So, How's the House?

Many have been asking how we like the new house and how things are going.  Now that I have the holiday decor down, the house is looking a bit more "normal."

We are very blessed and just so thrilled to be in a home of our own again after a year of living like nomads.  I am a home-body, so our year in California living with 3 host families was just really painfully hard on me and my boys to not have our own space.  Admittedly, I do have my homesick days as is the case when one moves someplace new, but when I think about "home" I don't even know where the heck "home" is anymore.  In my mind it will always be Chicago where I grew up or maybe even Minnesota where I was born and have family and many awesome friends.  But for now it's Texas.

For the most part, our furniture works really well in the house!  I desperately need a buffet for my dining room.  Right now, all my china, my grandmother's china and ALL my serving dishes are still in boxes in my guest room closet.  I'm really hoping to find a great deal at a Goodwill or Salvation Army Thrift Store, even Freecycle.  Jay's home office also needs furniture.  I've responded to numerous ads on Craig's List for really nice looking desks and of course, no one replies.  Bummer.    The loft isn't as big as I thought, so we don't have a home school area up there.  We just do all of our work throughout the house and that works just fine.

The pool is great!  Surprisingly, it gets cool here at night (even below freezing right after Christmas) and the pool isn't heated, so it's way too cold to go in it now despite a number of 80 degree days this winter.  As a matter of fact, I have it covered and have the filter pump unplugged and I service it myself once a month.  [I had it covered when I wrote this post a number of weeks ago.  A nice windy day blew it off and I've taken time to clear all the leaves from the bottom.]  This spring we'll pick up a solar cover and see when we can heat it enough to enjoy it.  For now, it's really easy to maintain and not expensive with the chemicals at all!  I'd like to invest in some sort of a pool vacuum this spring because we have a big oak tree in the backyard that loves to dump leaves in the pool.  The tree is great for shade, but if we have a windy day, the pool gets all the leaves.  Thankfully I haven't fallen in when trying to clean them out.  The dog on the other hand... yeah, he fell in.  Sigh.

What we love about the house:

• The pool!  Can't wait 'til summer!
• The 5 bedrooms.  Jay has his office, we have a guest room, the boys share a room, L has her own, and we have a master.  Lots of space!  The guest room is particularly big (it's a downstairs master) and could easily sleep one couple on the queen bed and multiple kids on air mattresses on the floor (hint, hint to all my friends with kids - come visit!!!)
• Love the 2 living spaces - main floor living room is small but nice.  Loft upstairs is our playroom for the boys.
• Eat-in kitchen and dining room.  Our house in Nebraska didn't have a dining room and the eating space was rather small when entertaining large crowds like I enjoy.  This house has both an eat-in kitchen and a small dining room with enough space to extend our table with leaves if needed.
• Jetted tub.  The downstairs master (we use it as our guest room) has a nice big tub.  The boys particularly enjoy it.
• Walk-in closets!  Both master bedrooms have HUGE walk-in closets.  Good for storage!  I only wish the kids' rooms had walk-ins.  The boys have the bigger bedroom since they share, but their closet is pretty tiny.  We'll have to resort to plastic, under-the-bed storage bins for extra clothing storage.

What I don't love about the house:

• Upstairs laundry.  I knew I wouldn't like this.  I still prefer a mudroom - a place to kennel the dogs at night and when we leave the house.  I feel like I have no "dumping ground" when I walk into the house after running errands.
• 2 car garage.  Man, it's tight out there.  Our camper is on one side and Jay gets the other side because our Escape is narrower than the minivan.  So, I park outside.  Not a big deal since we don't get snow.  Summer may be rough with the van really heating up out in the driveway.  But compared to all our neighbors who have 2 or 3 cars in their driveways, we're doing really well.  Most of our neighbors have both garage stalls filled with junk storage items and can't get a single vehicle inside!  But I miss my big 3 car garage that we had in Nebraska!
• Basement.  Texas ground is rock solid, so they don't dig basements here.  Gosh, I miss that extra storage space.  They definitely didn't create enough storage space in this house.  I'm guessing people here use their attics, but we haven't had the need to go up there yet.

As with any new house, we have our wish list for items that would really suit us well in this house.  The first things we are saving up for are ceiling fans for the living room, guest room and office.  We'll really need some extra air circulation once summer hits.  I also need to figure out some artwork or decor for my big kitchen wall that is completely bare.  I think I may try some fabric stretched over canvas or something to help muffle the sounds that currently echo off the tile floor and bare walls (don't want to put my rug in there now with a messy toddler eating at the table).

I'm working on photos to share, but with 3 kids (3 is so different than 2!!!!) and 2 dogs, I can never seem to get the entire house cleaned at one time, so I'm going from room to room as they are cleaned and snapping pictures.  But we're settled and ready for visitors, so start planning your vacations and please stop by and see us!