Our new home.

I made reference to us buying a house. It was a whirlwind, and one of the many reasons that I haven't posted lately. It was all precipitated by the fact that the house we are currently renting was put on the market by it's owner, because they are behind on the rent. There is NO WAY we were going to deal with the possibility of them going into foreclosure and us being evicted. And seriously, we didn't want to have to find a rental house now and move and then do it all again within a year, since that was the rough timeline for us to buy a house anyway...

so, long rambling saga cut short, we went for it, and closed on Thursday.

Here are some pics of our new home, which I am madly in love with:

The front room.



A shot through the dining area to the living room.



The living room. (Russell was hanging out in his pack and play while we were doing things around the house today).



The FANTASTIC kitchen.



The even more FANTASTIC pool! I kid you not when I say that one of the few luxuries I have ever wanted was a pool, and now I own one. And it is a gorgeous one. I am delighted.



I'm not the only one, Russell LOVES the water, and when he first saw this pool he thought he had just about won the lottery. All he wanted was for me to let go of him so he could go in the BIGGEST BATHTUB EVER. Alas, it was in really bad shape a few weeks ago (when the previous owners left, it was neglected for a few months) so we can't swim in it yet until a few more water treatments get the rest of the ick out. I SO look forward to it. (Especially since it averages 110 here right now.)

These are my fruit trees! I have wanted fruit trees so long that I asked for them for my 16th birthday. (To his credit, Jimmy bought me 2 apricot trees that year, but one didn't survive the New England winter, and the survivor couldn't bear fruit without a second to cross-pollinate.) The one on the left is a super-productive lemon tree, and the one on the right is an orange tree. I am thrilled.



Back inside, this is the loft, it is right outside the master bedroom double doors.



Yes, we are a little concerned about small babies throwing things off of it...like small babies. Here's the view down from the loft into the front room.



Cool no? We're not sure what we are going to do with that space yet, but it's a neat one.

Finally, the master bedroom.



The other two bedrooms don't photograph all that well, so I didn't bother to put the pics here, but one is for Russ and one is a guest room. Here's a good picture of Russell playing in his room.



He was crawling through the door and then shutting it most of the way and then crawling back out. ... well, until mommy realized that there were unprotected outlets on the other side of the door, and she couldn't see him, and she swung the door open fast and whacked him HARD in the head with it.

Yeah, great parenting. The only thing this kid really needs protection from is his mommy...I felt guilty until, well, seriously, I still feel guilty about it.

I also didn't get any good pics of the bathrooms, one master bath with a soaking tub and a stand alone shower and another full bath upstairs for Russell and guests, plus a half bath downstairs. There's a laundry room, and a two and a half car garage with a utility sink. And I am sure I am missing other details, but I can't remember them all.

If you made it this far I am sure you can tell that I am totally in love with the place and can't wait to move-in. Of course, now we have to pack... UGH.

Then again...

Please disregard that last post, turns out, I was being a little overambitious.

As of this morning, my dissertation defense has been rescheduled for the fall. This decision was all mine, though whole-heartedly supported by my advisor. Unfortunately, as I came down to the wire, I realized that there is no conceivable way I can both write this and do it justice in time for a July 17th defense. There is too much data and there are too many details to push it.

(As an aside, all of this is particularly true given the other events that are mucking up my life. I have been so busy working I have hardly had time to mention here that we are in the process of buying a house! But that is another post for another time.)

So, a graduate student I remain for a few months longer. We will reschedule the defense as soon as I have hit a number of benchmarks. Molly expects a October defense. I would love it to be sooner, but I am OUT of the prediction business, and it will be done when it is good. (Note that said "good" and not "perfect"...I want to graduate EVENTUALLY). In the meantime I will continue my intense schedule of work.

In the meantime, I will try and post SOMETHING once a week. You shouldn't all be deprived of cute baby (dare I say TODDLER!) pics just because I am still working on this dissertation!