Settling in

I have quite a few pictures that didn't make it onto the blog since I'm so far behind, but thought I'd toss this in while I play catch up :)  Here's Isaac and Samy having breakfast the morning of our move.  Just too funny.

So I guess I posted about the actual move, now I'll let you into my world post move in.  I'm still feeling so out of the groove of normal life it's hard to sit back and enjoy our new home still.  Plus we've got quite a few projects in the works.  We have radon, which means it's a good idea to get it mitigated by sealing the basement floor and installing pipes and fans to suck it out.  Well, our basement isn't your model citizen for this job.  There are two crawl spaces at opposite ends of the house that open into the basement through big holes in the wall (kind of creepy!), there are also several holes in the floor (not sure where those came from), and can you believe it, we found a well down there!!  I asked the previous owners if they knew that was there, and in all their 28 years here, they never knew that!  It was kind of crazy to remove all these old boards to find an 8-inch pipe that goes 30 feet deep with water at the bottom, especially in your basement. 

A friend of mine told me a few months ago about these really cool tag sales, and I managed to get there just before my brother and his family came last week.  I scored a great table and four chairs for the kitchen that I'm going to repaint and reupholster.  I'll have to be sure to do before and after shots :)

I've loved getting to know our neighbors!  On one side they go to church with us and the kids made fast friends. On the other is Mickey--she's 72 and lifts weights, swims daily, keeps her yard immaculate, and does amazing oil paintings!  Her late husband's family has owned the land she now owns since 1712!  She is so much fun to talk to, and I'm hoping one day to explore all the old stuff she has in her basement :)

So, this no A/C thing has been a little tough in the nice heat wave.  There were a few days we were really wishing we hadn't bought a house with no air conditioning when it was 100 degrees and like 90% humidity.  We got our big window unit into the kitchen just before my brother and fam arrived, and that has helped tremendously.  Most days though I still open the windows even in there until the mid-afternoon.  The house has a great breeze always coming through.  The third floor (where the play room is) is just hot, no way around that, so the kids are usually dragging toys to the kitchen to play on the floor or the hall where it's cool.  Good thing I've got such a big kitchen now!