Old House, New House

Old House, New House
Red House, Beige House
One Rat or Two Rats, Now We Have NO Rats!

Our First Home.....we love it!

About a week and a half ago we moved into our new house. Yeah! We feel very blessed to have found this house so quickly after our other contract fell apart. We have really been enjoying every detail of our new place and our new neighborhood. It is also fun to look forward to making small changes over time to make it our own, like painting the walls or planting a garden. It's a good feeling to know we can invest money on improving our place instead of living with things as they are in a rental. Don't get me wrong, the last house we lived in we had an extraordinary landlord who kept a very nice property and was very generous to us, but there are some differences I appreciate in our new house. Here they are:

Our new house is about 70 years newer than our old place. This means a loss in some character, no beautiful molding around the windows or funny nooks to put things. This also means closet space!

We have 2 bathrooms now. Hooray! I even have a big soaking tub in the master. Nick is elated about having his own sink because apparently I splash around a lot of water. Rocco gets his own bathroom so I don't have to keep transferring the baby tub in and out.

Our kitchen is open to the family room. It is much easier to watch Rocco and cook dinner. Now I don't have to drag the baby swing into the kitchen.

We get to park our cars in a finished two car garage instead of parking one in a semi scary detached garage and the other under a tree that dropped a lot of gunk of the car.

In the last house, I was like Cinderella. I had little rat friends to help me do laundry in the above mentioned semi scary detached garage. I refused to do laundry at night and was always banging around so the rats would hide before I went in during daylight. Now with an indoor laundry room, there are no rats to help and I can do laundry at all hours! (This sounds like we lived in a terrible place, but I swear we didn't, and our landlord was always sending out exterminators. There were just a lot of neighborhood rats that liked to come hang out because the garage wasn't completely sealed. They didn't have a nest in the garage or anything.)

The old house had creaky wood floors that Rocco was sensitive to while trying to nap. It also had doors that didn't always shut properly or quietly because old houses settle and change the angle of door frames. Now we have very quiet floors and doors.

The old house was very close to Nick's work, only a 5 minute drive. Unfortunately, it was equally close to a high crime rate area and a connecting street between two busy streets. It was not ideal for taking Rocco on walks. Our new neighborhood is gorgeous and clean. It is it's own little oasis with plenty of walkways and an awesome amenities center an easy stroll from our house. I can't wait to take Rocco to the baby pool this summer!

Did I mention that I have lots of closet space?

On our old street, there weren't other neighbors that were in our same life stage, but here I've already noticed four other couples in our cul-de-sac that look to be our age and have babies. I'm looking forward to making new friends!

Can you tell we love our new house? Some of these things seem small and most people probably take them for granted, but after living in an older house for awhile, they are quite luxurious to have and I am grateful.

Our neighborhood has a beautiful entrance complete with waterfalls and a bridge to drive over. Before you get to any homes, there is a pleasant and groomed drive separating the neighborhood from the main street.

We have a great clubhouse in the center of our neighborhood, only a 5 minute walk from our house. There is a gym, tennis courts, racquetball courts, 3 pools, a playground and volleyball courts. There are also large rooms that can be rented for parties or get-togethers.

Here is the main pool with a big slide! There is also a baby pool separated by a gate so Rocco and I won't get run over by the older kids this summer.

And here is the lap pool for swim team captain Nick. Our neighborhood has a kid's competitive swim team called the Barracudas that Rocco might be a part of if we live here long enough!