Where We Live

Some of you know that we found our new living quarters without even coming to see them in person. It wasn't ideal, but saved us money which is/was vital. A wife of a 2nd year resident was more helpful than I can even tell you - answering all my questions about areas and even went out to see some of the places that fit our tight budget and had enough space for our growing family. I finally found a place that would work for us and would actually be available when we needed it. She was kind enough to go over and take pictures of one of the models for us so we could get an idea and we decided it would work and sent in our deposit.


It's hard to know exactly what the place would be like just from pictures, so when we walked into our townhouse the first time I thought "wow, it's so old, but really big." Cole didn't agree about the "old" part of it at first, but then came to his senses. We are used to old - we've lived in very old places since we were first married. (Our first place was a small studio apt in St. Anthony, ID that was supposedly furnished. However when we got there it was empty and we had no furniture of our own. The owner took us to his barn in the country to pick out our furniture . . . we got to pick out a wobbly old scrap wood coffee table and a bed with massive stains:)


Honestly, our place here in Virginia felt dirty and gross when we walked in the front door, but once we got it all set up and cleaned up it really feels like home!! The increase in size was enough to win me over - we went from 860 sq ft with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath to 1400 sq feet with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. It's so nice to have room to breath, the closets are huge, the floor plan is very open, the bedrooms are big and no one has to fight over who gets to go potty first :)

The whole place, minus the kitchen and baths, is wood floors. The are old and very creaky wood floors and the echos throughout the house are obnoxious, but also lets me know what the kids are up to at all times. The kitchen is bigger then our last place. I like how the gas stove cleans up so easily, but thought it was odd that the washer and dryer were right in the kitchen with no closet door to hide them behind - we've since put up a curtain to hide them. The kitchen floor makes me think I'm cooking in one of the kitchens at the church or am still wandering the aisles of the grocery store - it looks just like those places. Our bathroom floors are those tiny little tiles that are less than an inch by inch - like the floor of a pool room. Like I said - it's old. Just some of the things that when we look back we'll laugh at - we'll, we're actually laughing now.



We do have a little patio out back, which backs up to trees and bushes. However I don't think they know what grass is out here - the "grass" is all weeds and massive amounts of clover. As nice as it is to have a patio and "grass area" the kids don't like to play in the back. They think it is dirty and gross and they are right so I don't hold it against them. When we first got here the back area was nasty - bones, trash, glass and super tall weeds, but I've cleaned it up enough that it is safe and I can send them out to eat Popsicles and draw with chalk.
Oh my, the bugs out here are bad!! We decided to have a little BBQ on our patio a few days after we got here and we're eaten alive by mosquitoes. Dominic's legs looked like he had some sort of disease. I think we'll eat inside from now on.

We've caught, smashed, and be totally disgusted by a myriad of bugs, centipedes, ants, mosquitoes, flies, and even slugs that have made their way into our home. We did have a praying mantis in our house for a few days. The kids named him Alvin and enjoyed watching it until it met it's fate and was smashed one day. The lightening bugs are very pretty though.
You're probably thinking that it sounds like we live crazy place, but surprisingly we like it. We are nestled in a community of diversity - Blacks, Indians, Jamaicans, Mexicans, Africans, Russians, with only a handful of white people. We are definitely in the minority. We have central air-conditioning which is amazing, a swimming pool and playground in the complex that we go to all the time, and the area is perfect with every shopping possibility you can imagine within 2-5 minutes - my favorite being "Once Upon a Child" a second hand store basically across the street.
Our ward at church is very big and people have been very kind. The area is very green with lots of trees and shrubs, but it's extremly flat with no hills. We lucked out and got a place that only shares one wall and she is gone almost all day long so I don't have to worry about the noise we're making! We're really happy here and if there are moments when we feel like we're not we just remind ourselves that it's only for 2 years!!