The new home on Ekastown road

It turns out that I haven't yet mastered the art of keeping an entire house clean for more than 5 minutes while a husband and 4 kids are about, but I was able to get the living room, and backyard in showable condition for some pictures this weekend.  The rest of the house will have to wait for another post........

The past month has been madness, always running always something to do and not enough time to relax!  August 1st we started our move.  All the rental trucks were booked for 150 miles in any direction so we loaded up Tyler's truck, the pilot and a friends Outback and spent the day driving back and forth.  The next week  was more of the same while trying to throw in a playdate or two and the cleaning of the "old house".  Since we ended up renting both for the month of August we weren't intending to worry about moving and cleaning so fast, but the drive to get settled and stop living in-between worlds sped us up a bit and the landlords desire to get it cleaned and us out helped push us on that end.  Lots of sweaty long backbreaking days will be my memory of August 2015.

        When we moved to Pittsburgh we moved into our rental after only seeing a few pictures of it and setting the whole thing up from afar.  Those first few days we seemed to be constantly surprised by unpleasant little thing after inconvenient little thing, all livable but not wonderful.  This experience has been the opposite, that first week every day we found a little thing or two that made us feel completely spoiled!

Alex is a 3rd parent to this little guy.  She is wonderful with Tommy and we can usually trust her walking around with him.

 For the first time ever (I've been waiting for 7.5 years) one of my kids fell asleep in a weird spot.  I was there when she woke up and it was hilarious.  She sat up and promptly slipped off the chair.

 This is our living/dining/greenhouse- aka- the place I will be spending all of my days.

 Our front door and entryway (I wish I could pull that rug up, but it's glued down!) So much carpet!

Looking from the table to the front door.

 Our awesome fireplace.

 We had to set up our office next to the dining room table because while we have about the same amount of space (maybe less) than our old house- we have less rooms.  Here is my new kitchen table which I love- a great craigslist find-  I wanted a light colored table this time so the kids scratches wouldn't show up so brightly- turns out that scratches show up on all kinds of wood and now we can see all the marker and pencil marks that were previously hidden on the dark table. Sigh.

 The dining area leads into the kitchen.  The fridge is behind the wall with the clock and that big white thing is a convection microwave thing which we haven't used and haven't moved because there is so much counter space we don't need it.  Can you imagine- counter top to spare- it's like heaven.

 Our greenhouse has a short hall that leads to the outside door- I love this because it keeps the dirt and junk the kids bring in and drop hidden, and is a great place for shoes.

 This is my favorite part of the house.  Our tiny toy area with giant windows to watch the birds and squirrels.  This is what sold us on the house and I want to replicate it in our forever home.

 Here is the carpeted porch and the view from the outside.  It took me hours to scrape all the moss off that carpet with a hose and broom so it wasn't disgusting.  The home had been empty for a few years after the owners died.  The son inherited it and lived there for a bit and then moved in with a girlfriend and decided to rent it after it had been empty for so long.  Score for us.

 This is the awesome tree- or fairy tree as we call it because Alex has build a dozen fairy houses in and around it (thanks to Grandma Asay and the library for that idea!)  Tyler has decorated it with birdhouses and we get quite a lot of the little visitors.  Cardinals, Blue jays, golden finches, woodpeckers, morning doves.....

 Tyler also threw this beauty up- the next step is a swing attachment.

 Quinn's corner.

 My view everyday as I enjoy watching the kids in their world.

 Steps to the pool yard.

 Fire pit and toad pond.  We put a bunch of 10 cent goldfish in and they are still alive.

Cardboard storage facility.

 Standing at the pool steps looking down the yard.

 Standing at the garden looking toward the pool.

 View from the garden.  We are only renting half the place.  The other half was an add on and sort of an odd layout of offices and a giant master bedroom.  All the stuff from our half of the house is in storage over there now and the door connecting them is blocked off and locked.

 View to the lower driveway and garage we don't have access to.

 View from the lower driveway up to the porch in the front of the house.

 View of the front of the house from the lower driveway entrance.

 View from the top yard.  Those windows on the left are the kids rooms.  The middle brown pillar to the left of the light post is where the house splits.

 My driveway.

 Our front door.

 Our side yard this is huge and that we never use because it's by the busy road and we don't need it because our backyard is huge.

 Upper driveway.

 Looking down the porch.

 We gave talks in church today and the girls chose these earings and this necklace for me to wear.  It actually went really well with the dress and I got excited for the day when the girls could do my hair and makeup and accessorize me.  Heidi totally pulled off the look.

Tommy is so long, and skinny, and I need to write more about him- such a little doll.

So here are all the details about the house.......

      Here is a list of our favorites...... starting with the kitchen........the fridge has a ice and water dispenser, we have a garbage disposal and 2 sinks in the kitchen plus a dishwasher!!!!  The oven is a convection oven and there are lights mounted under the cabinets to brighten the countertop.  The stove isn't gas, but it's a glass flat top one! There are so many cupboards in the kitchen that even with our office supplies sharing the space, some are completely empty.  The kitchen garbage is hidden in a pullout cupboard thing, which is wonderful.  And we have central air!  There is a fancy shmancy grill built in outside and so we have been grilling a ton while the kids play and we enjoy the wildlife.  There is even a warming drawer under the oven.  You can see that there are lots of bells and whistles in the kitchen- which is the most updated part of this 1960's space.
      While the kitchen is long and skinny and closed off from the living space, the dining room and living room are joined and span the width of the house.  The entire back wall is windows and face the gorgeous backyard.  The bedrooms are average size but between the 3 we have 2 closets, plus a coat closet, cleaning closet, linen closet, a little closet next to the backdoor, and a tiny odd closet in the dining room I have no idea what to do with.  We have 2 bathrooms (one in our bedroom, yay!) which each have odd little hidden drawers to make up for the fact that they (and the kitchen, and the porch) are carpeted.
   We just discovered that there is a laundry shoot!  This is everyone's new favorite thing.  The downstairs is a bit odd and dark and not nearly close to being as creepy as our last dungeon, but still not a place I intend on hanging out.  There are a few closets downstairs and a large storage/laundry room, a craft closet with a table inside it, and a bar downstairs for entertaining.
       There are some odd things here as well, there are lightswitches everywhere. Really, everywhere. We have no idea what 1/3 or more of them do.  A big chunk of the living room is wasted by a spiral staircase which everyone has been banned from now that Quinn fell through the rail and took an Ambulance ride to the hospital (she is ok, it's a miracle- she hit her head on a bench on the way down- a 6 foot fall.)   The stairs to the downstairs are a bit tight because there is a chairlift thing on them (we have it off so it's not a toy).  The bathrooms have carpet and the kitchen and dining area so I'm heavily investing in rugs and praying that we don't destroy all of them before we move.  But we decided to get a decent vacuum on Tyler's insistence and I'm really loving having a decent machine.
    We are happy here and like our ward and see a good potential for friends.  We are sort of in the outskirts of 2 small towns and have a Walmart, YMCA (where the kids signed up for swimming lessons), and a pizza hut within 5 minutes.  We have really been blessed in finding this home- it is a good space for us and has us spoiled in a lot of ways.  It's tempting to daydream about staying and making it our own someday- but I think our hearts are still out west with our families and the mountains.  It's crazy to think that Quinn and Thomas only know a world were everything is green in the summer and there is no sun in the winter-  I'm afraid when we move back the kids won't appreciate the sagebrush and wide open spaces like Tyler and I do.
   But our yard is awesome.