Over the course of the series, there have been many housing/living arrangement changes. In a show like this one, the apartments almost become the 6th character of the series. There have been much house/apartment and roommate swapping going on lately and it reminded me of how important the setting really is to the series.

First, we have the main apartment. This is the apartment over McLaren's that has been home to Marshall, Lily, Ted and Robin over the years. So many important things have happened there. For example, in the pilot Marshall and Lily get engaged in the apartment. Many an Intervention has been staged at the apartment. Even the front steps of the apartment has had plenty of screentime and was important in the breakup and reconcilation of Marshall and Lily. Now, Ted who has lived there throughout the whole series has moved out and has given the place to Marshall and Lily.

Next, we have Barney's apartment. Barney has the ultimate bachelor pad. He has a stormtrooper, an excessive porn stash and even a room just for suits. His place is always immaculate (we have now seen his maids and can understand why, those ladies work fast !). Barney has only had one roommate on the series, when Lily lived with him for a short while post breakup with Marshall. However, after last week, we saw that Quinn moved in with him. There is a first time for everything !

There were some monumental scenes that took place at Robin's old apartment. I will never forget when Ted came to pick her up for their wedding date and she look phenomal. Then I was heartbroken right along with Ted when she got called into work after he had gone through so much to get her there. Robin's place was also the location where her and Barney hooked up for the first time while watching her second Robin Sparkles video. Other than Ted moving in with her for an extremely short while, Robin always lived alone at that place.

After Marshall and Lily finally got married they bought their apartment with the crooked floors. Marshall and Lily really grew up as a couple in this apartment. This was their home for many seasons on the show and they just recently moved it out of it this year.

Also this season they moved into the house in New Jersey that they inherited. This, to me, seemed like a great house for starting a family. I never really understood the concept of raising a child in an apartment, but that is just not how I grew up. It was surprising to me that they moved back to the city so quickly and hated their lives in New Jersey so much. It definitely seemed against Marshall's character for him to react that way. The suburbia lifestyle they were living looked similar to the Minnesotan way that Marshall grew up. He is much more of a traditionalist than Lily, I thought it would at least take an episode or two for her to convince him to move back to the city.

So where does that leave us now? Well, Marshall and Lily are back above McLaren's and Ted is going to live alone at Quinn's old place. As far as I can remember, Ted has never lived without roommates. It actually would have been fun to have Ted and Barney have to shack up together for a while. It could have even been a whole odd couple storyline, but alas with Barney and Quinn moving in together that storyline is put on hold, for now.