la gran gira

So here is the post you've all been waiting for!  Well, maybe it was only Bonnie that has been waiting... nevertheless, here are the pictures of our house! 

::This is the "quiet room"  There are five bedrooms, but this one was commandeered by Matthew to use as his studio and others are welcome to work in here insofar as they make no noise whatsoever.  So basically, the boys and I have never spent any time in here, haha!  I lament that fact a little because I'm pretty sure this room has the nicest slant of light throughout the day, but c'est la vie!  Or however you say that en espanol.

 

::This is Charles' room a.k.a. the guest bedroom -- he will be removed to the "quiet room" when we have guests.  He clearly has the most square footage of bed per capita.

 

 

::Next we have the girls' dormitory.  One of these beds was poached from the "quiet room" which worked out nicely.  They have been fairly well behaved as far as the giggling at night goes.

 

 

::The little boys' room -- I guess I managed to get only one bed into the picture, but rest assured, there is an identical bed on the other side of the nightstand

 

 

::The master bedroom -- there is a lovely armoire and bookshelf as well.  It's not very large, but it is nice.  The bed is a full size which is fine for us, except that Archie still thinks he needs to climb in every night and there is definitely not room for that business.  I had to sleep in his bed the other night.

 

::There are two bathrooms -- I love the tile in the blue one!  One has a bathtub (with no stopper so there has been no bathing as of yet), the other has a shower, and they both have bidets!  One of my #spaingoals is to learn the proper use of that particular fixture.

 

::There are two intersecting halls -- I don't know why, but I really like hallways.  I think that stems from living in a studio apartment as newlyweds and daydreaming about having one (or even two) someday...

 

 

::There is a nice living/dining space.  This is where we lounge, school, eat, and have devotionals.  Keeping those covers on the sofas is a major pain!  I detest them.

 

 

 ::And finally there is the kitchen.  It is very nice -- probably nicer than our kitchen at home and about five trillion times better than our kitchen in France.  However, the stove has to be lit manually with a match so that freaks me out every time and it is sadly lacking in some basic tools.  We went to Ikea last Saturday to try to remedy that, but weren't able to find everything.  All of the knives are quite dull and I cut my thumb rather badly while trying to saw through something, but then when I used a new sharp one, I cut my middle finger pretty deeply... can't win, but I did bring band-aids!  I've been flying through them this past week and can't really remember the last time I ever needed one.  Also, just finding food and cooking it seems difficult.  I'm fairly certain that we've been to the grocery store at least ten times in the past week, and I still feel uneasy about the amount of food there is in the house.  The kids!  They're like locusts.  And I'm not sticking to my diet.  At all.  It is simply too difficult to find the right ingredients and the easiest foods to obtain are bread, pasta, and sweets, but I'll try harder.  Next week.

 

::Outside of the kitchen door there is a little courtyard.  The wall connects to the neighbor's house so we can all hear each other swimmingly!

 

 

 ::There is a place for hanging clothes outside of the boys' bedroom window

 

::And then up the stairs on the terrace there is more space -- yay!  The washing machine, unfortunately, doesn't accommodate the kinds of loads that we require and each cycle takes hours and hours, but I'm trying to keep on top of things since we don't have a dryer.

 

 

 

::These guys don't like getting their picture taken at all.

 

::The front hall -- perfect for ninja-ing, obviously

 

 ::Outside of the front door is a fenced in garden and patio.  Most of the day it is sunny and lovely out there.  Lucy has been doing seminary outdoors via Skype with her cold cold friends in Illinois.

 

 ::So there you have it!  The grand tour!  Maybe next time I'll take you on a tour of our little town.