Our New Home

Well, we are finally back from the Philippines and now live in California.  This is our new home.  It is kinda quirky.  There is a giant Family Room that has a half-wall room divider (see lower right photo)  so it makes it into two rooms.  When we first looked at it I thought it looked strange but now it is perfect.  It is like having an extra family room/office.  The half by the fireplace has the treadmill (which hasn't actually been set up yet) A book shelf we bought before Danny was born made out of compressed MDF, our desk and a new bookshelf/cubbie turned on its side to put in our office stuff.  Since the wall is a half wall, I can watch T.V. and exercise or be on the computer at the same time.  On the bottom right photo there is a little corner sticking out.  That is the corner of the kitchen counter. I included a photo of the toilet because it has a wood seat and it reminds me of an outhouse.  On the middle left side there is a photo of wooden arch.  That is our pantry.  It is really cute.  Within the first week of living here Danny tried opening it by holding on to one of the slats and it fell out.  Apparently, at some point, all of them have been hot glued back on and are now only staying up because the dried glue resting on dried glue keeps it there.  They come out if you touch them.  One of my favorite parts of this house is our backyard.  We actually have one now and it is really nice.  The landscaping on the house is different.  In the front, there is a small grass area (it takes Justin 4 minutes to mow) and it is surrounded by colored rocks and a huge overgrown 8 foot wide ivy growth running parallel to the sidewalk.  It is an eye sore but we aren't going to pay to rip it out.  The front is really big so I can see why they went with the rocks for low maintenance but the combo is, well, we just don't look at the front. The backyard is different.  It is fenced in and is dived in two sides.  On the side of the house in the back is an area that  I think used to be grass but they poured cement on it and made a sidewalk there.  The positive thing about this is that Danny can ride his bike on it.  The middle of the yard is small gravel but they're pretty small and flat and then that runs into more cement and a small raised garden plot.  There are some small trees and a couple bushes by the sides and back of the fence but not a lot of maintenance.

My big problem with the house is THE STEP.  If I've already told you the story then please forgive me and skip down a paragraph while I rant. When you walk onto the front porch you take a step up.  You walk in and you are in the hallway.  First of all, the hallway is big, however, there is no coat closet.  There is room for one and it would make perfect sense to have one but for whatever reason they didn't put one.  So, where do you put your shoes and coats???  Our solution to that was to put a cubbie/shelf sideways and I hung coat hooks.  It looks nice.  Now, back to my step issue.  The hallway connects to the kitchen and to the family room, BUT, you have a 3 inch step down into each room.  WHY???  The only logical reason I can think of for having this step in our hallway is that the house is built on a crawlspace and they needed it up for some reason. My next issue regarding the step is that the hallway tile and the kitchen tile are the same so you don't see that there is a step down to get into the kitchen.  The family room has carpet so it is more noticeable but it is still the same color.  While looking at the house for the first time I tripped on the step.  The week before Danny and I got here Justin tripped/misstepped on the step three times.  The first week I was here I did the same, except add insult to injury, I fell on my left him and now am a gimp.  Last week I got an X-ray and it wasn't broken, thank heavens, but I bruised the bone. Now I am hobbling around like an old woman.  Last week I went to the pharmacy they only had canes, not crutches.  Since I was too prideful to get a cane I thought I'd stick it out.  Today I could barely walk so I had to go to two different Walgreen's stores to find crutches.  I feel so pathetic! 

Other than the step issue, I like our house.  It is a half mile from Danny's school and 2 very short blocks to a really neat park.