Tag: new home

Settling In

We have been in our rental home in Centralia for a little over a week and it’s amazing what has gotten done in such as short amount of time.

The road trip went well.  Kira loved the car rides, rest stops, and adapted quickly to the  routine. We found several pet friendly hotel chains including Super 8 and Quality Inn that made it easier with our pet.

We arrived Sunday afternoon the 13th after five full days on the road. We got keys to the home, and met up with my mother and in-laws who helped us unpack the moving truck.

With their help, mainly Luke and John, we got the truck completely unpacked before dark on Sunday. Monday was spent organizing the boxes and unpacking the essentials. By the end of that day we had the kitchen mostly unpacked and furniture arranged in our room and the living room/dining room.

Although this home is much smaller than our Wayland home, it is still larger then the home we had in Corning, and we have enough garage space and attic room for all of our boxes. The only things that will be missed are the dishwasher and microwave. But we’ve lived without both of them before.

We gave the in-laws a tour of the area on Tuesday then they returned home. My mother stayed the rest of the week to help me organize the house. Together we were able to get the house cleaned, organize the boxes that were left, and take care of a few “new address and state” related business items while Luke started his new job.

Even though I have lived most of my life in the suburbs, the past two years of quiet country life has definitely changed me.

We are only a block or two from the college, there is a day-care around the corner, and we are only a few streets away from old downtown Centralia. All of this makes for easy access to a lot of stores, but it also increases the street traffic and noises outside. Speaking of noise, since we are in “hub city” we also hear freight trains at all hours of the day.

Again these are only temporary adjustments. In the mean time it is hard to believe we are ten to fifteen minutes away from all that we could need: restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacy, gas stations, the freeway, the hospital, Luke’s work, and we are not far from entertainment like a movie theatre, a bowling alley, mini golf, and a roller rink. Plus we are now in the same time zone as family and friends, making it easier to find time to talk and Skype.

We are beyond grateful and blessed for the help we received getting here and getting settled in, and for our new home in Centralia WA.

 

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I’m Back

I’m back after my two month long hiatus from writing. It has been a very busy past two months trying to take on projects around the house, fighting car problems (yes still), adjusting to a still new job, among other things.

So here is an update:

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Moving: We moved into our new home moving van and all the weekend of our Anniversary October 11-12th. Fortunately we had the help of my brother and his wife who drove all the way from Tennessee to help us.

All of our larger items fit neatly into the moving truck with the help of some of Luke’s friends on Saturday afternoon. We were able to drive it all up to our new house in Wayland NY and unload the bed so our guest had somewhere to sleep at our new home that night.

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The next day; our anniversary, we unloaded the truck and returned it to Corning. That night we celebrated with a double date at Red Robin. The next day I was able to play tourist with my brother and his wife while Luke worked then Matt and Stina left in the evening. We were so grateful for their help and that they were around to take pictures even though we were distracted and in our moving clothes.

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Since moving into our home we have been unpacking boxes and creating a list for projects. We have gotten most of our boxes unpacked, done some cleaning, and got our new-to-us piano tuned. But some of our projects have been interrupted by weekends of taking both the CRV and the 300m in for repairs and maintenance which of course has been frustrating for both Luke and I.

Our first house project is a dishwasher! You may remember if you have read my blogs for awhile that I have been without a dishwasher for the past two years. For a couple that enjoys baking and cooking this has meant many sticky dishes filling the sink. With some time looking around we finally found a dishwasher we knew would be great for us. Then in the past weekend or two Luke has been cutting out a hole where cabinets used to be on the right side of our kitchen sink to fit in our dishwasher.

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We have been to Lowes several times to buy electrical wiring and piping for the installation with the guidance via Skype from Luke’s father who is in construction. The dishwasher is being delivered today (we hope) so our project for the Thanksgiving weekend is to get it installed. We will fill you in on progress with that soon!

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As for work: I am finally to the place in the semester where I am no longer creating new lesson plans, class activities, or worksheets. As any teacher will tell you the first time teaching a new course is always the hardest because you have to not only adjust to the routine and expectations but also create your own set of lesson plans and worksheets etc. for your students. Next semester will be much easier. But from now until December 12th all I have left is grading; which means more time to prepare for and enjoy the holidays.

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So that is a start to updating you on my absence the past two months. I hope to get back into a writing routine very soon. What have you been doing while I was gone?

 

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New Home Ownership

It has been more than two weeks since we closed on the house  and they have been busy ones at that. I apologize for being behind on updates but we are going on our third week without internet at home. So I will try to write/send posts when I can and hopefully by next week I can get back into my writing routine.

About two weeks ago we moved the most essential items over to our new place including our bathroom items, clothes for work for the week, food, cleaning supplies, a basic set of dishes, and chairs and a table to eat at.

As we settled in and started to cleaning  we discovered little items that needs to be fixed or changed.

That sunday night we discovered that the shower in the upstairs bathroom was leaking from the faucet head and the temperature settings had been stuck with room temperature as the hottest. Needless to say that night there were very quick showers. (This has since then be fixed).

