Trying at being 'Grown Ups'..

Moving into our new place has straight up been an amazing experience so far. I have no other way to put it. We absolutely love having our own place and the place that we have happens to be perfect. We are renting but have a lovely little relationship with our Land Lady and so it really does feel like we've moved into our own first home. We'll be studying in this area for at least two years so know it's at least a permanent move for the immediate future.
We're in the middle of the countryside behind some Utah'n mountains and the town we are living in is super small. It actually reminds me of my home town in England. It has a row of small vintage looking independent shops, a town library, a city hall and everywhere looks like it would make the perfect setting for the kind of novels my mum reads. (My mum almost only strictly reads sweet stories set in quaint towns any time before 1950) Basically I love it here. The house we're living in is perfect, super traditional, very spacious and about fifty years old making it super vintage. It's super quirky and in my brother-in-laws words; any hipster would die to live in a place like this.

So we moved in two weekends ago and have since been finding ourselves making up our own little projects. Juan has been sorting out the tv/switch/projector set-up with cables and wires and various wireless devices that I admittedly don't know that much about. I took it upon myself to sort through our closet room. Before this we decided to put up rails and make wood shelves, which Juan Carlos and I stained darker to match the doors of the place (fancyyyyyyy aye?!). Juan Carlos has surprised the crud out of me with how handy he is at fixing things and putting things up. We decided to make a massive tv stand, to fit our garage sale bargain, $50, Monstrously big old-school tv and paint it white and then to match also decided to get a couple of crates, paint them white, turn them upside down and walllahh... bedside tables.

We have made a lot of late night trips to Wal-Mart, which thankfully is about a 45 second drive away-- to grab various screws, that specific kind of screwdriver, something for the bathroom, something for the kitchen, something for that blank area in the living room... It's amazing how much you actually need for a home!! You really don't think about it when you've never lived completely independently before. We have also been very blessed with people giving us things they've been getting rid of. A friend from church was so generous, we practically got our whole kitchen kitted out from her parents old one. And it fits the vintage green painted cabinets like a beaut'. And on Sunday we met a lovely elderly couple that were getting rid of this SUPER comfortable purple sofa which they have kindly given to us for free.

We still have a lot to do and find and work on but it's just fun to have these little projects.. at this very moment Juan Carlos is putting up a towel rack and toilet roll holder in our upstairs bathroom.
We feel like such adults?!!?! When did this happen?!

It's like we've been playing at being grown ups for the last week and a half and I know things aren't always this dandy when you're living independently and doing some of the more sucky things you have to do as an independent adult, but so far we love it. I also keep forgetting that I don't have to somehow fit everything into one tiny bedroom anymore. The realization fully hit me late one night last week when I was unpacking boxes of just STUFF and whilst wondering where to put some of the things, I looked over at the sideboard/chest of drawers my mother-in-law so awesomely bought for us and realized I can use that to store things in; I can actually keep things like books, writing pads and pencils in the lounge if I want too! It feel so odd. And with a kitchen and two bathrooms I'm spoilt for choice on where to keep the cleaning products... I'm overwhelmed with choice and loving it. I know to anyone slightly normal this doesn't sound particularly exciting or even sounds like bragging and I'm also aware it sounds terribly, terribly home-wifey doesn't it?! And I can tell you I NEVER EVER pictured myself as the sort to get excited about something so domestic but to someone that went from living in a room at their parents house for 23 years to then straight away get married and live in one room with another person and that person's stuff for another year and a half at their in-laws, this is incredibly, incredibly exciting and I'm super okay admitting it. And there's not one moment I'm not entirely grateful that we found this place and are in a position to be able to live here.
Current Mood: Grateful; Playing at being grown ups and loving it. 😋