Our New Place (Part 1)

Our suitcases (pre-unpacking/exploding)

We got to move into our permanent place this past Friday morning! It's much larger than any place we've had before and has an incredible amount of closets & cabinets for storage--a huge change from our last place which had practically no storage. Here's a quick video of what it looked like before we exploded our suitcases all over it:

Between the limited number of bags we were allowed to bring with us and purging of items that we had to do before the move in order to make our weight limit, we knew that we would be short many of the required necessities to start up life in a new home. Luckily the military takes that into consideration and provides a modest moving stipend to help alleviate the costs of (re)purchasing these supplies. Although Brian teased me for packing sheets, towels, blankets, and shower curtains, they were immediately helpful and put to good use. General cleaning supplies (especially the liquid ones that we couldn't ship here) had to be bought along with food, beverages, and a couple of action figures for good measure :) All of that was anticipated and not too bothersome, but I do get a little irked when we have to buy items that are being shipped but haven't gotten here yet--like another broom & dust pan, or a new microwave since we unfortunately put ours in storage thinking that there would already be one here. But again, it's those kinds of things that the stipend is thankfully there for--just gotta chalk it all up as another part of the moving process!

Since our place doesn't currently have any carpeting at all, we also purchased some house slippers. We already try to make it a habit to take our shoes off when we enter homes, so we figured it would be culturally appropriate to have some house slippers of our own in our home. Plus it helps keep the dust off our feet :)

Overall the place has been really nice so far! The neighborhood is pretty quiet, there are a fair amount of trees and bushes in the back and front yards to give some visual privacy, and the loaner furniture has allowed us to begin to feel right at home. Our next door neighbor even came by in the pouring rain to introduce himself and to welcome us to the neighborhood with a bottle of wine.  It was such an unexpected and kind gesture, and it makes me realize the kind of community we may have been missing out on living in apartments the last few years.

A welcome gift from our new neighbors

We've still got a lot of unpacking to do to declutter the common areas but it's all falling into place. And we're super excited because the cats will arrive and join us here on Friday! We've missed them lots but know that they've been in great hands with Rachel back in California. (Thank you, Rachel!!! You're the absolute best!!!)

Ok, that's all for now. Take care, friends!
xoxo Maureen

PS. Part 2 will come once we get our household goods sometime in September--we'll post a new video of what it looks like once it's more complete :)