In with the new, out with the old (Sep. 1, 2008)

I'm finally getting around to documenting our life for the past 2 months! The biggest reason we've been so slow (on top of getting ready for the baby and having tons to do at work) is our move from one part of Arlington to another. It was only a 5-mile change of scenery, but it's taken us a while to get everything up and running. We still don't have everything on our walls (we're not used to having so many walls to do something with!!), and not everything's even unpacked yet, but it's definitely feeling more like home, and we're loving the change. (Thanks again to everyone who helped us with the move...it was amazing that we could do it all in one trip and one hour since there were so many people helping, we owe you guys big! Let us know if you need anything!!)

Here are some highlights of the new place:

• probably about 3-4 times the square footage we had at our last place (the last one was probably only 350 sq ft or so...you can only imagine), which means we finally have space for visitors!
  
• 2 bedrooms instead of 1 (room for Baby Smith on the way!!)
• we can stand up completely in our new shower--no bending, limbo-ing, or other such creative skills needed to get our heads wet under the shower head, and no hitting our heads on the ceiling
• a dishwasher that runs all by itself and isn't called Jon or Melissa
• washer and dryer in-house, greatest thing ever
• a living room! With a couch and everything! It's nice to have somewhere to sit if that's all we want to do for a change. Jon said "I might even just watch some TV every now and then now." Not that he has, but if he wanted to now, he now has a nice place to do so.
• this place was almost fully furnished by the generosity of others after we arrived here. Thank you SO MUCH to all of you who gave away things you no longer needed at the perfect time for us to fill our empty rooms. We'd have nothing in here if it weren't for all of you!
  
• new carpet in the living room and the baby room (laid by Jon, my dad, and myself, but new nonetheless, see later post for details on our carpet laying skills)
• great neighborhood with tons of parks, super close bike trails, not to mention the hospital, dr., and future pediatrician just a couple blocks away for all our new baby needs :)
• our church is only 6 blocks away
• it cut Jon's commute almost in half
• our neighbors are totally friendly
• there's a high school nearby for all our football-game-going dreams to come true at

Saying goodbye to our first apartment:






















And here's the new one! (we're in the basement)

















And here's for the photo update of the new place I promised ages ago. Some are before and after shots (mostly to show the difference the carpeting made in the living room, we LOVE it) and the rest are just to show the general layout of everything (except the 2 bedrooms).