Apartment Life In Las Vegas

Before moving to Las Vegas, I lived on a dirt road, nestled against a desert “mountain.” Our next door neighbors were my grandparents, and my first job was cleaning the house/corrals right across the street. Down some stone steps, a fig, guava, and a couple peach trees repose, and lining the two long concrete driveways are pine trees planted years before by my grandparents. If you climb up on the garage roof, you can soak up some sun or take in the night sky when it's dark. Some nights the stars are incredibly vibrant and piercing: in fact, this is where my boyfriend (now husband) decided to propose to me. Chickens, kittens, two little dogs, and my huge family and I (and whoever else was around) all resided in this sweet childhood house.

And then I got married.

And I moved to Las Vegas.

And now I live above, around, amidst, and altogether WITH many strangers in this apartment complex. Yeah, it’s just my husband and I living in our apartment (insert many heart eyes), but we are not living in a Little House on the Prairie cabin in the middle of nowhere.

My husband and I love our apartment. It is our home, our first place together, our little house away from everything we’ve ever known. It is one of the safer complexes, has security, a gate, etc, etc. But…it is Las Vegas. It comes with its own set of adventures, and so forthwith I shall abandon said reminiscences and present to you the pros and cons of apartment living in Las Vegas.

PROS:

•  Living in an apartment is the perfect stepping stone for us as we save, dream, and establish our little family.
• We get free maintenance. I mean, be real. Owning a home is great, but when something is breaking every other weekend, well, we’re thankful for our tireless maintenance guys who come check on me when I think the gas stove is leaking. But I digress.
• The pool! Yay! I love pools! Let’s hope those little kids used the bathroom before they got here.
• The playground! I may be 21 but I still need the use of the monkey bars...  for pull-up practice. I promise.
• We can leave anytime. Okay, not really. You can’t just break the lease without the military sending you somewhere else. But we don’t have to pack/ move/ AND sell our house when the military sends us packing papers.
• Our apartment is adorable. I genuinely love the aesthetic, the roomy kitchen, the precise paint job, the vaulted ceilings, the hexagon window, the private staircase, the little electric fireplace – I think our apartment is SO NICE. My husband did an amazing job when he went apartment hunting.

CONS:

• Shutting the blinds only partially filters out the light from outside, which means we  can never actually sleep in a totally dark room. I regret the months of getting frustrated when my little sis would want the door open and the hall light on while I wanted it dark. She would love it here.   
• The neighbors are nuts. They really are. In the last few months alone they have raced at 4am in front of the apartment, slammed the door or cupboard or something maybe 20,000 times while we are sleeping trying to sleep, and shot off a gun outside in the middle of the night.
• Fireworks and gun shots sound the same, so when everyone was practicing for fourth of July every night for what seems like forever, well, it was a little concerning. 
• That one car with the car alarm that would go off almost EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. They took it into the dealership only after my husband mentioned they might want to take it there. 
• The dog poop. We don’t have a dog, but judging from the landscape, every other person in this complex owns at least seven.

Really, life is so good. In each of my “cons,” there is so much to be grateful for. For the lights that shine outside our window and contribute to our safety. For the neighbors who help us grow in patience and love and teach us how to sleep in noisy places. For the fact that some of those gunshots are actually fireworks, and for dogs existing in general. For my husband to find a beautiful temporary home for us while we live here.  And for the new life experience broadening my horizons daily.

-Sara