Promised pictures

I finally braved the cold and wind to get these fabulous pictures. I really like this style, because it reminds me of the houses where I grew up. Dominic thinks it's a tad boring, though; his dream house is a Victorian. He's planning on adding decorative trim, and I'll hang up plants and a bird feeder in the Spring.


The backyard has this great playset, and despite the weather, the kids are spending a lot more time outside. We also have these garden boxes that I look forward to learning how to use to grow something edible. That area with no boxes is a strawberry patch - apparently they thrive here.















Here are a couple of inside shots. First, Lisy is trying out the window seat in a bedroom. Who needs cushions? And Benjamin found a comfy seat in this corner cabinet, which now holds my mixing bowls. I think it's adorable that all the kids like to sit there and talk to me while I'm cooking.












I'll share more interior pictures as I complete the rooms.

The freedom to go

Today is the 2 week anniversary of Rachel starting to crawl. She loves this newfound freedom. It makes her so happy. So where does this ankle biter go? To me or my laptop. If she is in the living room when I go upstairs, she crawls to the stairs and plays, or cries, at the bottom step until I return.

Looks like she wants to start walking soon, too.

Learning curve

As my sister Jen pointed out when she moved, you can never transfer a kitchen as-is. You will always need to make adjustments. I have found the same to be true with kitchen appliances. It seems I need a bit of time to learn how to cook in my new kitchen.

There was no school today (something about it being the end of term), so I took the time to make a big country breakfast. Wouldn't you know it? My new stove runs a bit hotter than I'm used to - I burned everything. Only the biscuits were spared, but just because it's a cool oven and I had to leave them in a bit longer than usual. I felt like the stereotypical new wife who can't cook. At least no one complained.

New Home

We're done. It's finished. We are completely moved out of our old house, and finished the cleaning. Though if you ask me, the rental agency was a bit anal with the white glove inspection. (Who takes down the bathroom fan covers and dusts them with a q-tip?) They did let me go back and clean more thoroughly, so hopefully we'll get most of our deposit back.

Our new place feels so big. We went from about 900 sq ft to about 1600 sq ft. I didn't think I would like 2 stories, but it really helps with the noise - one can always find a quiet place to relax. Plus, I get a lot of exercise going up and down the stairs all day.

Another thing I like is the laundry room inside the house. I find myself more willing to do the laundry when I don't have to put on shoes and brave the cold garage just to switch the clothes. (Have I mentioned that I'm a weather wimp?)

Right now I feel like we'll never fully move in. Then I remember that we moved during the holidays (we didn't lose any presents in the transition :) and spent a bit of time cleaning the old place. I'm just now catching my breath and finding a daily routine again. As we gradually unpack the boxes stuffed in the garage, I vow to actually hang up our pictures on the walls. Confession: our last place only had clocks and a calendar up.

Our new landlords are great. We hope to eventually buy the house from them, and they are encouraging us to make improvements. For instance, we put in a cat door, and they were excited for us. How cool is that? At our last place, they said we needed to call an approved contractor to fix a poorly repaired hole in the wall; Dominic just fixed it himself and did a better job.

Three cheers to a new year and a new house!

*Yes, I will post pictures as soon as I take them.