Our New Home... with plenty of room for GUESTS!!! (hint, hint!)

And here we are... Home Sweet Home!

I wanted to wait and post this once the lease was signed.... today it became official, and the Kistlers will be moving into their new home on Wednesday!  Yippee!

 Our house has 3 floors, a garage, a great patio, small yard, gardener and above all, a GREAT location!

 I love the ivy climbing up the side of the house....

 Mallory was so pleased that she actually POSED for a picture!  Such a rarity these days.... this house MUST be something special!

 There are dozens of fantastic walking paths that go all through the neighborhood.  We are lucky enough to have one go just past our house on the right side.  We are about a 30 minute walk to the town center of Bury St. Edmunds and only about a 10 minute walk to the Moreton Hall town center.

The kitchen is very similar to the other house we turned down.  A bit smaller, but we have a larger dining and living room, and room for a dryer in the kitchen!  YAY!

Charles and I both loved this pull out pantry next to the fridge!

And here was the moment I fell in love.... A cranberry red dining room!  Yippee!!!!

Leading into a golden-hued Living room- perfect for our decor!

The window treatments will match quite well, too!  We really got lucky with that one!

A nice area for storage under the stairs.... (no "Harry Potter closet" in this house!)

But oh, my the CLOSETS we have!  SUCH a relief!  The storage alone is what sold us on this house as oppossed to the other....

This is to be the guest "suite....

....complete with your own bathroom!  (Now don't you want to come and visit?)

There are quite a few stairs, and the master is on the third floor.... but when I saw the dressing area, the climb is well worth it!

I am standing in the middle of the master, which will no doubt fit all of our furniture (if they can make it up the stairs, that is!)  But who cares what the room looks like?  Bring on the......

Closets!!!!!!

And ANOTHER closet!

And ANOTHER Closet!!!!! 

 We have a total of FIVE closets in the Master suite!!!!!!  I may get one whole one just for shoes and handbags!  Since we didn't have the luxery of setting aside items we didn't want to bring overseas, we are getting the whole kit and caboodle..... so finding a house with storage was KEY!  We are so grateful to have found this one!

Plus, the Master Suite has a Tub AND a shower!  YAY!

The stairs will take some getting used to.... but maybe I will have awesome legs and a cute butt by the end of this assignment... think positive, right?

I know you are all no doubt bored with the past few posts.  I, too, go to blogs mainly to see pictures.... of my FRIENDS, not thier empty houses or NOT houses!  I promise to post pics of Kistler adventures soon.... now that the househunting is over and we will have time to go on some!  

The Top 10 Things I Love About England (so far)

10.  The Weather.

 Now, this might seem a bit strange, considering England's reputation of gray, rainy days.  But I must say, there is something to be said for just learning to deal with it and just make the most of your day.  And I must say, I quite enjoy the mild 70 degree temps that come along with it.   Check back with me when the fall hits.... I may be singing a different tune!

9.  Hearing people talk.

I simply adore the accents out here.  From the formal to the casual... I anticipate Mallory picking up one in school- won't that be precious?

8.  Roundabouts.

Now, if I had written this blog just one week earlier, this item would be NO WHERE on my list.  But I must say, I do love not having to stop, go, stop, go like we do in the states at all those traffic signals.  While they are overwhelming at first, and I have not gone NEAR a roundabout in London yet, I like the idea of just "carrying on with it" and not having to sit on the brakes so often. 

7.  The Countryside (what I have seen so far, anyway!)

I just adore seeing all the various livestock as we travel back roads.  Sheep, Cows, Chicken, Geese, Ducks, Pigs, Horses....and Mallory loves seeing them all, too!  We keep a round of "Old MacDonald" going just about every car trip to and from base.  And seeing all the crops and fields being plowed; which leads me to my next item....

6.  The Produce.

We have been to a few different markets and found the most gorgeous fruits and vegetables.  Every village has a Market on Saturdays (just about), and then on another day during the week.  Bury St. Edmunds are on Wednesday and Saturday.  So far, the English Strawberries have to be my favorite thing.  They are so much smaller and sweeter than we get in the US.  Mallory calls the itty bitty ones (about the size of a raspberry) "Fairy Berries!"

5.  (This is for you, Grandpa Texas....)  THE FLOWERS!!!!!

Oh my goodness!  I have never seen such beautiful gardens with such an array of flowers in all different colors, sizes and shapes.  And so many houses have such gorgeous flower pots and baskets- I have never seen anything prettier (except for my father's house in Texas, of course!)  I hope to have my own pretty windowboxes before the summer ends.

4.  All of the gorgeous churches, houses and other historical sites just around the corner

It is just breathtaking to see a five or six hundred year old stone church every day as you drive off base.  Or a gorgeous barn, or a thatched-roof house.  The first week or so here, I kept feeling as if I was on a movie set.  As time passed, I just felt smaller and smaller- seeing all the history alive here in this country makes me feel a bit insignificant- like a speck of dust in a way, just passing through.  I plan to take advantage of all the sites and learn as much as I can about England while we are here. 

