moving in, flood drama, phone drama

I am not the type of person who takes months and months to unpack and completely move into a place. I prefer to do it in a matter of days. We got our stuff on Tuesday and today, Friday, every box has been unpacked. We have just a few things we want to hang on the walls, but other than that, the house is done and livable, whew! We have less space here than the house we came from, but I am liking it a lot. It's all one level, which is awesome, the bathrooms are big and the counter/cupboard space is more than I've ever had.

There is a lack of storage here, no linen closet, medicine cabinets, pantry, etc... but we determined to find solutions for those issues with the furniture we already had and it's been fun to creatively fill those storage gaps!

Here are a few snippets of master bedroom/bathroom solutions I've come up with.

 My makeshift vanity. My actual vanity is in Layla's room because it wouldn't fit very well in ours. This little dresser holds purses and hats, scarves and gloves. And even our extra sheets.

 the pretty plates help contain my long necklaces that don't fit in my little jewelry box.

 The bathroom is huge, but has no drawers or medicine cabinets. We have never had double sinks before, though, so that is rather nice!

 We have five of these stools from our tall kitchen table in the old house. We only have one dining space now, so that table (without the leaf) is part of my laundry room and these stools are finding other purposes throughout the house.

 See? It's huge! Theres a shower to the left and the toilet to the right that you can't see, with plenty of room for a little 3-basket shelf to hold feminine things and extra TP.

 We don't have nightstands, but the stools are handy for that too :)

I'm proud of how we've made things work and can't wait to show you more good storage ideas with things we already had!

As for the flood drama, our house in Aurora, which we still own and which our renter was supposed to move into today, had a flooded basement yesterday due to the massive crazy flooding in our town. We are beyond thankful for our friends and property managers who have been dealing with that. We know that is not exactly in their job description, but we feel so blessed. We are praying for those whose damage was even more extensive than ours and those who have lost their homes and belongings completely.

Annnnnd, for the phone drama! I mentioned I lost my phone in KY. We got me a new one, and even though I had two months until I was eligible to upgrade, the AT&T store lady felt bad for us and gave us a super good deal. But then my old phone turned up in Layla's suitcase :-/ She must have scooped it up with her clothes (I remember having dropped it on the floor that morning). I could tell she felt bad. It sure is nice having Siri now, though, especially in a new town, with crazy windy highways and trees everywhere so you can never see where you're going!

So today I got home from JoAnn's and Casey had just dropped his phone and the screen shattered! I told you, drama! ;) He's off to Richmond right now to get it repaired while I'm about try to convince the kids that  the yummy beef stew I've had in the crock pot all day really will be tasty. Wish me luck!!

I'll leave you with this cool shot of Casey on moving day: