The New Digs

Yo yo yo, my peeps. Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, but I've just been oh... Moving to a state I've never been to/closing on a house/signing away our entire life and all of our monies/moving our stuff into a storage unit/moving our stuff out of a storage unit and into a house/unpacking/and all sorts of activities that are mostly enjoyable and exciting but also extremely time consuming and make me want to sleep for 14 hours every night. True story: I really did sleep for 12 hours straight a couple of nights ago. And it was a delight and I refuse to feel guilty about it.

Side note: I am losing my mind. Seriously, folks. It is a worry. I am forgetting my dog's name, losing house keys, forgetting where on earth I put everything when I unpacked, and generally just falling apart at the seams.
Case 1: I spray painted myself in the face while attempting to spray paint a picture frame. My eyebrow was black for several hours.
 Case 2: I drafted up a text message to my mom, telling her how I was finally getting to enjoy the awesome Soda Stream she got me for my birthday, and telling her how much I love her and miss her and how she is the best mom ever. After typing up the text message, for reasons that escape me, I sent it to my realtor?? I have no idea why that happened. My realtor responded with, "Well I'm glad you're enjoying your gifts, and that is very nice, but I don't think this was meant for me?" Oopsie.
Case 3: I went running in our new neighborhood, and the sidewalks really leave a lot of be desired. They are very uneven and ripped up. It got dark really fast while I was out on my run, and I didn't see a big huge crack in the sidewalk, resulting in me eating it hard and Abby pausing to look at me and ponder why I was sprawled across the street. Some ladies across the street stopped and stared at me, and all I could think to say was, "Oh, hello...", while lying in a heap across the curb. And they just kept walking. My brain doesn't even remember how to run properly anymore. Changing routines in hard on my brain. Oy vey.

Anywho! We are now (mostly) unpacked and starting to settle into our cute new house. Who wants to see pictures? Everyone! Obviously.

It's still definitely a work in progress. This is a significant upgrade in space to our last house, so we are slowly accumulating all of the furniture and such that we need, but we've still got a ways to go. And I have zero decorating skillz, so it's not too fancy at this point. But we're making progress. I took 29375 pictures and you guys are going to enjoy them all and Ooo and Aaah about what a successful grown up I am.

 First of all, here are some pictures of the chaos of moving in. Yikes.

 Oddly enough, this stage of moving in makes me super excited. I love the idea of finding new homes for everything and making new routines. However, the novelty of this notion wears off very quickly.

 Home sweet home?

Anybody want some pine needles? Right after we got the house, there was a big windstorm that knocked TONS of pine needles off and into our yard. This is only the front yard. We haven't even done the backyard yet. Oh dear. 

 Our front door! Our brick isn't quite as orange as it looks in this picture... But I love our cute front door with the pretty glass and the cozy little porch. 

Our front yard and little front porch.

 Looking into the main living area from the front door. Hello Abby! I didn't make her be in these pictures, but she makes plenty of cameos.

 Upstairs living room. The guy on the couch came with the house. I might upgrade. I kid, I kid.

 Hey everybody, look how crafty I am! Both of these crafts were made at a time where someone else had the idea and someone else procured all of the supplies, and I just did as I was told. That is my favorite kind of crafting.

 Another view of the living room. How much do you love that rug?? The answer had better be a lot. Also, in our moving, we only had 2 casualties. 1 of our lampshades got crushed, and we lost the power cord to my piano. After being on hold with Yamaha for an hour, I finally ordered a new one and am eagerly waiting for it's arrival so I can tickle those (fake) ivories once more.

 Eating area. Our table fits all expanded and with 6 chairs, but there's more room to get around with it pushed against the wall. But don't worry, we'll pull it out just for you when you come and visit.

 

Oh hello, my beautiful kitchen. This was a major selling point of this house. I l.o.v.e this kitchen. I've already made a few meals, and all of the counter space and working appliances are beyond glorious. I've never lived in a house with appliances that are younger than me. It's quite fantastic. 

 

The pumpkin cheesecake I just baked sitting on the counter. Yeah, you wish you were here visiting me. It's not very photogenic, but I think it's going to be very tasty. 

  I won't lie, this fridge was also a huge selling point on the house. I specifically wrote into the contract that they had to leave it. And I love it just as much as I thought I would. I frequently walk by and open the doors and just sigh at all of the space and all of my food so readily accessible and visible.

