New Home Tour

We we did it - we officially moved to our new home. Since we were moving to a house only a few minutes away, we borrowed a trailer and asked a friend to help us for the morning. The guys just kept loading up the trailer with the big items while I loaded small boxes into the car. Other than one dramatic moment when a rat ran out from our garage area and Jeyson killed it with a broom (AHH!) and countless trips up and down our stairs to bring items down to the car, the move was pretty uneventful - just long, tiring, and HOT since it's the middle of summer here!

And now for some pictures our new house before most of our items arrived.

I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the house, but here is a picture of what you can see when you first walk in the door to the living room. There is a living room, kitchen, office, bedroom, bathroom, and a room that we will use as a little storage/Jeyson's workshop room.



The rooms are very simple looking, just tile floors, cement walls, and windows.


The kitchen is very big for a typical Brazilian kitchen, which is a plus. As you can see the kitchen literally comes with nothing but the sink. Fortunately we already own some counters and cabinets, so we brought them along. An interesting note is there is only 1 outlet in the whole kitchen, near the door where the picture was taken. Jeyson has had to do a lot of eletrical wiring for us to be able to plug in the microwave, fridge, and still have outlets for small appliances like the coffee maker and mixer. I am SO thankful at moments like these to be married to a handy man, otherwise I'd be totally lost!



The bathroom also comes bare. The way it works here is you bring your own shower curtain, shower curtain rod, mirror, shower head, and even toilet paper holder rod! Once again I am thankful for my handy husband!



Culture shock is part of everyday life, but we've really felt it during the last few days as we've noticed interesting things about our new home. Here are a few of the positive and negative things we've noticed about our new home that are different from the States.

To begin with - 2 negatives
1. The paint job done here was...less than careful. This is just a small example of the interestingly painted trim around the house (note the bottom ledge). Although we don't want to invest too much in a home we're renting, we are thinking of buying a can of paint and at least repainting the trim.



2. The kitchen sink - While we are thankful that at least the sink was provided in the kitchen, it is QUITE different than what I'm used to in the States! We've installed our water filter/faucet though so it's already looking a little bit nicer and I hope to put some curtains under the sink. From up close it is clear that the sink is very old so we talked to the owner who seemed open about changing the sink in a few months, so hopefully!



Overall the house needed a thorough cleaning before we moved in, so we hired a woman that weekly cleans our friend's house. She cleaned our WHOLE new house in detail for about $15, which is actually a bit above the going rate since she worked so hard! Already the house was looking nicer and now that our furniture and pictures are here, it is beginning to feel like home.



And now for the positives about our new home:

Some nice features of the house include this big outdoor laundry room, which is perfect since I hang our clothes out to dry. Being outside in the first place just makes it easier.



We also love the little backyard area where we will be able to have bbqs and plant a garden. Although there is a lot of dirt there now, I already can see flowers and herbs in my mind :)



There are already 4 great plants in this little area. Here is a big lemongrass plant. This plant makes terrific tea or even juice - you just blend some with water in the blender, strain, and add some sugar. Yum!



There are also 2 huge lemon trees. I have always wanted to have fruit trees so this was very exciting. I can already taste the lemonade and lemon poppy seed muffins!



Last, there are pumpkins growing in this patch. Are of them are still in the first stage of growth, but I'll post some pictures when they're bigger. Also in this patch is fresh mint. Does anyone know any recipes that involve fresh mint?



On a totally different note, I just wanted to mention how thankful I am to be blogging on this computer. First, I'm thankful that we have the internet up and running in our new home as of yesterday. Second I thankful this computer is still working after a terrible accident that happened!

Last weekend we went to Jeyson's parent's home for me to participate in a ladies workshop Iria was hosting. Jeyson brought along our laptop so he could keep busy. While using the computer his brother-in-law asked him to take a short trip with him and Jeyson left the computer out on a bed. During the short time he was gone, a massive thunderstorm hit. When he returned a little while later he discovered the computer was absolutely drenched in water that had entered through a hole in the roof JUST above where the computer was. For a while we didn't even know if it would turn on again. Jeyson did a little "surgery" and opened up the computer for it to air out as much as possible.



We also blew air at it. After a few days of letting it try we turned it on and were happy to see everything working normally!!! The only evidence of the accident was a large blotch of water inside the screen. We blew a fan the screen for a long time and it got a little smaller. We knew we could live with the problem but were disappointed anyway. Then over the last few days we have seen the spot shrink and shrink until today I turned on the computer and it was totally gone and the computer is working great! We truly are thankful that God cares for us even in the little things!

And now here are some pictures of the ladies workshop day. About 12 women who are pastor's wives or missionaries came to participate and be encouraged in their ministries. The three pastor's wives from our church in Anapolis came so it turned out to also be a great way for me to get to know them in a deeper way.