New digs

We moved into a new apartment about a month ago, and things have really taken shape at this point. We were very anxious to get moved so we could start organizing baby things. What good is a nesting instinct with no place to nest?

The picture in the previous post was taken on on front porch. When you actually enter our apartment, you have to walk up a flight of stairs. We occupy the second and third floors of a recently re-modeled house.

When you get to the top of the stairs, the bathroom is in front of you, with the living room on your immediate left, and the kitchen a bit further down and to the left.

Our kitchen is spectacular. Our landlord Ted (a friend from church) knows someone who re-models kitchens, and he was able to get a set of cabinets that was being replaced and make them work in the space. We love it! We've lived with small kitchen after small kitchen the last five years, and having this much room is awesome.

As you can see, we can fit our table in there too, freeing up a lot of room in our living room. We moved from an apartment flooded by street noise from trucks and buses, but now when we eat breakfast in the morning in our kitchen, we do so to the sound of birds chirping.

Our living room is comfortable, and will soon sport a couple of chairs inherited from the Oddens. I objected initially, thinking the fold up camp chairs both exceedingly comfortable and remarkably elegant. However, Sarina eventually won me over to the idea.







Because of the layout of our apartment, Micah will be with us in our bedroom at least initially. We're lucky to have enough room for him and his things. The crib and rocking chair take up a lot of space, and at first presented a real challenge in terms of room organization.

It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate (I won't say need) when just preparing to raise a child in this country. I guess all of his cute clothes have to go some place.

One of the best things about our new apartment? The washer and dryer. First of all, it's just nice having a washer and dryer that no one else is using. Second of all, it's nice to have a washer and dryer in ... our master bedroom closet! Neither are loud, and the dryer doesn't make our bedroom hot. The convenience is incredible, especially at this point in the pregnancy when Sarina, wanting to wash baby clothes, shouldn't be hauling things up and down stairs.

With the coming baby, we've really focused our efforts on the second floor, making sure everything is organized for Micah. As a result, the third floor has been largely neglected, as evidenced by these pictures. We have most of Sarina's library on bookshelves, but not organized.

A lot of our old office is still boxed up. We have our computers up and running, and have made a bit of progress beyond what you see in the pictures, but our third floor is still a wreck, relatively speaking, and will likely remain so for a while.

All in all, we're very pleased with our new place. Ted is an awesome landlord and good friend. He's interested in taking care of us, and designed the apartment with our input and with Micah in mind. Does it get any better than that? I think not. We are also beginning to get acquainted with our new neighbors, and hope that our relationships with them will be fruitful. The neighborhood is nice, with kids biking up and down the street, and many of our neighbors spending much of their time on their porches chatting. Though we hope to not be here too long (the longer we're here, the longer I'm taking to finish school- shorter is better!), we're sure our time here will be wonderful.

If you'd like our new address, please email us. You can find our contact information on the right-hand side of the blog.