39 Belleview

It was a week before our partially-planned move, and a friend said "Hey, let's move you tomorrow." He spoke of the holiday Monday. To our amazement, things kind of took off from there, and the next day we were moved! Not bad results for a holiday, and for not having to rent a truck, and for not having been prepared packing-wise.

A few days before, we'd taken possession. Time to try the key and take a picture.

That wasn't so bad. Then we stepped inside. BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Uh-oh.

Well, good to know the alarm works. I hustled the girls outside before the blaring began and then set about trying to disable the dumb thing. A code would have been helpful at this point. Instead all it took was a few calls and emails to the realtor, the former owner, the lawyer, the security firm, and anyone else I wanted to make aware that our moment was being ruined by a noisy alarm. In the end, a callback from the security company walked me through disabling the alarm without a code. Hopefully I can rig it so the next thief who breaks in isn't able to use the same simple techniques...

Back to being moved in. Home ownership... what a glorious feeling! We love the space and have no regrets (yet... check back after our first mortgage payment), although we miss our old appliances, which were much nicer.

Our entrance is very spacious. We'll have to get a rug and some furniture to liven it up at some point.

The staircase to upstairs is kind of front and centre, but it's not a bad looking one.

Our sunken living room adjoins a dining room, and both are carpeted. I'm not sure who decides that carpet in an eating area is a good idea, but I imagine we won't be eating there much. And the living room, well, Lily has the place to herself (and her toys). The family room is plenty big for us adults to hang out, and we don't have enough furniture to go around besides.

The family room has two skylights at the end, providing much light. The wood floor is nice but not too forgiving in terms of seeing scratches. Between trying to keep carpets white and hardwood unscratched, I will go grey in no time at all. Stupid home ownership!

There is a weird bar counter between the family room and the eating area. We very much disliked it at first, but it does have its merits: it's easy to reach whilst sitting at the table. And beyond that is a nice roomy kitchen, albeit with appliances we're not thrilled with. Something to save up for, I guess.

The combined length of the family room / eating area / kitchen is 44 feet, and we love how open it feels.

Lily enjoyed her "pool" in the ensuite while we got around to buying a plug for her own tub...

And then there's the garage. We've been quite happy with having a carport for a number of years, but a two-car garage? We certainly spoiled ourselves on that count. May we curb our junk collecting enough to always fit the car in it. I didn't have a tennis ball handy to mark where to stop when we pull in, so currently a roll of masking tape at windshield level is doing the trick. We'll see if it's there in 10 years.

The back yard isn't huge, but it will suffice once we clear it up a bit. With the patio, some trees, a massive rock slab, randomly placed flower gardens, and a swing bench, we'll have to do some figuring on a new layout. The patio is old but big and in decent shape. There's an in-ground sprinkler system I have yet to try out. And the fountain pool (pictured below) got ripped out shortly after Lily fell in; no need for such hazards in my lovable-yet-clumsy-child's yard thankyouverymuch.

I've bought a mower and various other homeowner stuff, but we're going to need so much more. I just finished putting a trailer hitch on the gutless car, so at least we can borrow a trailer when we buy big stuff on Kijiji. Like a bed for Lily. Until now she's slept in her crib; in the new place we purposely didn't set it up, to force us to buy her a new bed.

Birthday

Lily got to celebrate her third birthday at the new house. She had four friends over. She's older than two of them, but I think they're all bigger than she is. Notice the lovely fruit bouquet on the table behind them; her mom is quite the artist!

Cupcakes are easier than cake!

Time to kill the piñata. A couple of girly swings...

A few more, with mom's help...

Skip a few rounds that included the other kids and perhaps a hockey stick... Success! I think. Not sure if this is before or after it rained candy. No pictures were possible during that stampede.

Lily loves puzzles and fairy or princess (or fairy princess) outfits, and she was spoiled with both on this occasion. Happy birthday, honeybunch!