I'm Still Alive! And other news.

There's no use catching up, but let me bring you up to date.  

We moved! 

Yes... again.

This was move number 18 in eight and a half years.  Whew!

But guess what?

It's going to be a while before we do it again, because...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

So in an interesting series of events, which included my husband getting a last-minute offer for a TA-ship to help him proceed on to a PhD program we had applied to last Fall, and then seeing that rent would be as much as a modest mortgage payment if not more, we decided to take the plunge.  With the PhD we knew we'd have to stay put for at least 4 years, so with a little help from friends and family we found an agent and a loan officer, poured over the MLS website, and found a few houses worth looking at. We made one quick trip across the state to look at houses, and made an offer on one the very same day. It had only been on the market three days, and they actually accepted our offer!  So here we are, 5 weeks later, in a new house (that's actually ours), in a new town and about to start at new schools all around this week! How's that for exciting? (Notice how I just skipped over the whole moving part?  Yeah, I've got enough PTSD from all the moves, that I'm not even going there, you can send pitying thoughts from afar though.)

 

Now I know you all want to see some pictures of my house so here you go. 

We'll start with the best feature:  The Backyard.

Yes, the playset was a huge selling feature, but really the most important, for me at least, is the trees and the shade! Love the deck too.

I suppose we should also give a glimpse of the front of the house.  It's pretty nondescript, and sorely needs some flowers out front, but overall not bad.  There's a row of pine trees you can't see right in front of the house, which shade it nicely in the evenings and give a little privacy.  In fact, when I look out my front window it's like looking right out into a forest instead of into the neighbor's houses across the street.  

This is the front room.  I wasn't super sold on the wood burning stove and the bricks and such, but it's growing on me.  I like the wood even, and hope to get some little indoor trees or something rather than bookshelves so as not to cover it up. 

Another view of the front room. We need to get pictures up on all these bare walls.

This is the split entryway as seen from the kitchen, which I'm not a huge fan of, but whatever.  I'm looking for a nice chandelier to hang there and get rid of the fan.  Coat closet and hallway to the right with a nice big pantry and a linen closet on the way to the boys' rooms. 

Downstairs is a nice big family room with another wood burning stove (don't worry, we have a furnace too, the stoves are just backup).  This is from the bottom of the stairs.  There's a storage closet to the right, and the door on the left is a nice big unfinished laundry room. I say big because I can not only walk into it and turn around, unlike most of our other places, but maybe even put up some shelves and such to help organize. 

Another view of the family room, with our mismatched furniture and the kids turned couch potatoes, but how else was I supposed to get the house picture-worthy?

Back in the corner is this little area, where there is a door to the garage, and a perfect place to put...

The organ I inherited from my Grandpa. We've just recently figured out how to use some of the features, and it's pretty fun.  I've never got down the whole pedal thing and all the stops and such. It'll be good for me to learn. The kids have spent plenty of time playing on it as well. Who knows?  Maybe it'll be just the thing to get them interested in learning. 

Here's the baby's room, with said baby.  Can you believe he's 7 months?!  He's just starting to crawl and he cut two teeth the weekend we moved in.  I'm looking for some fun stuff to brighten this room up. And we'll need a real crib in the near future. When he's weaned we'll probably put him upstairs with the boys and make this into an office for my husband to work on his dissertation late at night (yeah, I know how this works).

Not pictured is the Master Bedroom across the hall, mostly because I didn't have time to put away all the clean laundry on the bed.  Plus, the window didn't have blinds, so there's just a blanket over a shower curtain rod.  I'll update this when I get a picture maybe.

Here's our downstairs bathroom just because I'm sure you wanted to see it too. It's actually recently updated, with just a shower though, and a cabinet behind the door.

Okay, back upstairs to the kitchen.  This is looking in from the entryway next to the fireplace in the living room.  The baby adds a human element to the pictures.  Literally. 

Now usually the kitchen is a huge deal for me, since I spend most of my time there, and this one is in serious need of some updates (I should have zoomed in on the ancient built-in oven with it's buttons instead of knobs, and the interior too small to hold a jelly-roll pan.  Looking on the bright side though, at least it heats up really fast), but it definitely has potential.  I like that the windows face east to catch the morning light, and I am a fan of bars. I also like my sink/faucet and the bright lighting.  It's workable.

The upstairs bathroom.  Also in need of some updates, but the kids don't care. 

The three year old has his own room, which means he doesn't keep the other kids up at night. 

The 7 and 5 year olds' room.  And yes, their beds are always made like that. ;)

The paper near the ceiling will probably go, but not until I decide what I really want to do with this house.  

It's really ours!  I can hardly wrap my head around it.  I feel like I've always been a guest in all the places we've stayed and rented.  I've never been free to paint or update or change anything.  Granted, we've got more responsibility, and have to fix our own things, but it's ours!  

It's also tons bigger than anything we've ever lived in, and it finally feels like all our stuff has a place and that it was always meant to go there, like this house was custom built for us.  

It's not my dream home by any means, but it's perfect for our needs right now and much better than we could have ever hoped at this point.  It will be so nice to not have to move for a few years!  

So there you have it!  Sorry I've been remiss in blogging, but hopefully I'll get back into it when the kids are at school or my husband is taking evening classes and I'm so bored and lonely... I mean, 

free to do whatever I want after the kids are down.