"Kowawa" Day!

Yesterday we drove up to Puyallup (or, "Kowawa", as Zoey pronounces it) to check out our new house. Zoey was ecstatic to be going where Daddy has been going for days on end for so many weeks now, and I was just thrilled to finally get a glimpse of the house we'll be living in when we get there. We bought it over a year ago, but we've had renters in it up until December 31, so until yesterday, I had only seen the outside. What I KNEW about the inside was that it was built in the late 60's or early 70's, and hadn't been updated since. This was a major bone of contention when we were actually buying the place, and Bryan assured me that certain ugly highlights (like miles and miles of wood paneling and the ugliest carpet and drapes you've ever laid eyes on) would be renovated before I moved in.

And the house? Wow. I love it.

Despite the ugliness, and the fact that it is, well, DATED, I just can't get over how much SPACE we'll have when we get there! There are closets EVERYWHERE you look, and storage space galore. The kitchen, while it looks like it has been plucked right from the Brady Bunch, is so cool--a cook top stove with plenty of storage underneath for my pots and pans (good-bye, horribly-cramped-and-small Lazy Susan set-up in our Vancouver house!), and it even has this cool cupboard set up specifically for my beloved KitchenAid mixer--you put your mixer on this shelf that pops up when you open the cupboard, and it even plugs in to the cupboard floor. SO COOL. We will actually have room for all Zoey's toys to be stored downstairs in the rec room, and will be able to pick up the play kitchen I've been wanting to get her for months but have had no room to store it. Zoey will have a bedroom almost twice the size of what she's living in now, and we'll have TWO guest rooms! (Until Baby #2 comes along, but who knows how long that will be??)

But the absolute best part of yesterday had to be the presence of grandparents ready and willing to take Zoey off our hands so we could get some projects accomplished. My dad met us for lunch as soon as we got to Puyallup, and immediately volunteered to take Zoey back to his house while we ran to Home Depot and did some measuring at the house. (I am on the look-out for good deals on curtains, mirrors, and a small kitchen table and chairs.) We were able to zip through Home Depot, picking up flooring and counter-top samples, then spend plenty of time alone at the house, measuring, evaluating, and discussing what needs to be done before the Big Move-In day arrives. All of this without the aid of a two year old running around underfoot! It was great.

The thought of leaving my friends down here in Vancouver still makes me so sad. BUT, now that I have seen our new place and experienced the Aid of Grandparents, I am MUCH more excited to make the move home in March.