The House

We finally made it.  It's been a month and we're finally settled in enough that it feels like we're home.  Moving day went fine.  You don't realize how much stuff you can stuff into an apartment until you actually have to move it. Charlie seemed to be fine on moving day, though he was a bit freaked out when we left Stella's to get the stuff out of the old apartment building.  It took the movers longer than I thought it would, but I didn't mind because I was glad that I didn't have to carry anything.  I'm handy. 

Here's the short tour.  Living room, dining room & foyer.  I  am NOT painting those blank walls. I tried to paint the trim in the study yesterday and it was a freaking nightmare.  That part of my life is over, Nilda. 

The kitchen, which is pretty sweet. Nilda tells me don't worry, we're only going to change a bunch of this. 

Outside the kitchen, dining room and downstairs family room is a great two-level deck.  The biggest change I've noticed in moving to the house, besides the space, is how easy it is to get outside.  In the apartment, you had to get your shoes on and go through the lobby just to check the weather outside, but now I only have to open one of the doors to see what's going on.   

That amazing looking thing in the back is the phenomenal grill that my parents got me us as a housewarming gift and I freaking love it.  (Don't worry, there's now an appropriate cover for the grill.)  This is the family room downstairs from the kitchen.

The bedrooms are above the family room (Nilda calls the house a side split).  We had Charlie's room painted first, and it looks great. 

This is the guest bedroom, i.e. Stella's room. She has stayed with us for days at a time and it's been great, but she's happy she gets to go home after a few days. The morning after that first night, she said, "This is great, but take me back to 192nd Street."  

This is the master bedroom which has an en suite bathroom, so Nilda can better hear me drop things into the sink.  The bathroom has a skylight which is surprisingly nice in the mornings.

People ask me how we like the suburbs and how we're adjusting.  The short of it is that I love it, and I'm pretty sure that Nilda and Charlie  feel the same.  Here's why:

• I can finally walk as loudly as I want to.  One night, I started jumping up and down with Charlie, just because I could.  
• The first time it rained, I heard a strange noise, only to realize that it was the rain hitting the skylight. 
• New Rochelle is closer to nature than I expected.  I was shocked at how loud the insects were.  Our neighbors say they're used to it, but those crickets are loud!   And there's a ton of spiders here.  Nilda says it's my job to empty out all the bugs she catches with the dustbuster.  
• MetroNorth is way more civilized than the subway. Plus, you get internet on your phone.  I like driving to and from the train station.  I'm always excited when I see the car in the garage, saying (mostly) to myself, "There it is!"
• Everyone told me that I'd have to get used to driving everywhere and how convenient it is to have everything so close in the city.  But they don't realize how convenient it is to have to drive everywhere. You have so many more options, since you aren't limited to the places you can walk to, and you're also not limited in what you can get because you can stick it all in the trunk.  
• Speaking of cars, we got a second car.  I am now in the two-cars suburban part of my life. I now have a dad car.  
• I freaking love the grill.  I used it twice in one day.  I knew I'd like to barbecue, but I use it all the time.  It's way easier than an oven, it tastes better, and there's less clean up.  There is nothing as satisfying as watching a ball of fire reach up from the grill and engulf your chicken thigh.  
• It's a different way of life. One night I heard a noise and assumed it was the neighbors, but then realized I don't have any neighbors.  I now have to check out sounds, like I'm in a scary movie or something.    
• Dealing with garbage is easy.  I get to be the porter and go around collecting all the trash, that I put in big, outdoor trash cans that I put at the end of the drive.  Then - get this - people come and take it away twice a week.  For free!! 
• Having our own washer and dryer is fantastic.  Doing laundry is still a pain, but it's not as big a big deal as it was in the apartment.  There's no concern that there won't be an empty machine or that somebody's going to take my stuff out of the dryer or that I'm doing laundry after the co-op's laundry room hours have ended.  I don't even have to put my shoes on to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer.
• On a side note, I am making a concerted effort here to avoid the potty mouth.  My awesome niece Francesca now reads the blog and I don't want to be called "Uncle Bad Words" anymore.  I said "freaking" in front of her and she said I used the f-word, and I didn't feel it was appropriate to explain to her what the f-word really is.   
• Verizon Fios is everything they said it would be.
• It has not all been easy, though.  I thought that everything would be easier after we got all our stuff into the house, but I waited a while for that easy part to kick in.  I had envisioned walking into a perfect house, but all I saw was the things that needed repair.  Then I thought, wait a minute, we have to worry about the outside, too?
• The first night we moved in, a pipe on the master bathroom toilet broke off and starting shooting water everywhere. Water was coming through the light fixtures in the family room below.  All I could think was that there's no one here to help us if we can't get this water to stop.  It was my nightmare scenario, and it happened within 5 hours of moving in. I rushed to the basement to shut off the water to the house, like I was Edgar on Deadliest Catch, only I didn't actually shut off the water, but turned ON the water to the outside faucet that had been left open, creating a river going out to the street, because I'm AWESOME.  Luckily, Nilda's handy and had already turned off the water at the toilet until my dad could come and fix it the next day.  
• Nilda's definitely the handy one. My parents got her a fancy tool and drill set for her birthday and she was very excited.  Nerd.
• Charlie loves it here.  We moved so that Charlie could run, and that seems to be working out.  He pushes his toys all over the place and runs around.  He goes outside whenever he wants and there's a playground right nearby.  He's even discovered sidewalk chalk.  Nilda has been taking him to The Little Gym, where he gets to run around and play with this other little boy (the instructors call him and Charlie "besties").  He has a tantrum every time he has to leave, so we know he likes it.     
• He's getting so big.  I can't believe he'll be 2 in December.  
• Charlie has gotten way into trains.  "Choo choo," as he calls them. It started with Thomas and he's added on Chuggington (thanks, Aunt Harley).  He still watches Sesame Street like it's the news.  
• I have been meeting a bunch of other dads at the playground.  We all seem to have a lot in common, we work in the city, talk about the train station we use, only go to the playground on nights and weekends, and keep asking each other's names because we can't remember names to save our lives. 

Life is good in New Rochelle.  More to come. 

P.S. - You can see both Nilda and Charlie in that top picture.