lists

Yes, pictures of the house would be good to post. But it seems so premature to post an unfinished space.

best housewarming gifts

• Rachele & Jay - 4 hours of babysitting time from Rachele to be used concurrently with 4 hours of manual labor time from Jay. How awesome is that? It'll be used this coming Saturday morning. 
• Mom - a gluten-free marionberry pie. I just had a slice for dinner. It's the best berry-of-any-kind pie I've ever had. Absolutely delicious. I'll be heading back for another slice shortly. It's too good not to. 

favorite things about my new place

• The overall size. Yes, the small size. It feels manageable, not wasteful, and cozy. I love that I have room for a guest room, room for storage in my storage space that is easily accessible, and a large enough closet that it's not cramped. I'm still not all settled and organized, but the main floor and second floor are at least in functional shape, if not the tidiest of areas. 
• The location. Shocker, I know. I haven't driven since Monday. I don't plan to go anywhere I need to drive until Saturday. Ahhhhhh. Avery has dance camp this week. It's .6 miles from our house. It's an easy walk in the mornings with Abbie, then to pick her up in the afternoons, also with Abbie. And the proximity of the dog park that has a playground right next to it so Avery and Abbie can play at the same time and I am within reasonable distance from both - wow. Such a great feeling to just pop over to a park for a bit. 
• The small kitchen. I never realized that having a large kitchen is a pain in the butt if you don't cook much. It's just a lot more ground to cover to do things like packing a lunch. Certainly if you cook a lot and the kitchen is a focal point of your life, a large kitchen makes sense. But a small kitchen makes more sense for me.
• The courtyard. More so than the courtyard itself, I love how easy it is for Avery to just go out there and play. The doors are easy to open (not true of our old place). There's no a/c here, so I have the windows open.

least favorite things about my new place

• The kitchen faucet. And not just because it's not a fancy schmacy motion activated faucet. It's nice looking, but it is just awkward in the way you turn it on. I feel like I have to manhandle it and that this manhandling will soon break it. But I guess since I don't like the faucet, maybe breaking isn't a bad thing. 
• Hauling garbage, recycling and compost to the bins. I shouldn't mind this because the bins aren't that far from me, but I dislike it. 
• Not having a bathroom on the main floor. I actually didn't even think about this at all. It's not really an issue or a problem, but it is a sort of inconvenience that I hadn't realized. 
• Kitchen cabinets = metal = grating sound for some of them. Mom suggested I try waxing them, which I'll get around to trying. 
• My awkward corner. I have a corner of my living room that is just awkward no matter what I try. I've now abandoned my efforts to get chairs into that corner. Now I'm going to a table and a traditional TV stand. 

things that are much easier than I expected

• Parking. Not super duper easy, but nothing to complain about either. 
• Abbie's potty breaks. We have hit a rhythm. She easily goes from 8 pm to 6/7 am. For some reason, I thought I'd have to take her out at 11 pm every night or something crazy like that. 
• Tiny kitchen. 
• My bathroom routine. Even though I've yet to get the entire shower curtain up to take a shower (I've bathed, just not showered), I have my routine down despite almost no storage or counter space in the bathroom. Most of my routine (makeup, hair) shifted into my bedroom. But it also turns out that I don't need 6 drawers and two cabinets for bathroom amenities.
• Lack of a dishwasher. Who likes to do dishes? No one. But it's not that bad when you hardly eat in. :) 

best decisions I've made with outfitting the house

• Buying the desk for my living room corner. It would probably annoy a lot of people to have such a thing in their living room, but for me, it's a perfect little corner. It also seems like the perfect amount of space to have the sectional away from the wall. 
• Immediately installing an electronic deadbolt. Not having to get keys out to get into the house is wonderful, especially when going in and out with the dog for peeing. At the other house, we just left the door from the garage to the kitchen unlocked, so it was a non-issue there. Best $120 I've spent in a while. 
• Pedestal table for the dining area. Our old table would have fit, but it would have been tight. I do not like tight spaces, particularly in high traffic areas. I bought this table at an estate sale between two other activities with a 2 minute decision process. It paid off to be decisive and quick. I love that. 
• Bringing both 5x5 IKEA expedit cubes for storage in the basement. They give me 50 cubes of storage. Bankers boxes fit perfectly in these cubes. Bankers boxes also work great for moving. Whee. 

best packing decision

• Instead of using various sized containers to transport items, i.e. using all the space available to stuff things into, I filled up two huge boxes of these empty bins, boxes, organization devices, etc. As I unpacked in each area, I would then head to my supply to pick out the ideal containers for organization. Since the space is so different from the old house, I needed to reorganize a number of things into different bins to fit in a closet or to be stackable.