Getting settled in

With all last week off to make my new place livable, I'm starting to feel settled in. I really like the town I'm living in and am glad that I opted for the 30 minute commute through wooded, country roads instead of 30 minutes through congested intersections right outside post.

I've purged quite a few of my belongings in the 5 moves I've made in the last decade- Spain to Louisiana, Louisiana to Florida, Florida to Colorado, Colorado to California, California to North Carolina. Hey, I've gone coast to coast!

On this last move, I finally got rid of the mismatched love seat and futon I had and decided to buy some real furniture. Upon relating this to Whit & Kathie, they laughed and said it was about time I stopped living like a college student! Sorry, but I'm gonna save pics of the new furniture until I get some art on the walls in the living room! You'll just have to wait a bit longer!

I was lucky to have found this place for a great price. Having rental property myself, I can appreciate the amount of work and money that goes into keeping a place functional and nice for the tenants. So I was quite pleased to have found this completely remodeled duplex. As you can see in this pic of the kitchen, all the appliances are brand new stainless steel and still had the owners manuals attached to them when I moved in.

Although it's just under 1000 square feet, I feel a little guilty about occupying so much space for just one person. I turned the spare room into an office of sorts and it filled up pretty quickly with all my books and professional stuff, but the rest of the place feels quite spacious with my few belongings scattered about. I say "few belongings" but I filled those kitchen cabinets! Hey, a girl's gotta be able to feed herself, right?!

The doors you see behind the table & chairs leads out to the back yard and detached garage. Although I REALLY needed one in Colorado, this is the first time I've ever had a garage! It's big enough to put both the car and the Harley in if I move them around, but I've decided to leave the car in the driveway and let the bike be protected from the elements solo until winter comes back around and necessitates musical vehicles. I know the car is new, but hey, it's a Hyundai for crying out loud and this is a Harley!!

Having grown up in a rural area, I had always wanted to have a yard. After having one in Colorado though, I've since changed my outlook. A yard is great if you have the time and resources to put towards working in it. As I found out in Colorado, fighting natural climate and working long hours don't do much for nice landscaping! Plus, if it's a nice weekend day, I want to be out and about (especially if it's good riding weather) instead of pumping money into my yard! Don't get me wrong, I still love a yard like my parents' with nice trees and flowers and swings, but at this stage in my life, I guess it's just not a priority. So, one of the other great features of this rental is that lawn care is included in the rent. . . I'm not responsible for it!

As you can see, the backyard isn't huge, but is plenty big enough for a BBQ pit and some patio furniture. The first yard pic is from the detached garage looking back at the house. I love the patch of bamboo along the back fence, gives it a zen feeling!

That's all the house pics for now. I've ordered some wall pics that should come in this week, so I'll post some more once I get those up so y'all can see the rest of the place. Hope everyone is surviving the crazy weather going on around the country and having a great weekend.