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Apr. 3rd, 2005 11:13 amLeif and I moved up to Davis on Friday. Christof will be following within a few days - he had some stuff to wrap up.
The cottage is small, but a bit larger than I remember it, and even with more than half our belongings in it (enough to fill a minivan with the back row of seats removed completely full), it looks quite empty.
The main room is about 16' x 10', and takes up about half the ground floor. The other half is the bathroom (which is big enough to be a bedroom if it didn't have the bathroom stuff in it), the kitchen, and a large area with no specific purpose containing a closet.
The loft covers the half of the cottage used for the bathroom, etc. It is reached by a ladder which is honestly rather scary, and quite uncomfortable to climb with bare feet. I've covered it with plywood to keep Leif from scrambling up, since he's a little monkey. He could probably climb it just fine, but it's awfully tall (enough to be disconcerting looking down) and the ground is awfully hard.
The floor is uncarpeted, and covered with a grey and white checkerboard pattern linoleum. The ground is hard enough that I think we're going to be able to break him off his habit of flopping down on the ground ("boneless boy") when he's upset and resistant. He's already given his head quite a whack once doing that. Still, we figure it's better than allergic reaction inducing carpet. We may consider asking if we can redo the floor with some sort of wood-like substance that would be more comfortable and attractive, especially if we decide this is working for us and we're going to stay for a while.
The kitchen sucks. No two ways about it. The galley on our boat had more counter space. Of course, it's not hard to have more than nothing! There isn't much storage, and it's build for a giant. I can only reach the first shelf comfortably, and I'm tall. The second shelf is an uncomfortable stretch, and I can't really reach the third shelf at all. There aren't any drawers. We're planning to build some sort of table or shelving in the unused area next to the kitchen to serve both as storage and counter space, which should make that situation a lot more satisfactory.
The lighting situation is nearly as bad. The main lights are a set of track lights. The bulbs burnt out a while ago, and haven't been replaced, as they are about 15 feet up in the air. The most effective main room lighting comes from the light in the loft, but, since the switch is located in the loft, you have to climb the ladder to turn on the light, which isn't practical for us, since Leif then throws a fit over not being allowed to climb the ladder. It's also the only light in the loft, so if we want to be in the loft after Leif is asleep down below, we have to light the whole main room, disturbing Leif's sleep. There are lights in the kitchen, closet area, and bathroom which provide reasonably decent light, and will do for now, but we may have to invest in some lamps.
There is a skylight in the loft, and lots of windows, so natural lighting isn't a problem at all.
The trains run right by us. This is neat, since we are all big train fans, but I'm looking forward to the time when Leif gets mentally adjusted to them. As it is, they wake him up at night. During the day, I hold him up to the window so he can see all the trains, trying to show him that the loud noises aren't space monsters or something. However, this encourages him to run for the window and demand to be picked up every time he hears a train :) It's only been 24 hours, though. I expect both the waking and the window-running will decrease as he gets used to it.
We're sharing internet access with the people who own the main house (who are renting to us). This is cool, since it's only about $15 a month, and it means we don't have to pay for an otherwise unneeded phone line in addition to DSL. So far, it doesn't work, quite likely because I have one of the ibooks where they ever so intelligently decided it would be a good idea to encase the wireless antenna in shielding material. Until it's fixed, I can get T-Mobile at Borders, which is right across the way, though that involves keeping Leif from shoplifting long enough to get anything done.
I'd like to go into some of the other cottages to see how other people have things worked out. Glancing in the windows from the sidewalk, it seems that some people have part of the main room curtained off, which is a thought if we're going to be using it as the bedroom too. We originally discussed having the bedroom up in the loft, but it's just too inaccessible. It will be the office/childproof area instead.
The back yard belongs to the people who own the main house (though we may ask if we can store the bikes there, since they're expensive), but we get the front yard. There is space for a little garden. We're going to see if we can fence it off to make it a little better for Leif. At the moment, only alternating cottages have fences (though one off the non-fence houses has a temporary lattice fence, which might be an option for us).
The door handles are such that Leif can already open the doors on his own if they aren't deadbolted. I don't know how long it will be until he is tall enough to work the deadbolts.
Much of this sounds negative, but I think that it will be good once we get some furniture worked out. The space is small, but bigger than the boat. Leif is having a lot of fun now that he has room to really play with his toys.
I've noticed something funny (which is hopefully not TMI). I now have a pretty negative reaction to needing to go to the bathroom, since it was such a pain on the boat, and have to remind myself that I don't have to go outdoors to get to the bathroom, so there is no reason to put it off as long as possible.
It's also sooooo much easier to get going early in the morning when you don't have to go outside to shower. We were out of the house well before 9:00AM today, and that was with sleeping in a little and taking our time.
