"I have a place for myself at the independent living community of Cypress Point in Casa Grande. My daughter's mother-in-law said she had some friends here, which prompted us to look. It met with everything, and so far, it's a lot cheaper. I also have one cat, which I have permission to have. Utilities are not bad at all. It's plenty for me to keep up with, but not overwhelming, not to the point where I feel like I can't cope. The only negative thing I have about the apartment is that I don't think they expect me to cook because it's a tiny little kitchen with not a whole lot of storage. It looks like it's got plenty, but then when you start putting stuff away, there just isn't a place for it. The place that is set up for a pantry, there is no shelving in there, so we put in cubicles on both sides, and basically, now everything's got a home. The closet isn't that big, so when you stick your head in to look at one of the cubicles, it doesn't give you a whole lot of room to make decisions. There's no light in there, either. Other than that, everything else is coming together.
The apartment is modern, well-kept, and I think some of the appliances were brand new, like the microwave and the stove. I haven't had a dishwasher in a long time, and I'm really enjoying that too. There are no steps to worry about, and the doors are all super large, so if you need to use a wheelchair or something else to get in and out, you've got room to do it. It's got a patio, but in Arizona, we could maybe use it for a few months. The bedroom's not very big, but I've got a queen-size bed in there, a chest of drawers, a place to store sheets, and a nightstand. There's also a walk-in closet in the bedroom. Even when you come out of the closet, there's a ledge above where you can put suitcases or boxes or whatever you want to put up there. There is also a little bit of storage off the patio that's locked. If you still need more room, I believe that for $5 a month, there's an outdoor storage area that you can rent.
I haven't participated in anything, but they have potlucks, weekly trips to the grocery store if you want to go, and they have a book club, which doesn't do me any good because I haven't been able to sit and read a book in quite a long time. I'm really looking forward to that, though. They have arts and crafts and quite a few activities, plus movies. They've got a lot of social things, too. Everywhere you go is clean. The clubhouse is also clean, organized, very attractive, and has plenty of seating. They have a pool, too. I don't know if I'll be able to go in there, though, because I asked if they had stairs or a ramp, and I think they said stairs. It just depends on my lower back and my knees, whether I'll be able to do it or not, because if the stairs are really tall, I'm not going to be able to. Everybody else seems to enjoy them. The people here are very friendly. They know that my health hasn't been great, and so every once in a while somebody will come, but not that often, to the door. Judging by what everything else is costing everywhere else, I'd say their price is pretty fair since housing right now is extremely expensive."