Surprise! We Moved!

I still can't believe we did it. There were lot's of pros and cons but in the end we decided to move houses here in Taipei. The short list of reasons had to do with our previous house being secluded where the school bus wouldn't come, in a very large house that was difficult to maintain and had bedrooms on all three levels. Our contract was up for renewal and our landlord and his wife were kind of being nasty and wouldn't make any improvements or even discuss price. They have an inflated view of what their house is worth rent wise which has been proven so far in that it currently sits vacant. His realtor actually told Nathan when Landlords get like that the realtors actually hope that the house sits vacant to humble the Landlord.

(the tube top they put on to protect the couch didn't stop the kids from using it!)

The pros of moving to this new house: We had seen this house when we first came house hunting years ago. It needed a lot of work and we had no concept of how quickly renovations are done here so we didn't really consider it a possibility. But our Bishop's family and now another family from the Ward with 5 kids both live on the same lane as the house. After sitting vacant for about 5 years the owner decided to renovate. Ross (Bishop) speaks great Chinese and would go over daily to talk over ideas with the owner about how to improve the home and make it appeal to Westerners. Then he and our other neighbors started working on us to move.
We prayed A LOT about the decision. The pros would be, a less expensive, beautifully newly renovated house that is smaller, has the bedrooms all on the second level, has one of the bigger kitchens and yards I've seen here, the bus comes to get the kids, and we would have neighbors. Not the kind you pretend aren't there, but real, help each other out, let the kids play together, neighbors.

So, a couple of days after we got back from the U.S., local Asian movers came to pack up our stuff. It took 3 days to pack up and move everything... how do I find myself moving again at fully 9 months pregnant?! At least someone else was doing most the lifting for me.

 Here is one of the trucks going down our old crazy steep hill (that the TAS school bus refused to deal with) taking our stuff to our new house!

So as wonderful and new as so much of the house is, there are still a few Chinese-isms that have had to be dealt with. Ross (and Nathan and I) really spent a lot of time guiding our new landlords with house decisions. I was nervous to leave for the summer because I knew that they would slip in some funky stuff when I wasn't there to prevent it. Luckily for the most part our neighbors had our back. Like the day Carrie and Brandie walked over to check on things and found:

This is the email I got with the pics:

Here is a treasure for you.... 
It kind of looks a little like a birthday cake and it is on the ceiling of your house (in the front kid's bedroom) Brandie and I were up there a few days ago and were both looking rather quizzically (actually laughing in complete disbelief and amazement) at this little apparition when the electrician happened upon the scene. Our shock and disapproval must have been obvious because he quickly (in chinese) assured us that this fixture being mounted in the front kid's bedroom was a mistake. Whew!
We enjoyed this moment of relief until he continued by saying (in a most pleased way) that this special light was not supposed to be in the kid's room, but in the master bedroom! Visions of you laying in bed at night looking up at the love light (see the glowing effect in pic 2) and the joy it would bring you, did elicit a few fits of laughter (in a horrified sort of way) from us, I have to admit. The poor electrician, with a surprised look on his face, asked if we really didn't like it? I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but had to assure him that you would really NOT appreciate this kind of decorative touch and they should just put the same (quite nice) light in the master bedroom that all the other rooms had. I haven't been up to check, but I think he understood! Hope you don't mind my taking the liberty to make that decision for you. And apologies in advance if the light was one that Nathan had specifically ordered for you! :-) So funny.... 

Double click for the full effect of  "the Love Light" :)

When we arrived home Ross was out of town on business. Meanwhile our landlord had been toiling SO HARD out in our beautiful yard to lay the sod:

 Your eyes do not deceive you, the checkerboard look was intentional. Our older cute landlord worked so hard out there laying the sod and stamping it down while his wife stood out there for hours with an umbrella. He is convinced the sod will "fill in" and that this will best prevent weeds.

 Not wanting to seem ungrateful or make our landlord "lose face" we waited several weeks until we finally told our realtor Fiona (realtors are a major go between and do much more than those in the states, they are who we call for any problems with locals or with the house etc., we LOVE Fiona) that we needed to come up with something, and after much debate she discussed it with our owner and he came and cut out little strips to put in between the larger squares.... progress!

 A few other quirks we ended up with are two of the showers in the (otherwise) beautiful brand spankin new bathrooms, inexplicably go past the window. As in, part of the window is in the shower. ???????????????? It makes hanging any kind of blind or curtain a little tricky.

So we have had quite the busy last few weeks, but it was all made doable thanks to awesome neighbors pitching in to help. We still have been dealing with a LOT of trouble shooting, but some of that will happen when you live in a house that hasn't been lived in for 5 years. Just a few for posterity's sake:
Initially, no hot water, very little water pressure, washer and dryer drama, oven not lighting, lot's of giant spiders, problems with the phone, problems with the internet, the guys came to lay carpet on the stairs and about fumed us out with glue for an entire day, waiting on a new A.C. unit for upstairs main space therefore when it is 110* out it's a little overly warm upstairs. The list goes on and on. Though I'd rather get it fixed before the baby comes.
I will post pics soon of the actual house, but upstairs there are 3 beautiful giant windows and of course windows in the kids room that needed coverings. It gets dark early and light very early and being able to darken a room is imperative. I met with two different families/"companies" to pick stuff for curtains (where were my sisters when I needed them?!) but I had to sneekily take this pic of some of the fabrics one company brought.

The red was for the boy's room, the white and pink was their suggestion for the girl's room and my favorite, the kind with the lambs was for the nursery... thankfully they didn't seem too offended when I asked to see what else they might have available.

 It's been quite the experience. But let me just say we feel so blessed to be here in this house near neighbors and in a house that feels more like a home. We are very grateful for the opportunity we had to move.