Here we are!

Well, we have made it to Anchorage. We arrived last Thursday, Oct. 1 and spent the night with a friend of ours and on Friday we moved into a temporary apartment. We still haven't decided where in Anchorage we want to live and there are so many apartments to choose from that we just choose a place that would do a 30 day lease to start from. We are starting the search today to find a place to move into by Nov. 2nd.

The summer finished up nicely at the Chalets. My last day of work was on Sept. 21 and Kevin's last day was Sept. 30. The maintenance team was able to shut the whole property down (28 guest buildings, the main lobby, gift shop, 2 restaurants, several employee housing buildings, the employee dining room and various other buildings) in record time. By shutting down the property I am referring to the fact that ALL water must be turned off and completely drained out of the pipes including no water can be left in the toilets, windows have to be boarded up and power has to be shut off. There were many many other things that they had to do as well but the details can be some what boring. The summer was very interesting and definitely a growing experience for both of us. It was a big step out of my comfort zone to live so close to so many people and have to share a bathroom with strangers, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Now, more about what is going on currently. The place we moved into temporarily is basically like a hotel room but with it being an apartment building tenants can sign a minimum of a 1 month lease at a time and not have to pay the bed tax. The building itself used to be a nursing home/assisted living facility. Floors 2, 3 and 4 used to be the nursing home rooms, they don't have kitchens in them, just the room with a bed and a huge bathroom with a roll in type shower. We live on the 4th floor. There is a community room that the rooms on these floors have access to that has a full kitchen and there is a laundry room. Floors 5 - 14 are what used to be the assisted living apartments. They are one bedroom apartments with full kitchens. It is a bit expensive (comparatively with TN) to live here for what you get but it is warm and dry and all the utilities are included in the rent - even cable! The building is in downtown so we definitely are not interested in staying here long term. We have a LONG list of apartments that we want to look at that are scattered all over town. As we drive around to look at them we will see what kind of areas they are in and decide if it looks like a "safe" or "good" area of town to live in. We are leaning more toward the south end of town though.

We will keep you posted as to the progress and how it goes. Have a great week everybody!