Our new place!

We love our new apartment!  It has a lot of light and has a clean, contemporary feel to it.

I love that it has a designated laundry room with a separate washer and dryer!  Our first apartment had the washer/dryer as one unit and it was right next to my dishwasher in the kitchen without any space to move laundry around.  It took 6 hours to do one load of laundry because each wash and dry cycle was 3 hours long, and you couldn’t do another load of wash as another load was drying.  For doing laundry for a family of five, this was “less effective.”  J

The fridge is to the right of the oven and the freezer is on the left.  There is cupboard space above them, but it will prove to be useless if I don’t get a stool to reach everything!  I think I’m figuring out the stove.  I know I’m not using a tenth of the bells and whistles it comes with.  Simple for me is better.  I finally found the English instruction manual which has helped.  One thing I’m learning is that it cooks a lot faster than any oven I’ve ever used.  I have to lower the temperature to be 30 degrees less than the recipe calls for and still cut the cooking time in half in order to not burn the food.  It’s very efficient!

We've actually had to add two large metal shelves to the left and right of  the table against the side walls to help store food and appliances because there isn't enough cupboard space to hold everything, especially with 1500 lbs. of consumables coming soon.  We're also trying to be creative with the lack of counter space.  This kitchen would be more appropriate for a single person or couple cooking smaller meals.  Oh well...we can't be picky, just noting some things we need to adapt to.  It definitely feels like an IKEA kitchen--simple and clean, but I think the quality is better.

We love the bathrooms, especially the sinks. 

A lot of shelving.  I hang my long dresses up in Thomas' closet.

Nice tub!  Wasn't expecting that!

Nice shower too with different water settings and a seat.
Wasn't expecting that here in Angola either!

We love the counter space and storage underneath the sink.
We haven't had that in our other two houses here.

The kids loved running around before our things got here.  You can see how dirty the floors were if you look at Thomas' socks.  There was a thin layer of dust/dirt throughout the house.  That's why they had ladies cleaning when we got there! 

Master

A beautiful light hanging over what is supposed to be the dining area.

As I was walking around, figuring out where to tell the movers to put our furniture (the embassy loaned furniture), I walked in on the kids doing this mediation as Rhea danced around them.  They said they were celebrating the new apartment.  Goofballs. :)

The moving team--they don't look overly happy here, but they are really nice guys.  It's not a very fun job to be movers in the heat of an African summer.

 All three kids setting up their rooms by making their beds first.