Our new place

Hello, welcome to our new home in the desert! This post is picture-packed. Enjoy!

Our "villa" apartment shares only half of its exterior walls with neighbors. And because it's a single story section of the complex, it feels like a townhome.

That's our door to the right. And a fellow student/friend from TX lives to the left. The window to the right of the door is the guest bedroom. Don't you love the burnt orange color of our new home?

I forgot to take a real entry picture, but this is the living room. To the right of the brown table with the lamp is a coat closet, and the hallway to the bedroom side of the house. Hubby was busy doing work on the TV computer; busy enough that he didn't mind being in the pictures. I wonder if he realized they'd go on the blog? He must have; he knows me too well!

We have an actual dining room this time, complete with room for the chairs and the bench. Seating for six; we're ready for company! The door leads to the patio, and a turn to the right brings you to the kitchen.

The patio is officially my favorite place. Mornings and evenings here have been bringing temps in the 60s. Even though we're close to our neighbors, the pretty landscaping outside makes this space feel like a private retreat...at least in the morning. It's almost Noon as I sit out here writing, and I just heard a neighbor shout, "Do you have underwear on?" A little boy's voice responded, "No, [something, something...underwear]!" Haha, oh the joys of parenthood, I'm sure!

Our kitchen is so much more spacious than before! That's a pantry to the right of the frig, and a desk all the way in the back of the picture on the right. Hubby and I can fit in here at the same time! If we so chose, we could even open all the appliance doors simultaneously!!

As you enter the hallway, the guest bedroom is to your right. I will post a picture of that some other time, as it is currently filled with boxes, packing paper, and the bookcase that got broken during the move. Its closet is the home to my many, many classroom supplies. When the movers were bringing things inside, Hubby kept saying he had no idea how much I had from my classroom! He wasn't around to see me transport everything from my classroom to storage last year. Hopefully I will find a way to use it all again. A friend has me thinking a lot about tutoring. The smaller scale feels much more appropriate to my personality.

This is the den, office, Husband's room, etc. He is really glad to have this space to himself, especially for when he needs to study. Sometimes I sit on the couch in there and just watch him, though, glad to have him back home. The longer I sit around though, the more likely he is to ask for help studying. Good thing I don't mind too much:)

Next thing down the hall is the laundry room. We also call this Charlie's room because we put a baby gate up to keep him in there when we're gone. It's going okay so far. He's adjusting really well, so hopefully it just keeps getting better!

Finally, our bedroom. The first few days we kept waking up at 5:00 am on account of the early sunrise in Arizona. This weekend we put up our curtains, and now we don't have to wake up quite so early! It's very peaceful.

This is our master bathroom. We have more storage than we know what to do with! There is a closet behind the door, opposite the sink, which houses everything. The cabinets under the sink have all of about two things in them. We also have a really large bathtub, but I have yet to try that out.

The closet is also huge. We have both dressers in there. There are even more shelves to the right, but I didn't get them in the picture. It's great to be able to spread out, but we might be spoiling ourselves if we end up with a smaller place next time.

That's it for the inside. We are very happy with our new home, and especially glad to be moved in and unpacked.

These pictures are our apartment neighborhood. See what I mean about nice scenery? I love the shade, especially! The manager told us this area usually stays 10-15 degrees cooler than the rest of the city because of its elevation/location. Thank you God!!

The mountain views aren't too shabby, either!