3.  How pedestrian/bicycle friendly all the small villages are. 

In our little village of Moreton Hall, there are dozens of walking paths that go through trees, past meadows where your dog can run, to playgrounds where kids can play, and to the little village town center, which includes a post office, community center, school, church and small grocery store.  You can walk to do almost anything you need.  And from Moreton Hall, you can walk about a mile through the gorgeous Abby Gardens into the city center of Bury St. Edmunds, which is also incredibly pedestrian friendly.  We see dogs and children out everywhere, and so many people on bikes!  I can't wait to get our bike trailer and hit the trails with Charles and Mallory!

2.  Our Squadron!

The 493rd Reapers and Reaperettes have way surpassed any expectations we had.  Being welcome with open arms over and over again has made this transition practically seamless for our family.  I am honored to be a part of the squadron, and look forward to the next three years with a huge and happy heart!

And, the Number One thing I love about being in England......?

1.  Being together again as a family!

 Nothing compares to being with Charles again; holding his hand, waking up together, eating dinner together, seeing him interact with Mallory.  It is like we are falling in love all over again.  This assignment is such a blessing for us, and I look forward to all the wonderful adventures that lay in store for us out here!

Now hurry and plan a trip out here so we can share them with all of YOU!!!!!

Househunting in England... Week Two

So, as you may have gathered, we are CONSUMED with the search for a house right now.  It was quite an adventure, jumping into the househunting thing right away.  Everything is so overwhelming here at first; making a decision like where to live seems like it should have been so much easier than it turned out.  For Charles and I, the issue was TO MANY choices.  We knew we had to narrow it down.
Luckily, Charles and I were able to narrow down our search fairly quickly- within the first week we knew we wanted to concentrate on the Moreton Hall area just outside of Bury St. Edmunds. This will be a 20-30 minute drive for Charles to work each day, but we both think it is worth it.

First of all, several members of our squadron live there- I'm talking just within a quarter mile or so of each other. It will be nice to have that support system when the guys are away. Second, it is a precious little community with lots of playgrounds and family friendly (and dog friendly) walking paths and parks. There is a community center, small grocery store, and soccer (ahem- I mean football) fields galore! Every time we have driven through the area, at any time of day, we see dogs and kids everywhere! And last, it is within a mile or so walk to the town center of Bury St. Edmunds, with tons of restaurants and shopping and a market that is twice a week.

There are advantages to other areas, I am sure, but Charles and I feel confident this is the area for us. So, it was then time to look at houses only in the 2 mile or so radius of this little "village." Because it is PCS season, there are quite a few popping up on the market- even DAILY.... but they get snatched so quickly! Not much time to really sit back and make a decision. Literally, they will appear on the website at 10am, be shown 2-3 times and gone by 5pm.

We had looked at nearly a dozen houses with different agencies in all different villages. Finally, we found a location we LOVED and a house we really liked; except for one thing: The blue carpet throughout.

This house had a TWO car garage, which are at a premium here!  It also had a FABULOUS parking area out front and lots of curb appeal.

 The backyard was stunning and cared for beautifully!

Blue Carpet.... not our thing- but great living space

A nice dining room that opened to the patio and living room....

And this breakfast nook would have been my little craft area...

Closets throughout.... and yes, that blue carpet went all the way up the stairs and into each room- including the bathroom.  Weird.

 Now, this is no disrespect to those of you who have chosen blue for your homes- I am sure they are lovely. But the Kistler family furnishings consist mainly of Cranberry, Sage Green and Khaki- kind of a challenge to imagine how that would flow. But, we decided we could overlook our vanity for three years in order to score a double garage, great layout, awesome backyard and bonus craft area for Amber.

Well, to make a long story very short, the landlord chose someone else. Yes, you read that right. Here in the UK, you can list your home with multiple agencies at one time, so other people culd be looking that you don't know about. Sometimes, there are 5-10 applications put in for the same house! The landlords pretty much just pick who they like best- getting there first doesn't seem to matter at all. In this case, the landlord had a personal relationship with the people who eventually scored the house, so it was scratched off the top of our list. Bummer.

The agency we worked with felt badly for us, and offered us a house they were marketing exclusively. And WHAT A HOUSE! Three levels, 4.5 bathrooms and 6 bedrooms!

This was the kitchen- very large- and gas burners!

The fridge was a good size, and hidden in built-ins.

And an English classic, it seems- the washing machine in the kitchen next to the hidden dishwasher.  Some of their washing machines wash AND dry, but we have not heard many good things about them. 

A fairly small living room- but large enough for this sectional...

THREE of the bedrooms had en-suites (bathrooms w/ showers)   And see the built in closet behind the door?  Definate bonus- all rooms had them but 2.

This would have been Mallory's room.  Her own bathroom??!!  How old is she again?

Yeah.... the stairs are pretty steep....

A view of the backyard- not much to say....

