Obviously, when you move to a new place, no matter where it is, or what the differences are regarding the type of housing, you're going to find that there are both good and bad differences, and even some that don't really fall into either of those two categories, but they are in fact differences. There will be challenges, good or bad. There is simply no way a person can move from one place to another without realizing that things will no longer be one way and that things are definitely another way, now that the move has taken place. We're in the middle of all that now.
I'll start off slow and give you all the things that come to mind right off the top of my head; they may or may not mean much to you. This is my blog, and I'm writing it for my family and friends. If you're reading it and we're not related, you probably should go ahead and count yourself among my online friends. If I don't remember your birthday, I apologize.
To start, the biggest difference is that I now live in a city of about 17,500 people, as opposed to 500,000. My old zip code had twice as many people as we do now. You see it, and you feel it. You notice immediately that there aren't as many people driving around, roaming, or just in parking lots, stores, or on the streets. This means I can (and do) drive around without the noise, the loud booming music, the crazy drivers, etc. I love that.
I pull into my drive and drive about a 1/4 of a city block before reaching my house. I literally lived on the street in the last house. There was the street, which was busy all the time, and then there was a curb, a three-foot sidewalk, and another four or five feet before you reached the edge of my porch. That is not the case now. My mailbox is about a football field length from my house. The one in the city was on the house. I pull into a garage now, not a carport, and no one is inside my garage when I do. There have been times when the homeless and just passersby would be standing in my carport, which is upsetting at best.
The dogs aren't barking as much because they're still cooped up inside the house at this point, but when they do go outside (when the fence is up), they'll be able to bark to their hearts' desire. They can bark and bark, and then, if they want to, they can keep on barking. We were tattled on at the old place and received a warning from the city. We bought shock collars, and we monitored how long the dogs could stay outside. If they barked through the high-pitched sirens on the collars, we brought them in immediately. We can't afford $170 fines! That will not happen where we live now.
We have carpet in the bedrooms. I'm OK with it, but I will have to watch the dogs as they tend to think it's a softer place to squat when they haven't been walked enough. We need to get that fence up as quickly as possible. It's going up this week. We love the color of the new carpet; it's between silver and grey. The hardwood flooring is nice throughout the rest of the house, and with the living space being so much bigger than it was in the last house, we see a lot of it. The living room is literally twice as large as it was before.
Laura is using the dining space as her office. She really couldn't do that in the other house. It wasn't set up correctly and had both an opening to the living area and a side or front door, depending on which side of the house you considered the front or side. She's able to set up her little space the way she wants, and in time we'll wall it off to give her even more privacy. This is such a good thing. She's already opening up and enjoying herself like she hasn't in several years. I like seeing her this happy.
We have a real working fireplace. It's gas, which isn't my favorite, but as soon as it is serviced this week, we can use it. We haven't had one. We had a fireplace in the apartment for 9 years, but were unable to use it because the complex never had it serviced. This is a great addition to our happier mental selves, as we plan to use it often. You know Laura will make me watch a few YouTube videos first, but we'll get it done. What in the world did we do before YouTube? I guess we just figured things out on our own. God forbid! 😆
Our kitchen is larger here. It has a Maytag dishwasher that works. It has a little more storage space, but the big news is that my dad made the cabinets many years ago, and just knowing that makes this place all the more dear to my soul and helps me to cope with just about anything that is out there to bother me. He made mostly great decisions, so I lean into those memories when I'm in the kitchen, the bathroom, and even the hallway because there are vanities and a gun cabinet that he made as well. The other house was nice, but nothing can compare to what your dad makes.
Last thing for now, we have horses. We haven't had them at our own place since October 2012. We owned a 25-acre place with a really bad house for about three months until we couldn't close because it was just so bad. It didn't and would never have passed inspection. We kept the horses, but had to board. We have always boarded, and it's always been damned expensive. It's still expensive; don't get me wrong. We're paying more for this place than we have ever paid before, but when you consider that I'm paying a normal price for the house and what I would have to pay for board, we're good.
We have 14 acres, of which we can use 9.2. We can have 6 or 7 horses if we want, but we'll just have our two and Laura will quarantine four more for the county, and earn a little money to help offset the costs. We could never have done that before. We can walk out the back door and see our horses soon. They arrive on Wednesday. She's always loved horses, as I have, but she has a deeper and more spiritual connection with them. Having them outside will not only help her mentally but also boost her spirit and give her many more reasons to work out physically. This is her time to shine. We have only God to thank, and we do.
There you have it. There are tons more things to discuss and so many observations to go over. We have a few nut and fruit trees in the yard. We'll have to find someone to cut the hay-grass in the spring, but we're just so blessed and happy to be where we are. We're genuinely hoping to be here until Jesus returns. If that happened today, we would not complain. If He waits, we will not complain...too much.
Photo Credit: Me. (Jace, my Paint mare)
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