Even More News......

......we aren't going to be homeless after all!  In a miraculous turn of events the three to six month wait to get into base housing has turned out to be a mere one and a half months instead and our new home will be ready in time to move our stuff straight there (as opposed to the movers putting everything into storage which is where things have a habit of disappearing....).  Did I mention we were moving to Jacksonville, FL?  We are.  It's official :)

Apparently most of the people on the housing waitlist want the brand new, big, beautiful, two car garage townhouses (go ahead check out the videos) as opposed to the small 1940's bungalows which I have been unable to find a single picture of anywhere and everyone in front of us passed on our new house.  I don't know if that bodes well for us but I'm not so picky as all that.....I mostly just wanted a house.  On base.  That I could move into now.   So I wouldn't be homeless and doctor-less.  So this one seems to fit the bill.......  

Our new dreamhome apparently sits right next door to a playground on a little culdesac with a handful of other single family homes and lots of trees, so that sounds nice.  And I can apparently cut through the backyard and....ta da!....pop out right in front of the naval hospital.  You can't get much more convenient than that!  

I wonder if they let you stroll your new baby home as opposed to performing the mandatory car seat installation check when you live right around the corner?

Here's the floorplan....it's the only thing I have to go on aside from an aerial google maps shot---apparently you can't do street views on military bases :)

It's actually larger than our current house--if you can believe it--but it doesn't have a fenced in yard which is a bummer.  The main downside of the house is that it appears to be seriously lacking in the storage department.  I've been spoiled in our current house (old as it may be) with all of the built in storage/cabinets/basement/giant walk in closets that run the length of the second floor.  I think I'm definitely going to need to purchase some extra cabinets to create some kind of makeshift pantry/place to store extra kitchen and utility room type things.  Maybe like these....and then assemble them myself--which might be an interesting adventure......I'm pretty sure if I don't invest in extra storage right away I won't be able to actually unpack our stuff as there won't be anywhere to put it!  

I also have no idea what I'm going to do with the "specialty room" up in the top right corner.  It looks pretty small.  I could maybe put David's old twin bed with the trundle in there for extra sleeping space but that may be pretty much everything that fits in there.....Chris doesn't want to use it as a playroom but that's definitely where I'm leaning....Well if you aren't there to help move and unpack you don't get the final say right?  

I also really want to get a new bookcase so that our book collection isn't just stashed in corners/on top of tables/stuffed in said built in cabinets all over the house.  I think it's time to let our IKEA expedit go--I really don't think you are supposed to disassemble and move it three times....or ever.  I've had my eye on something along the lines of this but we'll see.  Moving is so expensive.....even when the military pays for it....things just come up that the new place requires that the old one didn't.  In addition to giant cabinets for the laundry room we also need a washer and dryer, either a queen size mattress or twin box-frames (depending on which of our various bed frames we decide to actually use this time in our new guest room/nursery), and the obligatory curtain rods, shower rods, closet organizers, rugs, etc that you inevitably realize you need because the sizes you had before won't work in the new house.  Oh, and patio furniture, but I guess that's more of a want than a need......

Oh well, I've seen at least three decent washer/dryer options on craigslist and we're going to check out the local scratch and dent to see what they've got.  I've never bought a washer or a dryer before--they've always just found their way to us of their own accord so I don't really know anything about them, but I do want to buy them now so the movers can move and connect them and I won't have to deal with accomplishing that myself.....not that I'm not capable, I just don't want to :)  

Well, I'd better get back to hypothetically decorating the new house.....you know, the one that I really have no idea what it actually looks like.......I do love a good surprise......