our new home, part one

I don't have photos of all the rooms and if I wait until I do, this may never get posted. Until I get the rest of the photos, here's a peek at where we're living. This place is a bit farther from city center than we were before, but we have about 400 more square feet, a much nicer home, heat that we control ourselves, a nicer complex, and our rent is just about the same price. We are SO SO SO very thankful for His provision!

Our kitchen. 

To make you more aware of how grateful we are, see our previous kitchen below. 

We did eventually move the fridge to the balcony which created more space, but you can clearly see that our new place is a step up.

The view from our kitchen window. It's not the grand view of the city we had from the 18th floor, but it is getting greener by the day. And, I can still see the mountains in that small crack between the two buildings. However new construction is going back up there and I estimate in a couple months the high rise will block the tiny view I have of them :(

This room is off our living room and was probably intended to be an office. For us, it's made a perfect playroom for the girls and we hope will transition well to a homeschool room when the time comes. 

The girls' bedroom. view one: Catherine's bed
And in full disclosure when I made the beds to take this picture, it might have been the first time I made the beds since we've lived here. 

The girls' bedroom. view two: Ann's bed

The girls' bedroom. view three: the changing table I wish Ann would decide she was tired of using and would use the potty instead. 

This is the living room the day we moved in. It's been rearranged and other furniture added since then. 

Here's the view out of our living room/balcony window. I also captured the folks doing their morning exercises in this picture. 

Just outside our door. An empty creek. :)

This may not look like much to you Americans, but this is an actual closet. In all the houses we have been in in China, we have seen exactly two that have one. Mostly homes here have armoires in each bedroom but never an actual closet. We have a walk in closet with built in shelves and everything. The door on the right enters into the master bath. 

This is the master bedroom the day we moved in. It also looks different now. 

This is the main bathroom. 

and the shower

the dining room

Well, there's still another bedroom and the rooms that look different now than the photos but you can at least see something of our life until I get around to doing more.