We’re All Moved In and Dear God Do We Need Furniture!

Saturday night was the first night we spent in our new house, and it was so strange being that it was so quiet. Our house is so huge and right now, quite devoid of furniture so everything echoes. The main entrance way, kitchen/dining room, and all of the halls are white tile; the lounge room and all the bedrooms are carpeted however that does little to block the echoes from the adjoining rooms. It is a gorgeous house though, and the layout is an open concept, and very family oriented.

We had friends helping us move on Saturday, and we had to rent out a 3 tonne truck in order to bring everything up. We stopped by a couple of stores to pick up the new furniture we'd bought (a fridge, a washing machine and a bed for D and I) before bringing it to the house and unloading it. In my ongoing efforts to remain as frugal as possible for now, I had decided against buying an ensemble bed (box spring and mattress) because we had 2 single bed frames that I thought would suit a double bed quite well. I was quite wrong.

It turns out that 2 single bed frames are far too big to comfortably house a double mattress. It seems I should have bought a queen mattress, or even a king mattress! Anyway, so after placing the double upon the single frames, and realized that it was far too small, D suggested it wouldn't be so bad if we shifted the mattress over to one side (nevermind that the other side was half the single frame uncovered) and we could sleep that way. It wasn't so bad for me to lay down, being that he was giving me the side of the mattress that was comfortably resting against the full single spring frame, but D's side of the mattress was laying right ontop of where the 2 single frames joined! Obviously that was an uncomfortable arrangement so I, in my infinite wisdom, suggested scrapping the frames and laying the mattress on the floor. I paid no attention to both D and Garth who kept saying things like, "You're pregnant, you can't get up off the mattress properly." and "How are you going to get up in the middle of the night?" (To which my answering was, "I'll crawl to the bathroom.") Luckily I don't have too much of a problem getting in and out of the bed on the floor, but we did decide yesterday that we were going to buy the base of the bed (the box spring) sometime this week and have it delivered.

D took one of the single frames back into the garage and the other one was made into a makeshift couch until the time comes when we can afford a second-hand one, or one is given to us. I spent most of the afternoon on this makeshift couch because after spending 4 hours wandering around the nearest Mall buying up necessities, my feet were quite swollen, and I was ordered to rest for the day. This order by both boys, and Mum (who I called because I was freaking out a little bit).

So now, after the long shopping spree yesterday, we are significantly more broke than when we first started, but neither the pantry nor the fridge look as sad or as empty. We may not have furniture, but we sure as hell have food!

It's so weird being in a giant house with nobody to talk to. We don't have internet yet which would help ALOT in passing the time, and we also don't have a phone line; not that it would matter too much since I have D's cellphone with me and will have it until we get another phone, or until we get the phone line installed. I have no idea when that will be - I have to call the phone company today and make an appointment. Thankfully we have electricity.

I woke up this morning with cramps in the lower left side of my stomache - so bad they were in the beginning that I could barely walk without grimacing in pain. I'm not sure what those were about, but I think it might have been because I may have pulled a muscle sometime yesterday while trying to close the double glass doors in the dining room, that lead out onto the back patio. They weren't put in properly so they're very hard to try and close and lock. That's just one of the problems we have to list for the landlord to get fixed.

It seems there's alot that needs to get fixed and noted, so I'm hoping this house doesn't prove to be a bother. I got the feeling our landlord was quite tired of us constantly calling her BEFORE we even got the house (sometimes she was "out of the office" or "on the phone" or "with clients") when we'd ring, so if she thought we were pains in the ass then, wait until she sees how much of a pain in the ass we'll be about getting all this stuff fixed.

There are some design flaws which can't be fixed unfortunately. The bathroom doors swing wide open and smash right into the towel racks which are on the same wall as the bathroom door, directly BEHIND it. The shower door in the ensuite swings open and wide enough to smash into the vanity cabinet which was placed RIGHT NEXT to it. These are just some of the stupid things done that can't be UNdone. And there's a long list of things we're not allowed to do - for example, we're not allowed to alter the gardens in any way without getting the owners permission. We're also not allowed to hang anything on the walls without permission. I ask you, how is one supposed to make this place feel like a home when one isn't allowed to do anything "homey" like? The pessimist side of me is so happy we're only leasing for 6 months.