Well, let's start with our physical home.
We are living in a modern-design, brand-new townhouse. We are located near the edge of town, which I love. We are about five minutes from a lovely river-side beach/play area on the Columbia River. We are within walking distance of three separate playgrounds. We are 20 minutes from Chris' work and also from our church, the main highway to Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, etc. About an hour from Vancouver/Portland, two from Seattle. 10 minutes to multiple other parks and places to explore in town. 15 minutes to the library, groceries and the other necessities of life.
I love driving and also looking out my own windows and being able to see hills, mountains, rivers, evergreens. Mount Saint Helens frequently pokes her head over one our surrounding hills--depending on the rain and clouds of course. As an Ash Baby (one born within 9-10 months of Mt St Helen's 1980 eruption), the significance of living in her shadow is not lost on me. And the irony of now living so close is rather entertaining to me. That sound morbid. Not intended. More of a circle-of-life, see how far I've come sort of entertainment.
The neighborhood, since we moved in, has gone from about 10 town homes down a little cul-de-sac off one of the main roads through town to closer to 20! Most are still being built, but they are filling up as rapidly as they can finish building them. This I'm not so keen on. It's been nice knowing most/all of the neighbors as we/they have moved in. It's been a friendly neighborhood so far, and I'm afraid of losing some of that as these other town homes are finished.
Plus the mornings of waking up with my bed shaking or the blaring of the worker's radio has gotten a little old at times!
It's a funny little house. Advertised as being three bedrooms, but given that the third bedroom has a washer and dryer in it and a sliding door to the back, it's kind of hard to qualify it as a bedroom. We have used it primarily as a guest room/family room because otherwise our other main room of the house is the living-kitchen-dining-office-homeschool room! Welcome to a modern house.
The best and possibly worst feature is the HUGE windows that run up the front of the townhome. There are seven in all, plus four more littler ones at the very top. They let in beautiful views of the sky, and glimpses of the mountains around us, and of course--the neighbors! You learn to be extra cautious really quickly because there is absolutely no way to cover the second floor of windows and those look right into the landing/bedrooms! The letting in of the light even on the gloomiest of days (we are in the Pacific Northwest now with it's showers and shower and sprinkles and showers) is fabulous--until it gets hot, and then it simply roasts us. Like I said, the best and possibly worst feature of this home--all rolled into one!
I still have a closet full of boxes that I'm slowly unpacking and dealing with. We've acquired a few extra pieces of furniture (like a couch!) since we got here. And I've shuffled around the arrangement of the living/kitchen/homeschool room at least three times. I've about despaired of making the family room/third bedroom truly workable, but we'll figure it out eventually. Hopefully not just weeks before we move again!
Yes, I did say move. I shall not lie. I am prepared and eager for one more move. This is not our forever home. How long we will be here, I'm not sure. We've looked, but timing and money and prices and goals and other such things are keeping us here for now. So we strive to be content as is, to make the best of this funny little home, and continue to learn the area, settle in, and enjoy life as it is now.
Unfortunately, patience is never my strongest suit. . . .
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| Mt. St. Helen's |
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