Our Apartment

Is it Colin Raye that sings the song that begins "Love grows best in little houses..." ? That may be true. The kids still have their moments, but all in all they seem to be getting along better than they used to, especially the older three. Mary and Linda stay up at night whispering and during the day I hear much less teasing from Isaac. The older two seem to be getting a little better at helping and encouraging their younger siblings (i.e. Linda) instead of getting annoyed.  That gives me hope that eventually they will turn out to be good friends.

That being said, this "little house" IS really really little. One can never really get away from the noise, and these five children make A LOT of noise.  As I indicated above, at least it's generally happy noise, but a couple hours of all of us in the apartment and I have quite the headache. And since I generally prefer orderliness, the clutter of seven people in 1200 sq. ft. really gets under my skin.

There is refuge, here, though. There's always the patio. And I can send the kids up to the gym or the library or the student lounge, as well as the Judds' or Schade's houses (the other faculty families). And at night when they are all in bed, Ed and I can work out in the gym or go to concerts or lectures in the Forum. After all, there is always something better and always something worse about a new situation. And we really are happy here. I wonder how I'll feel six months from now.....

So starting at the southern end of the apartment, here is the girls' room, looking from the doorway. The closet/cabinet is the brown wall on the left. The window looks out on an olive tree and actually down onto the student apartments on the level below.(I think this picture is bigger than the actual room itself.) Isaac and Joe share a bedroom right next door that is identical except with a crib instead of bunk beds.

This is the hallway, looking from the girls' room. There are two very narrow bathrooms on the right side of the hallway, one with a tub/shower that is a full five feet long (nice for soaking).

After the bathrooms is the entry door on the right. From the carpet in the above picture, turn left to see the dining room, turn right to see the kitchen.

Right next to the fridge is a doorway (in which we requested a door to be installed which allows the kids to sleep in their bedrooms and us to talk in the living room at the same time without anyone waking up) leading into the living room. Because our apartment is actually two stuck together, you will notice that the living room is identical in size and layout to the dining room, complete with another kitchen. We use the extra kitchen mostly for storage and for a homework and drawing table. It's really nice to have another fridge and oven, though.

Right next to THIS fridge is another doorway, this one to the "adults only" section of the apartment. It's cordoned off with a baby gate, and what would otherwise be the entrance to that side of the apartment is now my makeshift office. How wonderful that it has such immediate access to the bathroom!

Immediately to the left of the office/bath combo is Ed's and my bedroom. It is also identical to the kids' rooms but with a kingsize bed (which fits, but with no space for anything else). Many thanks to the Ludlows who left behind their spacefoam mattress over the top of the two twin mattresses. Our sleep and our dispositions are much improved because of it!

So there you have it. Roughly 1200 square feet of clutter and craziness, but with everything we need to survive and be happy. Did you see the blue couch? It has a pull-out mattress; isn't that enticing for those of you thinking of visiting? Don't worry, we'll actually try it out before we subject you to it.