment in screaming their little heads off all day long.  I don’t get the satisfaction of screaming like a crazy person so much for no apparent reason.  Maybe it was because I was really young at the time & didn’t/don’t have kids, but it drove me absolutely nuts.

All this is to say that the place we have now IS better than anything I had before.  Really if you think about it, even if your place now isn’t as great as the one before it for some reason or another, it probably is better in another way.  The place you are in now is probably something you only dreamed of before.  This is the case for me.  While my house isn’t in the location of my dreams, I certainly never had a HOUSE before & that is certainly an improvement in many ways.  We also have 3 bedrooms & we have a garage, which I hadn’t had before.

I also have an awesome hubby living with me here.  All my other post-college apartments I lived in alone.  I loved living alone, but I also love being able to have someone to come home to.    I am thankful for the lire & place I have now as they are things I only dreamed of before.

Follow along with my 31 days of loving my rental series here: