The Move

So I've watched a couple episodes of Hoarders just to satisfy a morbid curiosity of what a hoarder's house might look like (crazy!). It gave me a small sense of gratitude for the many times Aaron and I have relocated. It is our built in hoarding repellent. Although neither of us have the tendency to hoard, I know I have a hard time getting rid of sentimental things like cards from grandparents, parents, siblings, etc. Every move I've been able to let go of a little more. So sorry to those whose gifts/cards have become victim to thrift store donations or to the recycle bin. We still love you and your thought fullness.

Our move went well. I've decided that California's biggest pest is ants. We had them in our last apartment when we first moved in and they are in this apartment. At first I thought they had somehow gotten into our boxes in our last apartment and survived until this move, but we've kept our boxes on our back patio and killed all the ants we found and I still found a whole slew of them yesterday as I was cleaning. Luckily we have the pest control person coming tomorrow so we should be ant free (hopefully).

Our new place is about 50-100 square feet larger than our last place. Things I like.

• There is ALOT of natural light. On a bright day, you do not need ANY lights on, even in the bathroom (it has a skylight).
  
• It has stairs. I think it gives it a more homey feel. Eli likes them too.
• It has wood linoleum in the dining room. Our last apartment has carpet and with a baby, that spells disaster. Needless to say, our carpet cleaning bill from our last place took up a fair amount of our deposit.
• Tons of cupboard space. We've unloaded all the kitchen stuff and there is still one huge empty cupboard. I have plans for food storage.
• A fully enclosed patio. It's huge and I can now let Eli go play without worrying he's going to escape the rail and fall to his death.
  

Things I don't like:

• The fridge is on the end closest to the dining room and when it's open, it cuts off all access to the kitchen.
• We are missing one main utility closet that we are used to having. So our vacuum will either have to be stored in the open, or in a closet upstairs.
• the living room only has two functional walls. The other is practically all glass door to the patio. While I like the light, it makes our arrangement look a bit cramped.

Anyway, I'm already disposed to LOVE our ward. We had wonderful help from the priesthood moving in (even though we gave them late notice). Also, the Relief Society Presidency is coming to visit me today. So nice. Pictures will come after everything is in order and then you can see some of what I'm talking about.