I have a new house!!!

All but, anyway, lease and $ ready to go in the mail Monday...

OK first thing is to clarify - I always say "house" even when I live in an apt. and in fact this time it's a duplex, not a bonafide entire house all to me and the kits. So there. Also (one of only about 2.3 drawbacks to the abode) the address makes it sound like it's an apt in some huge complex kinda like this "357 Streetname Rd. #230" which is really weird considering that there are only two units in the building, but whatever. Otherwise it is wonderful wonderful wonderful. Slightly farther out of town (about 3 mi from campus) than I wanted but only about 5 min. walk to the bus stop so no big and so worth it for the quiet peacefulness that fills the whole neighborhood. P.O. 1/4 mile down the road, yummy deli and Mexican restaurant in the wee burg of Centr*l (which is where my address will be), and Ingle's grocery 1/2 mi. the other way (so no needing to trek into town if you need last minute groceries on a Game Day!)

I'm attaching pix here I copied off the original ad; Andy took a few Thursday (he was my househunting assistant and copilot par excellence all day) which show the GLORIOUS DOGWOOD TREES in bloom; as soon as he sends them I'll give you another view.

Anyway here:
My unit is the right end. The door you see is the neighbor's, my door is perpendicular to hers, out of view, opening off the same porch. Big window in the sun is the LR and windows farther right are the big front BR (which I'm going to use as office/project room b/c it's slightly brighter than the other, plus I feel weird sleeping on the street side plus the back BR windows are too high for anyone to see in). You can just barely see the tip of my driveway to the right, too. I had been afraid it was on-street parking; most of the Clems*n ads had street parking.

As you enter the front door, LR to right, kitchen to left of course; skinny closet is coat closet (first one I've had in ages), larger closet is laundry hook-ups area (this is one of the 2.3 drawbacks - laundry machines right next to the LR - thank goodness W/D's are quieter than they used to be - I don't really care; having my own machines* in my own pad rocks no matter how loud they are, seriously).

Moving farther in and looking back towards the front door - with the blinds up this room is much brighter of course. Note cat-friendly low window sashes for easy critter view outside! I'll be taking all the blinds down and doing curtains, FYI.

Do a 180 and this is the DR area (coat closet from before on right edge of photo) and more cat-friendly outside viewing onto my smallish but still really yay back deck. I forgot to ask Andy to take pix out from the deck but behind the house is basically just a wooded sloping hill; no houses at all. Another duplex to the right can see my deck (and I theirs) but no big. Still really quiet, etc. Hopefully any further development in this area will take long enough that I'll be moving out to buy something by then, a few years down the road.

Galley kitchen, but 400 times bigger than mine in Aub*rn; nearly-new appliances, and floor-to-ceiling pantry cupboard to the right that you can't see.

No pix of the BRs, bath or hall but they're pretty standard. The front BR is pretty big and is nice & bright as I said, the back is only slightly less so on both counts. Big closets in each. Bathroom is nice, no crazy can't-see-the-bottom crevasses to contend with (ahem!), huge mirror, newish tub, etc. (This is perhaps another slight drawback; the configuration of the tub might not allow for my super fun tall corner tub organizer thingy but I'm crossing my fingers.) Also the bathroom has no good spot tucked away for the litterbox so I'm afraid it will be living in the office behind a filing cabinet or something... We'll see. On the other hand I have a hall linen cupboard for the first time in years. Oh là là là là!!!!!!!

The coolest thing is how much light there is. We opened up all the blinds, etc., and the house is SO bright! I love it.

Moving day is set for 5/9. I'll send out a complete new coordinates email to everyone once the lease is final. So give me a week or so and if you don't hear anything, please write my gmail and let me know. I apologize in advance for omitting anyone on that sending :)

*Um, yeah - the other part of the day was meeting with K to get my teaching materials, etc., and to find out that due to some recent staffing issues they now can almost assure me 2 sections this summer, possibly three. I'll probably lose my mind but I don't care. Each section is a nice chunk of money (assuming it's full; if it's not full then I get paid per student - something I'm not quite understanding but I guess they run certain classes no matter what - I'm sure there must be some bottom cutoff tho) so I'm taking the W/D plunge finally - cheaper machines but whatever, also probably finally buying a new pullout couch from IKEA I think. My poor old loveseat is too scary to take and is literally too small to be anything but comical in the new LR.