We've got wheels....

Well, thankfully Stephen's flight was on time, and he got through immigration and customs, and despite traffic he got to the car dealership before the stroppy lady went home...so we now have a car of our own!!! There have been comments about there being a lot of photo's of Stephen hugging various new purchases, so I thought I should get in on the action! Here's a photo of me with the car....I was going to drape myself over the bonnet, but frankly it was too high for me to reach!!

The pretty white house is ours... I've put some more pictures of the inside on here as well. The den has been a staging point for the past few weeks - we'd stagger in and deposit bags and bags and bags of purchases in there ready to be taken off to their new homes round the house, so this is the first time it hasn't been full of bags and cardboard boxes!

Here's a fuller description of the layout...The den and kitchen are on the ground floor, then you go up stairs to a landing with the front door, then more stairs to the sitting room and dining room (the bay window in the photo below) on the first floor, then up more stairs to the guest bathroom, two guest bedrooms and Stephen's guitar room, then yet more stairs to the master bedroom and bathroom and giant walk in closet. The window you can see at the top of the house is our bathroom.

Me, in front of the car, in front of the house!

The kitchen

The Den, looking from the stairs

The Den, looking from the back door

Hilary, one of the QQ wives, popped round to say hello yesterday (Friday). (The lovely flowers in the kitchen are from her - I need to buy a bigger vase to support them which is why they're propped against the wall!). We had a good natter and a glass of wine whilst we did the house tour. Hilary is good fun and only lives about 3 blocks away, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of each other. We're going out to "do the tour" on Monday - all the places that she has found which are useful (like the laundry that cleans shirts for 95 cents each!), or a source of cheap items like mirrors etc. I think she was rather abandoned when she moved here last year, so makes a big effort to make sure that the newcomers like me aren't left in the same position. We're going to collaborate on putting together a Welcome Pack for the people who come over - there is no point in every new arrival rediscovering the wheel, so to speak! We all must have valuable information about the area that we can share.

Anyway, it was good to get Stephen home again - especially as he came laden with giant bars of chocolate and trashy gossip magazine!! We've had a lovely day today - typically American! We got up at 7, got ready and walked to the local coffee shop for coffee and muffins, then we drove to the Mall and collected Stephen's suits, then we dropped in at the giant Giant supermarket and did a shop, and we're off out for dinner now - which explains why the kitchen is looking so clean - basically I dust the cooker more than I use it!!