My House

I kept thinking I'd wait til I could take pictures of the inside of my house before I posted this entry, but if I wait til then it may never happen. We're at that point where all the necessities are in place and real life has settled in and getting pictures on the walls or those last junk boxes put away always seem to put off for things like meals or laundry. I keep threatening to make everyone who stops by hang a picture or a shelf but so far have not had the guts to make that happen ("Hello, new neighbor, I'd love to chat, but first, here's a hammer, make yourself useful."). So I'll post the ones I have and maybe I'll post more later, after my neighbors hang those pictures.

So, about the house... This new house is almost exactly the same size as my SoCal house, close to 3000 square feet, but my second story happens to be in the ground. I forgot how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE basements! Do you know how nice a basement would be during the blazing hot Santa Clarita summers? I also forgot how nice it is to have storage. I have a storage room...that's right, a whole, freaking room devoted to the storage of things. Unfortunately, that square footage has to come from somewhere, and that ended up coming from my bathrooms and kitchen. The bathroom one causes some logistical problems (our other house had one more bathroom and they had separate sink and toilet/shower areas. I'm pretty sure I could fit my whole master bathroom in the shower of my SoCal house) but the kitchen one makes my heart weep a little. I shouldn't be a complainer, I know it's only for a year and the kitchen is more than functional, but my last kitchen had 14 drawers, my new on has 4 1/2 (one is a very small drawer, used to store...what? I 'm not sure yet). This causes problems. Big problems. Like where to put the hotpads. You can't put hotpads in a cabinet. I believe it's the law. Look it up. The upside is I have a HUGE walk-in pantry. This makes me smile.

Then there is the back yard. Oh my laws, the backyard. If you want to know how big my backyard is, ask Cooper, he had to mow it last week and he'll be more than happy to share his views on that. I think the lot is a half acre, maybe a third, I don't know; truth be told, I have no idea how big and acre is. But the backyard is big; very, very big. There is a large garden plot, fully planted, but it looks like the family that lived here before us gave up on it when they decided to move and it was overtaken by weeds. Sadly it's not salvageable and it's too late in the season to start over. Breaks my heart. Still, even with the large garden, the backyard is at least triple what we had before. Our dog thinks he's died and gone to heaven.

To top it off we live in a cul-de-sac off the end of a dead end street. No traffic. The kids ride there bikes and scooters with the other kids on the block til dark every night. Did you catch that little headliner I threw in there nonchalantly? THE OTHER KIDS ON THE BLOCK. As in more that one. The next door neighbors have five, across the street are three more and on the corner there are three more. Isaac already has a new best friend, Dylan, who lives next door. They do things like was cars (poorly) for spending money and ride their bikes down the street to throw rocks into the irrigation canal (did I mention I live in the country-ish). Linus had even made three new doggie friends. This is good stuff.

So, in conclusion...I like it. Pretty good for not seeing it before we moved in. If we had come out here with the intention of staying long term, it would not be on my top ten list, but it's a home we can be happy in for the next year with very few complaints. And the kids love it. Can't beat that.