Livin the McLife: Settling in, the new house

On Wednesday, we took the opportunity to drive by our new house to scope it out from the outside. We were so happy to see a nice sized yard (fenced in) and looking in to the house through the windows, everything looked so sunny and bright!

The house was pretty cute from the outside also. We are on a corner lot, so that means we get a larger yard than most of the other houses.

View from the middle of the back yard.

I guess I forgot to take any pictures of the downstairs rooms, so I'll have to remedy that when we are there tomorrow to clean. But in the meantime, here are some shots of the upstairs rooms. It will be a bit of a challenge fitting our stuff into the rooms, but we will figure something out. I'm not used to sloped ceilings and wardrobe type closets taking up valuable wall space so we might have to do some improvisation.

This will be Ben's room. As you can see, to the right is a large wardrobe. I think we will move that along the wall further to the right and put his crib where it is now.

The view looking the other way in his room. This wall length desk eats up this entire wall! I'm not sure if there is a way to remove it without damaging the wall, but that is what I would actually like to do if possible.

When you go up the stairs, Ben's room is directly straight ahead. To the right is the bathroom (another reason we want his crib along the other wall, so it doesn't share a wall with the bathroom for noise reasons).

The bathroom is actually a really decent size! It even has a bathtub, which is not common in Denmark, apparently. The boys have already tested it out and it meets their approval.

There is also a large shower.

Ben was very excited by the bathtub and couldn't wait to try it out!

The first door to the left when you go up the stairs is the boys' room. I'm fairly confident that we will be able to fit both their beds in here (unbunked) but not so sure about their dressers yet. They are very excited about the built in desk in this room.

The two beds should fit along this wall.

I didn't get a good shot of it, but the built in desk is to my left just next to the large wardrobe. Along the wall Max is standing on is a shelf that is attached to the wall -- I think if I can remove that somehow their dressers should fit there no problem.

The last door upstairs is for the master bedroom. It should fit our queen sized bed fine. It has two large wardrobes and some wall shelves. We didn't bring our dressers, so if one of the boys' doesn't work in their room we could always steal it for the meantime...but we had planned to maybe buy a nice bedroom set while we were here.

Bed should go along this wall. All the skylights can be opened, they swing inwards -- and all of them have built in shades that are super room darkening! SO excited about that since it stays light until 10pm in summer!

View of the wardrobes and space where we could fit a dresser. This other window is SO HUGE and lets in such gorgeous light too!

View looking back towards the door with the wall shelves.

Everyone is getting restless staying at the hotel, so we've tried to spend a bit of time over at the house. We did our first grocery store trip -- to Aldi (they had Trader Joe's stuff there) -- and bought this 'rug' to use as our picnic blanket. There are a few pans here to use with the oven, and a microwave, so we are limited to the foods that we can cook for now. But, I've started to get creative with my meal planning -- because we are all sick of eating out.

Picnic dinner time!

Thursday we decided to take a trip to Ikea so that we could get a few staples. Of course, poor planning got us there right around Ben's naptime, so he was a beast -- worse than normal. And lately, he's been insisted that I hold him (UPPIE!!) and ONLY me. So my left arm (because of course he doesn't like the other side) is going to be hulk-sized pretty soon and I am going to look weird. I'd put him down and make him walk, but then he just starts screaming really loud and I start getting weird looks because -- why would you not pick up your baby, he's not even two! So, whatever. I pick him up.

Anyways, Ikea. We got a few things there, but most importantly, we purchased a few items that will contribute to our outdoor furniture when we get home -- from an Ikea set I've been coveting for over a year -- it is wood (so there is maintenance, but it should last a lot longer with good care) and gorgeous. Because we both are hesitant spenders for larger items (and we could only fit so much in the trunk with three kids), we opted for only two chairs and one side table this trip -- enough for us to have a make shift dinner table.

And yes, this is what happens when you spend naptime at Ikea -- you pass out in the car on the ride home and your big brother sticks a basket on your head.

Meanwhile, back at the home front we are starting to pile up some stinky laundry! Max and I have both enjoyed ocean view runs while we are staying at the hotel. So, now that we have keys to the house (and a functioning washer and dryer) I figured it was time to tackle the washing machine. I have no idea what cycle I picked -- hope it was the right one! The clothes seem clean....