Moving: we have a house!

We have a house!

We looked at two, and we fell in love with one, so now it's ours. It is HUGE and spacious, and gosh, I don't even know how I'm going to fill all of it! I'm pretty sure we need to go "stuff" shopping now, just so it won't look so bare. ;-)

Guys, I have prayed and prayed over this. We have agonized and worried over the housing situation, having been told we'd have to wait over a year for a house on base (which we learned upon arriving was very WRONG information - the wait list is only for those who need a 2-bedroom unit). I cannot believe how blessed we have been, and how God has answered my prayers with a house more wonderful than anything I could have imagined!

Here are several of the perks:

• gorgeous, genuine hardwood floors throughout the entire house (not just the hallway, like our old house)


• TWO large family/living rooms. One has an elevated ceiling, and the other has a cathedral ceiling. BOTH have beautiful ceiling fans, and we can't decide for sure which will be the "official" family room yet.


• a large, large kitchen (twice the size of our old house, at least). It also has an eat-in bar attached.


• gas stove


• ice-maker in fridge/freezer


• an arctic entryway/mudroom before entering the foyer


• two gigantic picture windows. One is in one of the living rooms, and the other is in the dining room. (Both my full-size Christmas trees can be seen from the road!)


• a massive dining room (easily twice the size of our old one)


• more closets than we can figure out what the heck to do with


• a storage closet IN THE GARAGE (which is bigger than the shed we bought ourselves years ago and have been using)


• an indoor storage space which we have NO CLUE what to fill with (about the size of our old laundry room)


• four doors to the outside, plus a garage door (in other words, tons of entrances/exits)


• beautiful tub in the main bathroom (I love the built-in hooks, shelves and racks)


• much larger shower in the master bathroom, plus storage


• a private DECK off the master bedroom (!!!)


• old-timey crank windows (I think those look so nice!)


• a full basement (One side has a kitchen's worth of cabinets installed, as well as another complete two-sided sink, and the other side has cable hook-ups, etc. It screams 'Craft room!' to me.)

I just really can't imagine how we're going to fill up the space. It seems SO BIG. I'm sure I'll figure it out, though - hehehe. The housing office told us we're welcome to come by and pick up keys again before our move-in date, in case we'd like to get inside again and measure anything or take pics, and I think we'll take them up on that. I know a couple people that would be interested in seeing the inside. (*coughs in Grammy's direction*)

As for actually moving in, we called up the TMO today, and our household goods have not yet arrived. When they do, we'll set up a delivery/move-in date, and then we'll be set. It should be no later than next week, though. I'll check with housing tomorrow to see if we can go ahead and snag our mailbox key though, so we can stop our temporary mail forwarding and begin permanently forwarding. :-)

Also, we picked up our mail at General Delivery on base, and it's a peace of mind that the temporary forwarding has gone according to plan thus far. Philip will begin in-processing tomorrow, and now that we have a house, we know which school the boys are zoned for, so I will be registering them tomorrow. Their first day should be next Monday, and they'll be attending Dakota Elementary here on base.

We're headed to the commissary in a bit to pick up some foodstuffs for make-shift meals here in the TLF through at least the weekend.

What a great Thursday!