So now we live in some of the hottest rental property in Davis. Lucky us.
The cottage is small, but a bit larger than I remember it, and even with more than half our belongings in it (enough to fill a minivan with the back row of seats removed completely full), it looks quite empty.
The main room is about 16' x 10', and takes up about half the ground floor. The other half is the bathroom (which is big enough to be a bedroom if it didn't have the bathroom stuff in it), the kitchen, and a large area with no specific purpose containing a closet.
The loft covers the half of the cottage used for the bathroom, etc. It is reached by a ladder which is honestly rather scary, and quite uncomfortable to climb with bare feet. I've covered it with plywood to keep Leif from scrambling up, since he's a little monkey. He could probably climb it just fine, but it's awfully tall (enough to be disconcerting looking down) and the ground is awfully hard.
The floor is uncarpeted, and covered with a grey and white checkerboard pattern linoleum. The ground is hard enough that I think we're going to be able to break him off his habit of flopping down on the ground ("boneless boy") when he's upset and resistant. He's already given his head quite a whack once doing that. Still, we figure it's better than allergic reaction inducing carpet. We may consider asking if we can redo the floor with some sort of wood-like substance that would be more comfortable and attractive, especially if we decide this is working for us and we're going to stay for a while.
The kitchen sucks. No two ways about it. The galley on our boat had more counter space. Of course, it's not hard to have more than nothing! There isn't much storage, and it's build for a giant. I can only reach the first shelf comfortably, and I'm tall. The second shelf is an uncomfortable stretch, and I can't really reach the third shelf at all. There aren't any drawers. We're planning to build some sort of table or shelving in the unused area next to the kitchen to serve both as storage and counter space, which should make that situation a lot more satisfactory.
The lighting situation is nearly as bad. The main lights are a set of track lights. The bulbs burnt out a while ago, and haven't been replaced, as they are about 15 feet up in the air. The most effective main room lighting comes from the light in the loft, but, since the switch is located in the loft, you have to climb the ladder to turn on the light, which isn't practical for us, since Leif then throws a fit over not being allowed to climb the ladder. It's also the only light in the loft, so if we want to be in the loft after Leif is asleep down below, we have to light the whole main room, disturbing Leif's sleep. There are lights in the kitchen, closet area, and bathroom which provide reasonably decent light, and will do for now, but we may have to invest in some lamps.
There is a skylight in the loft, and lots of windows, so natural lighting isn't a problem at all.
The trains run right by us. This is neat, since we are all big train fans, but I'm looking forward to the time when Leif gets mentally adjusted to them. As it is, they wake him up at night. During the day, I hold him up to the window so he can see all the trains, trying to show him that the loud noises aren't space monsters or something. However, this encourages him to run for the window and demand to be picked up every time he hears a train :) It's only been 24 hours, though. I expect both the waking and the window-running will decrease as he gets used to it.
We're sharing internet access with the people who own the main house (who are renting to us). This is cool, since it's only about $15 a month, and it means we don't have to pay for an otherwise unneeded phone line in addition to DSL. So far, it doesn't work, quite likely because I have one of the ibooks where they ever so intelligently decided it would be a good idea to encase the wireless antenna in shielding material. Until it's fixed, I can get T-Mobile at Borders, which is right across the way, though that involves keeping Leif from shoplifting long enough to get anything done.
I'd like to go into some of the other cottages to see how other people have things worked out. Glancing in the windows from the sidewalk, it seems that some people have part of the main room curtained off, which is a thought if we're going to be using it as the bedroom too. We originally discussed having the bedroom up in the loft, but it's just too inaccessible. It will be the office/childproof area instead.
The back yard belongs to the people who own the main house (though we may ask if we can store the bikes there, since they're expensive), but we get the front yard. There is space for a little garden. We're going to see if we can fence it off to make it a little better for Leif. At the moment, only alternating cottages have fences (though one off the non-fence houses has a temporary lattice fence, which might be an option for us).
The door handles are such that Leif can already open the doors on his own if they aren't deadbolted. I don't know how long it will be until he is tall enough to work the deadbolts.
Much of this sounds negative, but I think that it will be good once we get some furniture worked out. The space is small, but bigger than the boat. Leif is having a lot of fun now that he has room to really play with his toys.
I've noticed something funny (which is hopefully not TMI). I now have a pretty negative reaction to needing to go to the bathroom, since it was such a pain on the boat, and have to remind myself that I don't have to go outdoors to get to the bathroom, so there is no reason to put it off as long as possible.
It's also sooooo much easier to get going early in the morning when you don't have to go outside to shower. We were out of the house well before 9:00AM today, and that was with sleeping in a little and taking our time.
So now we live in some of the hottest rental property in Davis. Lucky us.
