It's about time for that moving update!! So much has happened since we moved in!
We got the keys to our new home in the afternoon on Thursday, May 3rd. We moved all the boxes in that evening and got the basics set up so that we could sleep that night. It's been busy since then! We've got most of the main level of the house unpacked, organized and clean. We had to buy a new washer and dryer, which was a first for both of us! Yay laundry! We painted our bedroom and have moved our mattress back onto the floor in there, but the rest of it is pretty sparse. We are looking to buy a new bed and bedside stands as well as buy and install a closet system since our closet is bare. So all of our clothes are scattered between the guest bedroom and the office. We bought a garage door opener and Bryan is in the process of installing it. There were so many things we needed to get, we've been to Home Depot about 25 times in the last 10 days!! New home-owning projects are fun, but they always seem to take more time and money than you expect.
Living in the suburbs of Cleveland is a bit different than living in downtown Chicago. We live on a nice neighborhood street with lots of trees and nice people. I hear birds chirping all day long, and the church a few blocks away rings its chimes on the hour and half hour. We chose to live in the area we are in so that we can walk to fun neighborhood attractions like good restaurants, nice coffee shops, wine shops and other locally owned shops. That aspect is really nice. However, we are not used to driving practically everywhere else. Granted, there is never any traffic, so running errands that seem far away usually don't take us too long. Since we're spending a lot more time in the car, we've discovered that Cleveland has not just one, but two classical public radio stations, which we are both a fan of! We are starting to develop our mental maps of the area we live in, and in no time it will start to feel more like home.
We've also discovered that a family of birds are living in our attic, the part of the house that is not livable and contains the insulation. They were not there when we had our inspection, but one of the vents did not have a cover on it, apparently, and a mother bird laid her nest there. I didn't want Bryan to remove the next because then the mother would abandon the little ones. We called animal control, but they charge over $200 to take care of that, and they put the birds down too. But they said after 2 weeks, the baby birds are fully viable and will probably be able to leave the nest around then. So, we'll remove the nest one day when it is empty and put the cover back on the vent. The birds should all survive on their own at that point. What a weird situation to be encountered with!!
Dimitri is adapting very well! There were a few days where he was mad at us and pretty jumpy since the wood floors are a little creaky (hey, the house was built in 1922!). He has come around though and is loving it here. He watches the wildlife all day (and all night!). He's caught multiple flies that happened to get in when we are hauling things into the house and leave the door open for a period of time. He loves watching the birds all around the house. He's also pretty interested in watching the squirrels and bunny rabbits. He loves the stairs (we didn't have any in our Chicago condo)! He makes up games with his toys and chases them up and down the stairs. It's so funny! On our second night here, there was a thunderstorm, and while you would think he'd experienced thunderstorms before, he hadn't had a real experience. In our Chicago condo, we usually couldn't tell what the weather was doing outside at night when it was dark out and we usually couldn't hear the thunder in our large building. He was pretty scared since the lightening and thunder seemed to come from everywhere, he couldn't find a calm and quiet place to hide out. But he managed with us in the kitchen and dining room and I think he'll be okay the next time one rolls around.
We both really do like living here so far. It doesn't quite seem real yet though. We're homeowners? In Cleveland? Weird. I'm sure once Bryan starts residency in July and I start in the fall, life will catch up with us!