 Bonus: There is a soda can rack in the fridge. So naturally I had to put it to good use with some of my favorite beverages.

Here's a view looking into the living area from the hall. I want you to really feel like you're here! So that one day you really will come here! All of you. Except all of you strange people who found my blog by google searching "vienna sausages."

 Darn, I tried really hard to upload these in the right order, but instead we are starting at the end of the hall. At the end of the hall and to your left is our master bedroom. It's a little small, but everything fits just fine. And the paint matched our bedspread. Score.

 Dresser, and the worst part of the house: Teeny tiny master closet.

 It's so tiny. Only about 1/2 of my stuff fits in there. And I allotted Cary about 1/4 of it. I'm generous like that. I gave away 4 garbage bags full of clothes before we moved, and another full one as I unpacked, but I remained convinced that I absolutely needed all of the rest of my clothes. And yet every time I get dressed I decide that I hate all of my stupid clothes. My life is full of struggles.

 Master bathroom. Oh how dearly I love it. Once again, I've never had a bathroom with fixtures younger than me, or probably not even younger than my grandma. It's groovy.

 Double sinks! Yahoo! We can now finally discover who gets toothpaste all over the mirror.

 Awesome soaker tub. It felt amazing after doing yard work in the blustery cold yesterday. Ahhhh.

 The shower is the bomb. Gigantic shower head, and a bench to sit down on. Because sometimes showering standing up is just too darn much work.

 Very messy linen closet.

 Right across from the master bedroom is the guest bedroom! Come sleep here! We got an awesome mattress topper for the bed and I worry that Cary will decide to sleep there instead of in our bed where certain tenants are not very generous with the covers.

Amy's closet, part deux. All my stuff wouldn't fit in our closet, so here's the overflow. It's mostly just shoes and dresses. Someday when we have a little person who needs this room, I'll have to figure something else out. But for now, it works. 

Guest bathroom shower. 

 Guest bathroom. The previous owners did such a good job updating everything.

 Up the hall and to your right is Cary's office. It remains in a fairly chaotic state, but we have learned that it is good for our marriage if Cary has a space that he can do whatever he wants and be as messy as he wants, and I can just close the door and not worry about it.We bought this desk off of Craigslist and it was a sweet deal.

Futon in Cary's office. One of the rooms that still has a lot of work to be done. All of our diplomas and such are in the corner waiting to be hung up.

Stairs down to the basement. For reference, the stairs run right behind the kitchen/stove. 

 At the bottom of the stairs and to the right is the world's most HUMONGOUS laundry room. Holy moly. Almost makes me want to do laundry. Also, my favorite part of being a girl: NOT being involved in getting the washer and dryers into the basement. I very much enjoyed my job of pointing boys carrying heavy stuff into the right rooms.

We need to work out some storage down here, but that is a project for another day and another time when we haven't already spent all of our money on locks and couches and desks and what not. 

 Past the laundry room is the big basement room, with our entertainment room. Needs some decorations and some lamps or something, but it's comfy.

Another awesome craigslist find. It's so comfy and soft that I don't even care that it's green. It's really high quality and it came from some super rich people, so two thumbs up. 

 Across the room we have our book shelves and my little sewing/craft area. I suppose I should start doing crafts, what with my designated area and all.

 There are two rooms in the basement, one of which has no window, and we it is just a storage room for now. And probably for always.

 The other basement room, which is also mostly empty for now. We will probably move the guest bedroom down here at some point. We are also probably going to put in a bathroom in the basement using part of the ginormous laundry room.

Last but not least, our awesome deck! Look at that view. 

 There's some built in seating, and eventually we will get some nice deck furniture for many meals outside. I am so happy to have my grill back.

 Stairs going down the yard, newly put in by our sellers. Thanks, guys!

Our yard, absolutely covered in pine needles. Our yard is huge, but it needs some major TLC. But raking pine needles was exhausting enough that I think that project will probably be put off until next year. Or until I care more about it, which could be a very long time. 

 

Our cute pie little house. I love it all nestled in the trees.

So there you have it. We've been here for a week and are happily starting to make this house a home. Come visit! I'll make you treats and take you on hikes and you won't even have to share our bathroom. :0)