All moved in and unpacked

I don't remember what I said in the last post and I am too lazy to pull up another browser to look at it, so sorry if I repeat myself.

We are really enjoying our new flat. It is just a few minutes to work in one direction, and about 8 minutes to the grocery store in the other direction. The grocery store is large, too, so better selection. And I don't have to go uphill to either!!! In fact, I do what I can to avoid every going up the Mound again! :) There is a library just around the corner, and fantastic chippy and cafe down the street. We are close to quite a few good charity shops, the Botanics, the River Leith Walk, and a big park. Our road is a dead end, so very quiet, except for the neighbor who likes to blast his music, such as now.

About the flat itself. It is very sunny. We have a window and french doors that open to the outdoors in the living room and a big window in the kitchen, all of these facing south, and two big windows in our bedroom and a big windown in the spare bedroom, these facing north. So we are covered in winter when the sun is largely in the south, and summer when the sun is largely in the north. YEAH! We have more closets than we have ever had which we have already filled up because, unfortunately, we do not have under-the-bed storage, which I have always capitalized on. Our bedroom is good-sized, with a nice large desk. Josh is glad that I no longer have excuse to us the kitchen table as a desk. We have a tub again!! I have used it twice already, but I have to plan because I have to turn on the immersion heater about an hour before hand if I want hot water. The kitchen is teeny-tiny, which you who know me will know that is a difficult thing for me to cope with. But I am coping. We have moved some things around and made some IKEA purchases to deal with the small space. We have made a closet in the 'dining' area into a pantry with shelves we picked up at IKEA. Yeah! I have a pantry! We also bought a large chopping block to put over the hob (stove) when I am not cooking for extra counter space. Oh, and the cooker is so much better than our last one! Rather than needing to cook things twice and long and still having the risk of being undercooked, but now run the risk of burning things. It is still electric, but it has a fan in it to circulate the air. And the hob is gas. I am so happy to finally have a gas hob! All such trivial things, but nice to have. There is also a washing machine in the kitchen. This is where it is commonly put in the UK. I am happy to have it there. I thought it was hard having to go down one flight of stairs in Chicago to do the laundry, but in our last flat I had to take an elevator and 4 flights of stairs. Now I will be complaining about having to drag the laundry from our bedroom to the kitchen. :) No drier, though, so we have to hang our laundry in the spare room. If I do it early enough I can hang it in the sun in the front room (if the sun is out). It gets quite warm in there. Let's see, what else. Oh yes, there is a cat in our building, so on occassion I can pet him as I leave/enter.

Well, I wont bore you any longer. But I do want to say thank you to Sam and Peter for helping us move. They came after work one day and helped us with a couple of runs, then Sam used a holiday the next day to help us move the rest of our things. Thank you so much for the help! You can call on us when you move. Maybe you'll move near a great cafe, too! :)