Two Worlds

Blog Post About May 2021

Doug spent a lot of time with realtors looking for a place for his new co-worker to live when she arrived in country.

On the day she signed her contract, we headed over to a furniture store to buy her some bedroom furniture.

The show rooms here are like nothing I've ever seen.

Or maybe places like this exist in America and I just haven't seen them.

Meanwhile, back in our neighborhood, a completely different kind of world exists.

Keira went across the street to hang out with the neighbors' and their chickens

I told Keira not to be afraid, but I guess she should have been a little afraid.

The chicken pecked her toe and ended up drawing blood.

Moving In

Blog Post About January 2021

We were enjoying cool weather with 30% chance of snow at the exact same time the South got deluged by so much snow that many of you lost power. We lose power all the time during cold weather, but we are more prepared with propane heaters (and our pipes haven't ever frozen over). We were really feeling for a lot of you during this time. I hope you have since recovered.

Ahhh! So good to be back in the city... HA!

We left our friends' house early one morning to start "moving day," and drove down this two-way street. This is normal, but I forget to post pictures like this. The neighborhoods are parked like this each night, so when you meet a car coming, it makes for VERY interesting driving!

So the movers got busy loading all of our stuff into trucks and taking it over to the house. 

I was a little concerned about where all the screws ended up that were supposed to be available to put all of our furniture back together again.

Also, you get a look at all our well-designed bathrooms. 

This is Caleb's, and he still chooses to shower downstairs in mine and Doug's rather than have a wet bathroom floor every day, and I don't blame him.

Caleb's room.

They found all the pieces!

Check!

Karis' room.

They found all of her parts and pieces, too!

Check!

Mine and Doug's room, on the other hand, took them over four hours, and there were a lot of frustrating statements coming out of this room.

And since one of my drawers still has a hard time closing, I'm guessing they did NOT find all of the pieces for this room.

Although it looks pretty complete.

This is the master shower downstairs, which four out of five of us choose to use because we decided to leave this toilet unused.

Keira's room. Check!

Doug got creative with a shower curtain, and Karis actually uses her shower. It helps that the shower is not BETWEEN the toilet and the door like the others.

And Keira does not use hers.

One more toilet that gets to stay dry.

We had an old sink counter and a couple of bathroom counters from previous houses that held us over until we could get new cabinets installed...much later.

By the end of the day, when I called Kylie, things felt a little crazy!

January 21, 2021

Hopefully you look better than we do after a day of moving? :)

Fixer Upper...For Sure

Ready to pack?

Here we go...

When we agreed to rent this new place, the first thing we did was get some of the obvious broken things fixed. 

Funny enough, at the same time, the house we were living in had a little mishap.

With all the rain we had last fall, the ceiling could never really get dry and the layer of plaster over the cinderblock crashed down one day from the third story all the way down to the first floor.  It would have seriously injured someone if they had been below that destruction.

We filled up the trash
outside with all of the debris.

The roof where it fell from

In the new rental, Doug had a half-wall in the kitchen torn down, and the landlord agreed to re-tile Keira’s room where the tile was buckling.  We also hired a painter because there had been a lot of smoking in the house over the years and some of the rooms were interesting colors. 

Where the half-wall used to be

Because all the tile was buckling in Keira's
room, workers tore it out and re-tiled.

Of course, this new tile is different from
any other tile in the house,
but that's sort of normal here.

This is what some of the buckling tile looked like.  This is one of our balconies.
We won't be using it because the protection wall is so short, so we are just
letting the tile "be."

After that, we had the house cleaned from top to bottom (there was a dead bird in this one, too – and a nest built into the wall of the kitchen).  The owners also left a lot of items in the house and pictures on the wall.

As we slowly started moving to the new house, we also had to go pick out material for a new kitchen sink to be built.  The legs were rotting off the kitchen sink that was left in the house. 

New counter-top material

Plastic laminate that will cover the outside of the sink cabinets.

Doug and I took several trips in the car, taking suitcases and boxes full of items, unpacking them against walls in the new house, and then returning to the house with empty suitcases and boxes to pack them again.

Sheets and towels sitting on top of plastic on the floor.

A load ready to be put in the car

No boxes.  Just lots of things laid on top of plastic.

After three weeks over Christmas, moving items when we could, we finally were ready for real movers to come and load our couches, beds, wardrobes, refrigerator, oven, washer, dryer, and water tanks.

Fridge and stove covered

Our bed and wardrobe dismantled to move.

Of course, it was a rainy, dreary day, but we had already booked a lot of people to help, so the show must go on.

A crane was used to remove our water tanks and swamp coolers off the roof.

Doug unhooking pipes and getting soaked and cold.

Then a truck drove all of it to the new rental, and the process started all over again to get it on top of that roof.

The movers' shoes at our new house

I think it's interesting they kept this one piece of furniture together when they had taken apart all the others.

The movers put all of our beds and wardrobes back together within a few hours, and we were able to spend our first night in the house.

THEN...we found out that only one toilet worked, but NO showers worked.  And the three heaters that the owner said worked, did NOT in fact work when the electricity was finally turned on.

It would be another week before we could take a shower in the house and a little bit longer before we got warm.

The problems continued to show themselves as the days went on, but I think we would all say that even though we were cold and dirty for that first week, we are all glad that we made the move.

Come, Sit, and...sit some more!

On March 12, we bought some couches and chairs that were delivered that night.

However, if you've been reading along, you remember that they were the wrong color.

Seriously.  The wrong color.

On the 13th, the furniture people showed up at our house with swatches to see what color we "really" wanted.  I guess the first time it didn't really sink in.

Anyway, they said for us to wait 10 days, and our new order would be here.

Then, on the 15th, some men showed up to pick up the wrong color furniture.  It just happened to be on the day when I had a house full of neighborhood ladies over for tea.

Twenty days later, we got a surprise.

Truly.

I think I had already given up hope that they even remembered we had ordered furniture.

Two guys came to drop it all off.  One guy visited.  The other guy put all the pieces together.

They brought a drill, but it was electric-powered, and we didn't have electricity at that time.  Thankfully, Doug had purchased a battery-charged one for him to use to hang curtains, etc.  Otherwise, I'm not sure what they would have done.

Getting screws ready to attach the arm onto the couch

And, as you can see, they are NOT white!!!  They are the perfect shade of DARK grey!

Most people here, including us, were shocked that we actually ended up getting what we ordered.

What a blessing!

This gentleman unwrapped each piece, then pulled out all the "real" legs (black) and the "fake" legs (brown).

He first screws in the sturdy, real leg.

Then, he covers it with a painted, brown plastic piece that shows for a "nice look."

And that's how you put a couch together.

We bought couches that each fold down into a double bed, so that our children would have places to sleep when guests have their beds.

You know what that means, right?  

We're ready for you to come visit!

(Downstairs)

(Upstairs)