Now, major downsides are that the dryer may have to be out in the garage, which is a 20 pace distance from the kitchen and through the grass..... not at all something I look forward to in the winter and rain! And three floors is an awful lot to keep clean. There is no patio, and the parking is fairly difficult, and for someone with MY history of backing into things, this was NOT appealling.  The living areas are a bit smaller, but to have SIX other rooms.... I almost feel greedy picking apart a property like this! Plus, we would be living right next door to a person attatched to our squadron, and literally within yards of 2 other families.
Right now, we have an application fee holding this property for us, and the landlord is happy to let us have it.  But believe it or not, another property has popped up in the same area, with a better floor plan and patio and access to the garage is easier.  It is listed with a different agency, and we are the only ones to have seen it.  Stay tuned to see where the Kistlers will call home....

Househunting in England... Week One

Well, I have been wanting to blog lately, but my thoughts keep getting interrupted by trying to find a house!  So, I decided to combine the two, and blog about our househunting experience.
It is SUCH a racket out here, getting a house to rent.  There are literally dozens of local villages to choose from, and the market is VERY competitive.  With trying to learn to drive and go to all the different places, it is hard to know where you really want to live.   Our fisr week here, we must have looked at over a dozen houses.   Here are some pictures of various houses we looked at:

Here in the UK, closets are at a premium!  And in this house-they provided the closets.... but no doors.  Strange....

 Several houses here have "conservatories" off the back patio.  This one was lovely.

 This was the smallest kitchen we looked at.  Enough room, but....

 The rest of the house was even smaller!  This was the biggest room in the house- the living room.  We are standing in the front door here.  There were 3 bedrooms, plus the sunporch.

...and a random shower stall in the utility room.... weird.  We also didn't like the location in downtown Mildenhall Village.  Too busy for us.  So we kept looking....

 This house had everything going for it.  Large rooms, gorgeous wood floors,....

 Incredible staircase and an extra room for a study....

 Gorgeous wood-burning fireplace... and carpet to match our furnishings....

 Another nice conservatory....

 INCREDIBLE updated kitchen...

 AND closets!!!!!  Now, what was wrong with this place again?......

....oh yeah, the backyard was not so hot- and see that red car?  That's the ONLY parking spot for the house.  No garage (ie, no storage).... but that wasn't the dealbreaker......

The door you see behind the Realtor is the front door.   You can't see in this picture, but about 3 paces to the left is the door to a Chinese food restaurant (we were parked in their little parking lot), and a couple doors down on the right is an entrance to an Ale House.  Plus, it was on the main street of Lakenheath Village.  Not sure I would feel comfortable coming home with Charles deployed and having all kinds of people coming and going from those two establishments with me and Mallory home alone.  Not gonna happen.  Really a shame, because the interior really is lovely!

So onto the next house..... This one was in NewMarket, which was halfway between Lakenheath and Cambridge.  Before we had discovered Moreton Hall, this house was definatley a possibility...

LOVED the gas range!

Several houses out here have built-ins, which are nice, but they take away from the square footage of the room overall.

This house had wardrobes built in instead of closets....

And even a desk!

It had a huge shed out back for storage AND a garage!

But besides the 1/2 bath downstairs, THIS was the only bathroom in the house- no shower head, and it was right off of the master.  (Sound reject buzzer here).  We moved on...

In the next house, Charles and I both loved this wood-burning fireplace.

And the kitchen was brand new and GORGEOUS!!!

Many of the properties we looked at have been upgraded to accomodate "us Americans".  This one definately had tried to woo us....

They made use of every space, and this would have been a perfect toy storage clost for Mallory.

But oh my, the size of the rooms.  This was one of the larger rooms-  See Mallory?  She is touching the opposite wall!  This room was maybe 8x8 at most.  One of the rooms would not even have fit a twin bed.  So bye bye gorgeous kitchen......

.....hello gorgeous,Partridge Cottage!

Yes, this house had it's own name... Partridge Cottage.  This is the kind of house Charles and I dreamed about living it when we got this assignement to England.  It is a 400 year old property that has been rebuilt and rebuilt over the years.  The latest update was about 15 years ago, and the house is so charming with all the modern comforts you need.

It is heard to see in the picture, but the outside of the home had this flower vine impression all around the front door.  It was so cute!  It was out on a large wheat field, and there are livestock that come right up to your back yard!  (JD would love that, right?)  Just SO gorgeous!

Unfortunately, this is the only other picture I have of Partridge Cottage because the camera battery died.  You can see one of the gorgeous supporting beams on the left and the detail on the ceiling in the entranceway.  It had a HUGE living room w/ a wood burning fireplace in the center of the room.  You walk around the fireplace to the other side of the brick wall, and there was another HUGE room off of the kitchen for the dining room.  Plus a little breakfast nook, HUGE rooms upstairs with closets and a fairly large and updated kitchen. 

 We really fell in love with the place right away.  But because of the location, we had to cross it off of our list.  It was a 45 minute drive to Lakenheath in GOOD weather.  Add rain or snow and you are looking like 1.5 hours or more.  And two of the roads that take you there are one lane, but with 2-way traffic.  That means you have to back up and pull off for oncoming traffic where needed.  Plus, we would be SO FAR away from anyone we knew.... if I had an emergency at 3am and Charles was deployed, who would come to my rescue?

And so, the househunting continues......