![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So. We're in the new house.
Pictures will occur when there are fewer boxes filling the frame; I've been pretty pleased with how much I've kept on top of unpacking (furniture in place! non-fiction mostly shelved! basic necessities of life correctly located!), but as is traditional in our native culture, we have Too Damn Much Stuff, and it's going to take a while to shove it into appropriate locations.
Which we have! Because the new place is not only twice the footage of the old place, but also full of useful Locations For Things. The kitchen is huge, filled with cupboards, and has an island that is itself filled with drawers. Even the two tiny side bedrooms have their own closets, there's a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, and with all the bookcases we brought... By god, things are going to be put away PROPERLY for once.
(We're also hauling a lot of junk to a storage unit for later sorting. Not having it in the house is a great stress relief, even if it comes with vague residual guilt and a monthly rental fee.)
And the new place is so damn quiet. Going to bed is no longer an hour of trying to get to sleep through the outside noise; I just go to bed and...go to sleep. Sure, there's heavy traffic outside, but after living on west campus for so long? That's downright soothing. It's sort of like surf noise. Ditto on the periodic chiming of the gates going down before a train zips through on the tracks down the street. Soothing! It's glorious!
There's a back yard. I can go out to the back and just sit down and look at grass and two whole trees (and a shed!) and no one is going to walk in front of me, spitting on things and talking about their latest break-up/bar fight/drug trip/get-rich-quick scheme.
And the spouse just brought in a flier that was in the mailbox. Someone is having a block party this weekend. In which...people who live on the block are invited! With specific details on what a person is expected to bring and what will be provided! And RSVP information! We have a sudden, delightfully impersonal solution for how to meet our neighbors!
Gentle readers, I am SO DAMN EXCITED.
It is, I admit, a lot more suburban than I saw my life going. Very...white-bread. (Yes, we're still technically in the center of Austin, but it feels awfully suburban.) House with yard. Block parties. Excited plans for putting in gardening things in the back. (A tree branch fell in the yard during a thunderstorm, and I finally get to use my awesome machete! Very exciting!) There's a newsletter talking in great detail about neighborhood opinions on what happens to a local golf course. There are too few sidewalks, and a lot of people on bikes or walking dogs anyway. We went to the convenience store across the street, and they were very excited to see us, and offered to special-order anything we wanted, having just opened a few days before.
There's a lot less interesting stuff in walking distance, and busing to campus is going to be something of a pain, involving at least a mile of walking regardless of which route I pick.
But... I'm okay with that. I'm okay with being sort of conventional and suburban and middle-America about things. Much as dealing with packing/unpacking/exploring/finals is still stressing me right the heck out, I'm damn happy with this decision.
It is a spiffy new house. I like it.
Pictures will occur when there are fewer boxes filling the frame; I've been pretty pleased with how much I've kept on top of unpacking (furniture in place! non-fiction mostly shelved! basic necessities of life correctly located!), but as is traditional in our native culture, we have Too Damn Much Stuff, and it's going to take a while to shove it into appropriate locations.
Which we have! Because the new place is not only twice the footage of the old place, but also full of useful Locations For Things. The kitchen is huge, filled with cupboards, and has an island that is itself filled with drawers. Even the two tiny side bedrooms have their own closets, there's a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, and with all the bookcases we brought... By god, things are going to be put away PROPERLY for once.
(We're also hauling a lot of junk to a storage unit for later sorting. Not having it in the house is a great stress relief, even if it comes with vague residual guilt and a monthly rental fee.)
And the new place is so damn quiet. Going to bed is no longer an hour of trying to get to sleep through the outside noise; I just go to bed and...go to sleep. Sure, there's heavy traffic outside, but after living on west campus for so long? That's downright soothing. It's sort of like surf noise. Ditto on the periodic chiming of the gates going down before a train zips through on the tracks down the street. Soothing! It's glorious!
There's a back yard. I can go out to the back and just sit down and look at grass and two whole trees (and a shed!) and no one is going to walk in front of me, spitting on things and talking about their latest break-up/bar fight/drug trip/get-rich-quick scheme.
And the spouse just brought in a flier that was in the mailbox. Someone is having a block party this weekend. In which...people who live on the block are invited! With specific details on what a person is expected to bring and what will be provided! And RSVP information! We have a sudden, delightfully impersonal solution for how to meet our neighbors!
Gentle readers, I am SO DAMN EXCITED.
It is, I admit, a lot more suburban than I saw my life going. Very...white-bread. (Yes, we're still technically in the center of Austin, but it feels awfully suburban.) House with yard. Block parties. Excited plans for putting in gardening things in the back. (A tree branch fell in the yard during a thunderstorm, and I finally get to use my awesome machete! Very exciting!) There's a newsletter talking in great detail about neighborhood opinions on what happens to a local golf course. There are too few sidewalks, and a lot of people on bikes or walking dogs anyway. We went to the convenience store across the street, and they were very excited to see us, and offered to special-order anything we wanted, having just opened a few days before.
There's a lot less interesting stuff in walking distance, and busing to campus is going to be something of a pain, involving at least a mile of walking regardless of which route I pick.
But... I'm okay with that. I'm okay with being sort of conventional and suburban and middle-America about things. Much as dealing with packing/unpacking/exploring/finals is still stressing me right the heck out, I'm damn happy with this decision.
It is a spiffy new house. I like it.