Voilà!

1/18/09

Siiiiiiiggggghhhh.....

After living in squalor and disarray for two months, I am very happy to say that yesterday --which was the one month mark since our move--I finished unpacking, organizing and cleaning our new place. I think I could have gotten it done sooner had it not been for the holidays, illness and blatant laziness on my part. It was a little tricky figuring out how to downsize from a four bedroom, two bath house with a spare room and backyard to a two bedroom, one bath basement apartment. (You get a storage unit, that's how.)

Anyway, I don't know how long it will be until we have to move again--it could be three months, could be a year, but for now I am trying not to think about it. I have a lot of catching up to do with my jewelry making, reading, and watching movies *guilt free*.

So here's a tour of everything looking about as good as it's going to get:

Kitchen/dining area

"Before" picture, so you will be duly impressed by this:

OK--so my dad really loves mirrors. Since he built this place, he felt free to cover the whole wall with them, creating an illusion of space. (More space, I should say. This room is so big that most of our entire house in ABQ could fit inside it.) Also comes in handy for small children who like to parade in front of their reflection all day. My sisters and I will theoretically use this as a dance studio once we don't live down here anymore. Also for some office chair broom/Swiffer hockey tournaments.

View from the other side. There's my dad's ping-pong table and Mark's snowboard lurking in the corner. I will try to refrain from making any sarcastic remarks about those two items being there...

"Office." Mark achieved level 40 on the Call of Duty 5 zombie mod this weekend. He always makes loads of progress on his games when he really should be working on school projects, i.e. his thesis.

"Living room."

Madelyn's play area/my craft table. The downside to having the mirrors right there is that it makes it look twice as cluttered. That door leads upstairs to Kevin and Lori's.

Bathroom

Our bedroom (we aren't bothering to hang the curtains this time around).

Our closet. I whined so much about lack of storage that my dad built us four big closets, plus one for our washer and dryer. (Thanks for everything, dad.) My Michael Phelps calendar is there on the wall to greet me every morning with displays of his athletic awesomeness. Madelyn calls him a "big shark."

Madelyn's room, which will be more spacious once we can get the changing table out of there. She is making progress with the potty training, but she still has a long way to go. I'm very proud of her though. And so far she hasn't fallen out of her new bed.

Oh, yes. My brother Kevin thoughtfully placed eight multi-media/speaker portals throughout the house, but thus far all I can see are wires spewing out of the wall and ceiling everywhere I look. HINT HINT!!!

Madelyn alternately says that she likes her "new home" and then that she doesn't want to live here--she wants to go back to her white house with the backyard. Having her grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins so close have made it a pretty easy transition for her otherwise.

So now I can focus on our next big event--Mark's graduation three months from today (!) instead of moving, which by now is a very dirty word to me. You can come by and visit anytime. (With notice. The Sarlacc pit is still functioning and is right outside should I need it.)