Lines on the Road: Three weeks into the new ‘hood

Now that we’ve been in the house for about three weeks, it’s time for some initial observations.

I’m surprised by how much I like having our own trash/recycle/yard bins (the simple things…). It’s not like we really had a problem with trash storage in our old house where four apartments shared one bin, but I do like the assurance of knowing we’ll have enough room for trash, should we need it. Not like we really use it though – this week our trash bin consisted of one half-full trash bag, which was a combination of kitchen trash and two bathroom wastebaskets. Maybe trash rates should be based on how much waste you actually produce – that might get more people to recycle and use the yard waste bins!

I kept telling people that our yard just looked big in pictures and wasn’t actually that large in real life. Now I’m noticing it is bigger than I thought – especially when I saw Mark out there with his new toy, a.k.a. a Husqvarna. The grass was pretty long by the time he got to it since we had to wait for the mower to ship, and it took him an hour and a half to mow. Well, as he put it, it only took him an hour and a half. I think it’s a good thing he’s mowing and not me, because I felt like that was a long time!

Mark cutting the jungle.

When we first moved in, the house was cold. And I don’t mean like, boo hoo, it’s drafty cold. More like WHAT HAVE WE DONE cold. Or I CAN’T LIVE DOWN HERE cold! The master bedroom and bathroom are set up in the basement (cold factor number one) and have tile and concrete floors (cold factor number two). I think the cold settled into the floors since the heat was off for probably a month before we moved in, and then took several days to warm up to a habitable state. The good news is that it did eventually warm up and now it’s not so bad down there. Slippers are still necessary but it’s manageable.

The neighbors are super nice so far, no crazies yet. Do people still make cookies and introduce themselves to neighbors anymore? Because I think I’m going to. There are tons of kids here too – really, when I back out the driveway I have to remind myself to watch for kids on bikes because they are everywhere! I like it. :)