Our New Digs

So I realized that the “Move day” post was a bit of a “to be continued” because I pretty much cut the story off at us pulling out of the neighborhood on our way to our new journey!  But what happened next?- you might ask.  (Or, you might not.  I’m going to tell you either way :)

Here we are on a brief pit stop at my parents house on our way out of the valley. They insisted we stop by to say goodbye.

Two hours, and 47 “are we there yet’s” later, we arrived in Price.  Seth was so worried that no one would come help us unload the trailers, but he was wrong.  It turns out we have a really sweet older couple across the street that has been eagerly awaiting our arrival.  Cathy called the Elders quorum & had a crew of men standing by.  She also baked us a pan of delicious brownies, gave me flowers and a welcome card, and gave me a tour of pretty much everything I need to know around here.  She is a sweetheart! Sadly though, other that Dave & Cathy, we haven’t really met anyone on our block yet.  Everyone keeps asking me if the kids have made friends and the problem is, there aren’t many other kids in the neighborhood to make friends with!

We spent a LOT of time looking for a place in Price that wasn’t, well….. trashy :)  We did finally find this great house and its in a nice neighborhood, but the area is really, really RURAL.  So, beyond our cul-de-sac, the next neighbors are too far for my kids to walk.  I’m sure they will meet friends when school starts, though, and in the mean time- they don’t seem to mind.  They have had a great time just hanging around the house, playing with each other, helping me unpack, and hanging out with whatever visitors happen to be in town for the week.

But- I’m getting off topic here.  Back to the house.  So, on move in day, I was a little overwhelmed.  People kept asking me where to put things and I just didn’t know!  Living in a two-story is SO much different than my rambler- nothing arranges quite right, so I was really lost.

For the most part I just told people to plop things down wherever they’d like & I’d figure it out later.  (That was clearly a mistake)

Michelle helped me work on the kitchen and I was a basketcase.  Everything was so different, I couldn’t figure out where to put anything.  Eventually she just started putting things away where she thought they should go.  (I’d like to say for the record, that now the kitchen is all arranged & I’m quite happy with it.  Sorry I was such a baby Chow!)

Anyway- The entire White family stayed all day & helped us work on the fiasco, and Seth’s mom & step-dad were here all day too, and it was such a HUGE help to me.  A nice family from our ward provided us with lunch AND dinner, and mentioned to us at least 10 times how great it would be to see us in Church the next day, so I had to dig through the boxes well enough to find church clothes.  Exhausted as we were, the Wallaces trudged their sorry selves to Church bright & early Sunday morning. 

Our ward is………..um………special.  WOW- SO different!  As I mentioned, the area surrounding us is incredibly rural, so we have a few hicks from the sticks in our ward.  Ok, a lot. This is already such a learning experience for me, though, because I saw right away that they were wonderful people, and the spirit is the same in any Church building around the world.

Sorry, I am losing focus yet again.

So, our new house is a two-story as I mentioned.  It is actually a little larger than our home in M.G., but it has a lot of formal space (formal living room, dining room and office), so the space we are used to (kitchen, greatroom), is actually smaller.  The master bedroom is enormous, and so is the master bath, but the family room is tiny. Like I said, just different, so I’m trying to adjust.  The family we are renting from are WONDERFUL people, and they have just moved to Craig, Colorado.  I recently started following her blog (its on my sidebar, called “On African Thyme” if you want to check it out), and I loved a post she did where she talked about the things she is liking and NOT liking about her new place. So, to follow suit, I’d like to air my own grievances and joys regarding our “pad”.

Ok, I’m trying to be positive, so I’ll start with the good.  This home has a ton of natural light.  There is sunshine in the house at all times and it makes me happy.  There are big, pretty trees in the backyard that I can see out my kitchen window.  I love the cultured marble surrounds in the showers & baths (tile looks pretty,but I have learned is a huge pain to keep looking nice.  Seth says we’re ripping ours out when we get back) As I said, the master bath is huge & I love it.  There is a toilet closet (which we removed from our floor plan when we built (DUMMY’s!), His & hers walk-in closet, a nice big jetted tub, and a LINEN CLOSET! (The drawbacks of the master bath are the teeny, tiny mirror, and the fact that the shower takes about 15 minutes to get hot :)

Ok, here are the things I am lamenting……

Living in a 2-story means stairs!  I go up and down them 100 times a day and it is exhausting!  Not to mention the bedrooms are all on the top floor & the laundry room is on the main, so I haul laundry up and down the stairs all day to boot. Worse than that, though, I have discovered that the top floor of a two story is ALWAYS HOT!  I couldn’t sleep at all for the first week we were here.  The windows in the Master Bedroom are warped and you can’t open them and OHHHHHH- its so hot!

The color scheme leaves a little to be desired.  Everything in this house is grey-blue. The tile floors, the countertops, even the walls. (Actually, I think the walls are stark white, but the blue floors reflect on them a bit…..) Its a bit of a depressing color.  I hate that I can’t change anything because we’re renting, but I’ll make do.  I think the current owners recently replaced the carpet, though.  Its a nice shade of tan and really good quality.

Ok, I’m sure you’ve heard enough of my whining.  Here’s a picture of my formal dining room.  Since I have nothing to go in there, it seems to be the place where all the boxes and leftover junk has accumulated.  You can see the nice gray flooring and gray-white walls.  Oh dear….

BUT- I’ve decided to turn lemons into lemonade.  When I get my crap together, I will be turning this dining room into a sewing/crafting/scrapbooking room!  Jealous now, right? I’m sure the realtor of this house won’t like it one bit, but I will keep it looking nice so she can’t get mad at me. :)

Well, it seems now I’ve taken away too much time from my busy unpacking boxes schedule, so I think that’s all for now!

Oh, I forgot one more thing….. THERE ARE SO MANY BUGS HERE!  I find about 10 in the house every day.  Yes, in the house.  I’m not sure how they are getting in.  Go outside & you will immediately encounter at least 100 more.  I hate bugs.

“Thats all I have to say about that.”