The toilet downstairs tended to continue to run after your flushed it so it had been turned off until we could fix it and both toilets took major scrubbing.

The well water was running a little brown for the first cycle and it took running the water a few hours to get it clear and safe to drink. Also, we discovered that the shelves in all upstairs closets do not include a rod to hand clothes on.

Exhausted on Sunday night as we got ready to sleep our first night in the new home we turned off the lights in the house to discover a bright orange glow coming through the windows. A previous owner has requested a government streetlight on the property. We did not understand this but figured we would pay the bill for the first month expecting the light, which is on a timer, would go off before midnight; it did not. So we have called to get the light turned off. Two weeks later and it has not been turned off yet.

We have been changing the lock, scrubbing shelves and walls, removing dusty curtains, peeling off decorative apple decals from the kitchen cabinets and so much more. And of course there is still so much to be done: The light fixtures to all rooms need to be taken down and cleaned out of bugs. The front of the house needs to be pressure washed clean of dirt and spider webs. Speaking of spider webs we need to de-bug the house and of course start to clean out the gutters and clear the many leaves in our driveway and yard. The list feels endless and the dollar signs for supplies we need to do these routine maintenance items are adding up in our head as we wander home depot for the 4th time this week.

Do not take all of this as complaining; any of you who own a home or remember buying your first home I am sure are laughing and nodding in agreement with our experiences. We are grateful for the work, grateful for the house, and grateful for the responsibility. It is a lot to take on but we are doing it and we are doing it together.

We can’t wait to share our progress and of course a few picture (I promise they are coming) and how we are slowly making this house in our new home.

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6 months =100 posts

 Hard to believe I started blogging A.Greene’s Adventures 6 months ago. 100 posts later, I have shared with you the ways I have transformed, transitioned, and transcended, into married life in Corning NY.

Looking back, since January we:

Survived our first NY winter

our little home covered in snow
our little home covered in snow

(See: A lesson in Independence, 2300 degrees, my new hometown)

Settled into our home, state, and name change

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(See: I miss my old life, Becoming Mrs. ________________, Passport to new beginnings, The Game Chest, The front porch project, 

Celebrated first married holidays just the two of  us

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A very Irish dinner complete with Luke's Irish red ale (I had hard cider).
A very Irish dinner complete with Luke’s Irish red ale (I had hard cider).

(See: Valentines Pie a new tradition, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!, A (new) Easter tradition, Happy Mother’s Day, Happy Memorial Day, Happy Father’s Day, 4th of July funfetti cookies,)

Discovered the job market and applied to teaching positions (me).

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(See: The future is, patience: giving myself time, Summer projects, the waiting game, Contentment is)

Enjoyed spring and summer festivals:

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(See: Strawberry Festival, Stars hollow, fireworks, and minions, Two festivals,

Learned from each other what our married life looks like:

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(See: Dispelling Marriage Myths, Marriage myth busting round 2, Sleep after Marriage isn’t always a Dream come True, Happily Ever After is only the Beginning

Explored the area on drives, hikes, and kayaking

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(See: kayaking and BBq, An Ithaca Birthday Adventure,)

Checked out the best local events and food

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(See:  Sorge’s: local food and wine, Cabin fever, Glassfest, )

Brewed our first homemade barley-free beer

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(See: Why I am barley free part one, A chemistry lesson for a B-day Present, The home-brewing has begun, Bottling our first homemade brew,

Created and experimented with many new dinners

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(See: A Vegetarian Mediterranean meal,   A good Spring Quiche, Greene’s Tilapia fish tacos, 

and dessert recipes and found our favorites:

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(See: key lime chocolate cupcakes, cookies n’ cream pudding pops, Mocha cupcake oreo brownies)

Reflected back on our wedding as we celebrated each new month of marriage

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(See: Who to choose for your bridal party, Wow it’s been 6 months, The Dress, A pictures worth, To the Brides to be . . .)

Spent quality time with family and friends in Oregon

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(See: Our first Vacation, Vacation highlights: Date Days,

Shared in the excitement of my brother’s graduation and engagement

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(See: Wedding Season has Begun, Family Time Vacation Highlights)

Celebrated our birthdays

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(See: Cinnamon Roll Bunt B-day Cake, 25 is Golden, birthday in picture review)

Paid off all credit card debt and learned ways to save money after completing a budget class at church

Learned how to maintain and live with one car and no dishwasher

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(See: I’m a New Yorker?!, Living without a dishwasher, Living with one car,)

Made new friends

Went to Washington to celebrate my brother’s wedding

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(See: Pre-wedding Jitters, congrats matt and stina! and I promise pictures and details from the wedding are coming soon)

And so much more. Thank you everyone for your encouragement, your comments (here or on facebook), and most of all for sharing in Luke and my lives through reading about our adventures.

If this is your first time exploring my blog, first of all welcome! Also to learn more about my last 6 months  click on the links above, check out the calendar archive ,or look into the categories on the right of my page.

Looking forward to sharing many more adventures,

-A. Greene

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