Our New Place

I talked in this post about our plan for this summer. Basically David is studying full time for the Bar (Monday-Friday 9-6 and Saturday from 10-2) while I am staying home full time with Lydia. We are definitely in an "in between" time in our lives. We are hoping that David will get a job by August, and if not then I will go back to work around that time. But for now we are enjoying a little bit of a slower life and reaping the harvest of the good financial decisions that we have made over the past 3 years. However, this "time off" for us when we don't have an income is possible only due to the immense generosity of our family. One of the many ways in which our family is helping us during this time is by giving us a place to live... for free! Even if we had had the money it would have been very difficult to sign a lease for an apartment since we don't know where David will get a job in a couple months, so we are so thankful for David's dad and step-mom who have opened up the doors of their basement apartment to us.

The place is finally unpacked, clean and mostly set up, so now for some pictures of our new home.

 This is the view from our "front door" which is actually around the back of the house. We have a swing set, wonderful back yard, deck (which is great for laying out!) and a grill.

 When we get tired of the sun we also have a covered patio to hang out on.

 We have our own entrance downstairs which makes our place feel really private.

Here is the view when you walk in... Kitchen table, kitchen area and living room are behind it. Off the kitchen is our bathroom and a hall that leads to our bedroom.

Today is laundry day, so our bedroom is a bit taken over by cloth diapers and clean sheets, but you get the idea. We have so much space in this place for our clothes! At our old apartment David and I shared a very small closet and it was very cramped, but here we each have a dresser and our own closet.

 We don't have a stove in our kitchen area, but that is about it. We eat breakfast and lunch down here most days, and for dinners we see family or cook upstairs.

 Our living area is set up just like it was in our old apartment.

 Behind the loveseat in the living room is this little area where Lydia usually plays. Her exersaucer and toys are set up here as well as our bookshelf. The stairs lead to the upstairs and that door leads to my favorite room in the place... the nursery!!

                    

The nursery isn't very "themed", and it is a little messy in this picture, but you get the idea. The quilt on the rocking chair usually hangs on her crib, and it was made by my Aunt Judy. The quilt on the floor was also made by Aunt Judy (when my sister was baby) and I like to lay it there so that Lydia has a play area where she can lay on her tummy, spit up all she wants and roll around. It is nice to just be able to pick the quilt up and throw it in the washer each week, plus it adds lots of pretty pastel colors. We might hang curtains over the mirrors, and I will for sure be making a crib skirt soon. I LOVE having a nursery for Lydia. It was fine for her to share our room for the first few months - even if we had space my guess is she would have ended up in our room anyway. But now she is ready for her own space and we are ready for her to have it.

Her furniture was the furniture in my room growing up. She has two dressers, and the matching desk worked perfectly as a changing table.

And here is half of the closet which takes up a whole wall in her room. We have another dresser tucked away in this closet as well as most of my clothes and shoes. Again, it is so wonderful to have so much storage!

So, there you have it. Our new home. I must admit that I was nervous about moving back up to NKY. We had been living in Lexington and had been very independent for 7 years, so I was scared we wouldn't feel like we had our own space and privacy. As it turns out I had nothing at all to worry about. We have all of the privacy that we need and at the same time all of our family is close which I LOVE. I can just grab lunch with my mom, take a walk with David's mom, and walk upstairs to attend the weekly Sunday dinners. Family events are so much less stressful now that we have our own place to retreat for nap times and bedtime, and we really love living close to the people we love so much.