A Walk Around the Fountains

You've already seen what the inside of our apartment looks like. Now it's time to take a look at the outside.

We live at an apartment complex called "The Fountains."

The Fountains has a fairly large campus, and it is like a little village in itself.

There are 9 apartment buildings that contain some 168 apartments and townhouses. There are 2 swimming pools, 4 dumpsters, 2 pet areas, 2 picnic areas, several covered parking areas (for which you have to pay extra), a fitness center that has exercise machines and a tanning bed, a business center that has computers and a fax machine and copier, and the leasing office where you can also borrow - for free! - movies.

The perimeter around the campus is just a wee tad over 0.4 miles long. (I measured it on my car's trip odometer.) So you can get some exercise by walking "around the block" a few times.

One of the first things we see when we return home from running errands or going to doctors' appointments is this sign. Ariana said that it makes her feel good when she sees this sign. And you know what, I also find it warming.

This is the second sign that we see, after turning onto Chicago Avenue, which is the street that The Fountains is located on.

So far, I cannot say that the surroundings will inspire me. But compared to what I have seen, The Fountains has one of the nicer apartment campuses in Lubbock.

This is the front entrance to The Fountains.

Right after you pass through the front gate, you'll see the leasing office on your left.

There are about 3 water fountains at The Fountains. (This one is kind of hard to see. Sorry about that.)

The are 4 dumpsters on the campus. This is the one that is closest to us. Because the apartment is too tiny for a large trash can, taking the trash out to the dumpster is a daily chore which Joe and/or Ariana usually do.

Walking past the dumpster, around to the back of our building, is this pet area. There are 2 pet areas on the campus. And both of them provide doggie poop bags.

We have to do our laundry in this laundry room using laundry tokens that we purchase in the leasing office for $1.00 a piece. It costs $1.00 per machine, per cycle.

Compared to what I had at my old house in Mattapoisett, these machines are tiny. What I was used to being 1 load there is 2 loads here.

The dryers are really tiny too. And they take forever long to dry ~ 80 minutes for one cycle. And often I need to run the dryer for 2 cycles ($2.00) because the laundry would still be damp after one 80-mile cycle.

Behind the laundry building are the mailboxes where we pick up our mail. We have to get larger envelopes and packages at the leasing office. And the leasing office is also where we put out our out-going mail to be picked up by the letter carrier.

Another one of the amenities at The Fountains is this swimming pool.

It's not a very large swimming pool, but there are 2 of them on the campus.

Here's a lovely courtyard and picnic area. (There are 2 of them also at The Fountains.)

As we finish up our walk and return to the apartment, you can see our sea pony hanging up on our patio, waiting to greet us. (And there's my car, the one on the right.)

Here's a close up of the sea pony. While the sea pony may have been a more fitting fixture for a coastal New England town, he's made a good home in land-locked Lubbock.

The entrance to our apartment is just to the right under the stairs. With all the hauling that Ariana and Joe did earlier this month, I bet they were awfully glad that our apartment was on the first floor. Imagine lugging Ariana's heavy and bulky Bombay chest up those stairs!

And here were are, home at last at apartment #202.