Rough draft

We moved on Saturday. It's official. We are now on day three as citizens of Sunnyside, and so far it is treating us well. We love our new rental house and all of its quirks. We love the panoramic views of the gorgeous countryside sweeping around our little white house.

And then there's the canal road. After a mere eight miles of running on it, I am already spouting sonnets about its tranquility and beauty. While I was running into the sunrise this glorious fresh morning, I thought to myself, "this is what I've been missing." For six years I worked on reconciling myself to this dry, treeless foreign climate that is so different from what I grew up with (think jungles of west Tennessee). After three days in the countryside of Sunnyside, I have finally found an effortless, true love for this valley.

That sounds dramatic and bubble-headed and doe-eyed, but right now that is exactly how I feel! Ah, new love. The excitement and oblivion of new love are real! If new love is a condition, then I've got it bad. Or maybe this place really is as amazing as my new eyes and hopeful heart think, so that even when I'm used to that big bright sky curving down around me, painting the irrigation canal's water gold, it will still feel wonderful to call Sunnyside home.

The quiet restful feeling that comes in the wake of a big tumultuous decision involving lots of hard work is the best reward. Even though our house is only about a quarter of the way unpacked and organized, I feel so peaceful. We did it. It was big, scary, and very very hard, but we did it. We sold our house and moved away! Today is the closing date. I'm exhausted from all of the packing, lifting, loading, cleaning, arranging, and planning involved in moving, but it's a contented tired rather than the desperate tired I was feeling at this time a week ago. On Sunday morning, Jeff and I sat on the couch together and laughed our heads off for the first time in weeks. It was such good medicine for my soul! Stress has a way of taking over my brain and it was eating away at me all the way up until last night, when we closed the door to our house in Grandview for the last time.

Nothing turned out like we thought it would when we first decided to move three months ago, but I am so completely content with how things have turned out. Every now and then I have to banish some absurd adult-guilt about renting instead of buying a house. "It's such a waste of money!" my inner thoughts moan. But then I review the inspired chain of events that led us to this point and all of the new possibilities that are opening up to us here, and I remember that this is right. We are happy and this is right. That is what matters.

On Saturday a bunch of men from church came bright and early to help us move. Our new bishop brought his big trailer, and the elders quorum from our old ward loaded it up in less than 2 hours. Then we drove 20 minutes to our new house where we were met with a fresh crew of men from our new ward, who unloaded everything so fast I could hardly keep up with telling then where to put things in the house. Every now and then there was a lull in activity during which I stood on the front porch watching the kind men provide muscular service to us, and I felt a surge of emotion. Not necessarily a teary emotion (surprisingly), but more of the "divine hug" type of emotion. It may sound cheesy, but that's the best way I can describe how it felt: a divine hug. My heart felt full and happy and I felt loved, by both our new ward and the old, by both the men doing the heavy lifting and by their wives who sacrificed time with them so they could go do exhausting service on a holiday weekend. Most of all I felt loved by the Lord. He really does know and care about each one of us. Truth: serving others helps them feel God's love.

My sister texted me asking to see pictures of our new house today, and I found myself wanting to wait till it's all put together before I show pictures. But that could take a while, so here's the rough draft of our new house, stacks of boxes and all.

[ps: I did this entire blog post on my phone because our internet installation isn't till next week. Thumb typing is tricky.]

The front room: family room. I love having the piano in the main part of the house! In our last place, it was in the basement.

Looking into the dining area from the family room. The space was barely big enough for our table.

Kitchen! It's much smaller than our last kitchen, but that makes it easier to keep clean. I am reveling in downsizing--smaller means less work! We used to have a counter with stools plus the table in our old kitchen, and keeping both eating areas clean was like trying to win a two front war: impossible.

I spent six hours on Memorial Day organizing my new kitchen. Everything has a place, and it feels so satisfying.

The side door is by the kitchen, and the basement door is to the left of it on the other side of that box.

The girls'room. I think it's cozy. This house has new carpet and it's soft and thick.

Jay's room: reading amidst his boxes of books.

The main floor bathroom: functional and adequate. We love the counter height sink. Our previous house had vanit height sinks and counters in the bathrooms, which hit our 6 foot tall bodies around mid thigh. It is luxurious not to hunch while washing hands!

The office room is between the other two bedrooms on the main floor. The door visible leads into a giant bonus room above the garage.

4 stairs lead up into the bonus room, which we have made into a playroom. It is a great place for the kids to go be wild kids because the sound is relatively well contained in that back part of the house.

We considered making this room the master suite or the family room, but we're glad we didn't because it doesn't get it's fair share of air conditioning. There's easily a 20+ degree swing between the playroom and the basement on a hot day.

"Plenty of storage in the playroom!" Was our initial thought. But so far the kids just use those cabinets as playhouses.

As you can see, the kids wasted no time in decorating the playroom with its usual array of sharp, career ending Legos and assorted other items.

I would've loved these nooks and crannies as a kid.

Now down to the basement on the narrow, steep stairs. Hold on tight and lean back as you descend!

To the left of the basement stairs: the unromantic but functional laundry room.

To the right of the stairs: bathroom and Jeff's man cave.

Basement bathroom: bare minimum, but gets the job done.

Jeff's man cave

Opposite the man cave: garage door and a bonus walk-in pantry...

...be still, my heart.

And the second kitchen, complete with vintage mint colored cabinetry, metal sink unit, and sloping linoleum flooring. I adore it and hope to get a ruffly apron, A-line dress, high heels, and lipstick and cook up some meat and potatoes in it someday. 

Last basement room: our master suite! Wood paneling and floral carpet for the win. We actually love it because it's​a solid fifteen degrees cooler in the basement than upstairs, even on a 95 degree day. This basement is completely underground and it's cool. I shiver into my pajamas down there every night!

Boring picture, but that entire wall of our bedroom is closets. Jeff and I each have our own double door closet, and there's a third closet that I'm using for craft and sewing supplies. Laaaa!

Our bedroom is the dumping ground for undetermined boxes.

The garage! I know you're dying to see it.

It's pretty, isn't it? It smells funny, but the garage door is automatic and that, my friends, is a step up from our last garage.

We haven't lived here long enough for me to get adequate pristine morning pictures, but here's one of Jeff leaving on his bike for work this morning. He's that little speck at the end of the driveway. We are only three miles from the high school where Jeff works! He didn't have to leave till 6:45am this morning! 

The canal road is great for biking and running. Jeff acquainted Jay and Rose with their preliminary distance from home limits on the canal road, and they plan on biking there every day. Jay actually got up and rode his bike at 6am today.

Good morning from paradise. This front porch view has my heart.

So there it is: our new rental house. It is humble, tranquil, convenient, and cozy: everything we want our home to be.