It's not all bad

Some of the highlights of our new home, as I fear I'm focusing too much on the negative:
1. Lots of kids in the neighborhood, and at least a few friendly neighbors.
2. Alex's school will be walking distance for when I am not yet working.
3. The local civic center is walkable and seems geared for children, with youth orchestras and art shows, a really nice playground on its grounds, and for the adults (well kids too, but not our kids yet), community tennis courts.
4. The yard, where we can plant stuff. Especially now that the trees are gone, thus allowing sunlight to penetrate.
5. The deck, where we will grill at least every other day. Once we buy a grill as the previous one went to the cabin.
6. The ton of shops, restaurants and metro that are all within a mile. We walked to the library today and got our library cards. Right in front of it is a great little splash park 

Wordless Wednesday

 

The work begins

Today Alex and I spent the day at the house. Promptly 1 minute after I arrived at the house (and 15 minutes early!) the crew came to remove the 2 large trees in the back yard that were too close to the house, endangering the foundation and for all I know being the route the termites took to get in. Alex was fascinated watching them, actually I was too but I was also quite busy. The house had been what my mom would call filthy, what other people would call a bit dirty, so I cleaned bathrooms and swept. I had gotten those Windex wipes so Alex could help with windows and mirrors, and she really enjoyed it for about 15 minutes. When I realized that we had no drinking vessels, we ran to the nearest grocery store for provisions. During the day I also fielded 3 electricians for their estimates. This was actually my most critical task, however I got to the tree stuff first because they didn't need a person to let them into the house to see what the work would look like.

I had also completely forgotten to call the utilities to set up accounts in our names. And apparently the sellers got right on having the gas shut off when I didn't take care of that detail on Day 1, so they have to come turn the gas back on and of course they can't get to it for a few days. At least now I know the heating system isn't broken, it just isn't getting any fuel.  It was chilly inside the house, even Alex happily changed from shorts into the pants and socks I brought for her. Tomorrow is supposed to get close to 90F so it will be interesting to see how well the house stays cool without a little help.

Now I'm trying to contact the selected electrician and get him in ASAP to fix the bad and allegedly dangerous wiring. Tomorrow we get to go to Lowes and buy a hot water heater. If my bank account didn't take a hit every time I accomplished a task, I would probably find this way more fun than I am :-)

Here's an important question to anyone who might be reading: the bathtub has those anti-slip decals, I even remember them being marketed in the 1980s, they look like flowers. I need to remove them. Comet didn't even touch them, any suggestions??

Da Vinci Discovery Center

Continuing the theme of keeping Alex busy and happy by taking her to science museums, we headed this week to the Lehigh Valley's own Da Vinci Discovery Center. We'd gone last year with Grammy and Zoltan and only managed to get a taste of what was there.

First note: I was very impressed that on their web site they suggest that individuals come in the afternoon as school groups usually depart by 1:30pm. We were having a slow morning anyway, so arrival at 1:00pm was perfect.

It's an impressive museum for its size and location. We managed to fill more than 3 hours and didn't check out every exhibit, although that was due to Alex's interest and attention span, not the amount of time we had. It was fun that they had Grossology, which I had seen many years ago at (I think) the Franklin Institute. As always, what captivates a child is never what we think it will be but as we had no deadlines and I only had her interests to indulge, it was an incredibly relaxing experience.

My favorite part was watching her play with the station with all the gears, and gradually incorporate every single gear in one huge rotation. She got a kick out of the paper airplane folding exhibit, where the computer guides us through one of about a dozen different designs. She was too excited to settle down and let me read to her from the book corner in the Preschooler room but had a ball stacking the foam blocks into towers and a hidey-hole for herself (except when a child ran into the room, jumped on her work-in-progress and ran out. Then another kid did the exact same thing during the rebuild).

I guess one of our adventures this summer will be checking out what kind of science/hands-on-children's museums we can find in the DC area.

All packed out

On Tuesday the movers came and started packing all of our things.  A friend from the Consulate was gracious enough to help me watch over everything.  I can't thank him enough.  So all day Tuesday I watch my stuff be packed into boxes and sealed up.  The movers estimated one day to pack and then load everything the second day.  I thought this was optimist and it turns out I was right.   At the end of the first day everything in the living room, kitchen, dining room, study, Alex and Zoltan's bedrooms were packed up.  My bedroom, two bathrooms, strollers and the kids bikes were still left to do.  When Zoltan came home from school he was eager to see all the boxes.  He went from room to see all the boxes in each room.  Later he keep asking me why there was no TV now, where is his Spiderman spoon, etc.  His seems to have trouble understand everything was being packed up, but was generally OK with it.

Then next day the movers were ready to go a little early.  So one guy finished the little packing while the other three started doing the official inventory and loading the truck.  Everything went fine for the most part.  At one point all the stuff was packed and the only thing to do was match our box numbers to the official box number.  So I told our friend I was OK and thanked him again.  After 3/4 of our stuff is loaded on the truck they ran out of space.  So they pick some last things that will fit and load those things.  Off 3 guys go with part of our things and one guys stays back to finish inventory and do the paperwork.  He also moves all the remaining things into the apartment buildings hallway so he can wait there until the truck returns.  At this point there is nothing to do so I head into to work since it has been crazy in the office.  Generally I found in my time in Russia that lots of things are done just not quite right.  Here the mover are organized and effecient but the truck is just a little to small.  Still baffles me, but at least everything went more or less fine.  We will see on the other side how well everything made it.

Too much time together?

Alex tonight drew two pictures for me. In one, I am being eaten by a motorcycle that is flying. There are a lot of pretty clouds around us. In the second one, I am smiling because the motorcycle dropped me; however I am plummeting into a big city (lots of skyscrapers). A lion waits for me on one roof.

Maybe we are spending too much time together? C'mon time, tick along faster and bring our boys home to us!

Wordless Wednesday

Update from America

Alex and I have been in America for a week now. From Philly, we came down to my brother's house outside DC for a visit with them and coinciding with a visit from my mom. It turns out Ben's confirmation was this week too, so it's actually been pretty busy between that, Mother's Day on Sunday, and a lot of time on the phone and computer getting things ready for the closing.

Turns out the house has/had termites, so that added some excitement to the week, between ordering the termite inspection because that fell between the cracks, to the diagnosis of termites, to the treatment. All before Thursday. Crazy stuff. I am pretty sure the termite guy wanted to warn me not to buy the place. Let's hope it's all fine now.

Also, turns out all of Alex's blood tests came back fine. Her vitamin D is low but not low enough to be the obvious culprit for her broken bones, according to the very static-y message I listened to from the doctor. So I guess it's a good thing we didn't cancel the appointment with the orthopedist on Friday, and I expect he'll order a bone density scan as it was the next step after checking Alex's vitamin D.

We bought a dump!

Yes, friends, we are now 3 for 3 in our home buying ventures. Each abode we have purchased has led to a first weekend wander and "Why did you let me buy this dump?" "No, why did YOU let ME buy this dump?" conversation.

Of course, this is by far the most expensive dump. For the few of you who remember the Fanshawe blog, we'll definitely be documenting this renovation as we go along. You may even get to weigh in on paint colors or other fun things.

But, hey, it has a yard. And Alex can't get enough of walking out the front door and being in "green green grass".

Wordless Wednesday