Adventures in Moving: Part 5

There are many many reasons why I am thankful for this new house.  Here are a few standouts...

So thankful for:

1.  Wildlife!  While the condo was only 1/2 mile from the house, it was still like an urban jungle.  The only wildlife around the condo were the neighbors' unsupervised children.  I've never been so excited to see squirrels, bunnies and birds.  The cats love it to.  We are nerds and are looking forward to feeding the birds in the winter.

What is that little creature out on the back patio eating The Pilot's stale tortilla chips??  Kitty cat, I know you've never seen one but that is a BIRD!

  

2.  A garage.  I think I've mentioned it before but a garage is the greatest thing since sliced bread to someone who has NEVER parked in a garage.  Unloading groceries in the rain?  No problem...oh wait, we are in the middle of a drought around here and this scenario hasn't happened yet.

3.  Trash pick up.  We have curbside trash pick up.  And curbside recycling pick up.  And curbside yard waste pickup.  Genius.  Its so much more convenient that having to change out of your pajamas and put on shoes just to run the smelly trash out to the dumpster.  We can just toss it out into the garbage can in the GARAGE (see #2) and then wait for trash day. No more hoarding our recycling in the basement and then driving it to the public dumpsters.

4.  A walk-in pantry and a full sized linen closet.  Beans on sale at the grocery?  Yes, let's go ahead and stock up.  We can do that now.  We couldn't before because we just didn't have the space.   Toilet paper on sale?  Yes, let's go ahead and stock up.  We have a true linen closet to store the goods.  Before we had a closet that was literally 6 inches wide and you couldn't even store bath towels in it.  We are loving the storage space.

 Pantry....and this is only HALF of the pantry!   

Yes, that is a fire extinguisher.  I'm not so great in the kitchen so this is a necessity.

And because I'm sure you have all been dying to hear an update on the status of my social awkwardness in meeting the neighbors....riiiight.  I had a meeting cancel so at the last minute I was available to go to a meeting for our neighborhood's civic association (sort of the same as a homeowner's association).  I figured I could sit in the back, maybe meet a few people and sneak out.  Not so much.  There were only about 10 people there (there are 400+ houses in the neighborhood).  They tried to get me to run for a Board position.  Oh heck no.  I was an officer on the condo association Board and it was a looooong year.  I'm ok with helping out from time to time but I don't need my neighbors emailing me to complain about the weeds at the entrance to the neighborhood.  I held my ground though and said I couldn't commit to the Board but told them I'd try to help when possible.  The plus side to going to the meeting is I met someone who lives on the same street as us.  I have at least one more person to wave at when I drive by.  It's a start.  At least Pottery Barn sent me a catalog to "welcome me to the neighborhood."