Our House, In the middle of our street
Actually, it's on the corner.
But here are pics! (cut to not kill your friends page)
Here's the house itself, we have the lower half. The neighbor upstairs is a middle-aged to older guy, a music teacher who, according to the landlady, plays either tuba or trombone, she thinks. Duuuuuuuude.
The Foyer to our place. Not exciting, but looks pretty good. I like having a foyer. By the way, none of the stuff is ours, these were taken when I was viewing the place, so it's the stuff of the people moving out. Hence the boxes.
The living room, windows to the left of the image face the front of the house. The fireplace you see hiding behind is a working gas fireplace. Sweeeeeeet.
This is the dining room. Their table and chairs fit so perfectly I kind of want to get the exact same kind. Maybe. That's a bit off, money will be tight for the first month or two.
To get an idea of the layout, this is the view from the kitchen: Dining room to the living room to the front window.
The extra bedroom a.k.a. study a.k.a. the Alone Room. Standing order for the extra bedroom is if someone is in it, you leave them alone. I think it's important to have time to yourself, and Kirsten and I both are independent people and enjoy our alone time, so a two-bedroom was considered a necessity to us.
The master bedroom. It's not huge, but it's definitely a reasonable size. It has two closets (in separate corners, so no having to take turns getting in, which I thought was cool).
Not pictured is the kitchen, which I found a difficult time getting a proper picture of because the doors are placed to make it difficult to take pictures (though convenient for actual use). It's not huge, but it's not tiny. I'd say a 3 butt kitchen (meaning 3 people can reasonably be expected to work in it without jostling each other and constantly getting in each other's way).
It also has a lot of space in the basement, where there is a washer and dryer exclusively for our use (the upstairs neighbor has his own set). The neighborhood is GORGEOUS. The lots are a good size, but the houses are small, and people take a lot of care in their yards. In fact, the yards are GORGEOUS and the houses are really diverse, not the same house over and over down the street. I'll post pictures that I took in an ETA, once my phone actually SENDS the images.
ETA:
That's all for now. Things area going very well, but my brain is TIRED. So I think I'm going to go watch mindless violence and special effects in the form of Transformers 2. I am not expecting anything good. I am expecting a mental void. I have this next weekend off!!!
OH! And I found out a few things at work: My Officer in Charge (the commanding officer of the station, but he is not the "commanding officer" either because he is enlisted, a Chief Petty Officer, or because Station is attached to Sector, which has its own Commanding Officer) insists that it's possible, with an AA, to go to OCS, even without 4 years or an E-5 pay grade. I don't want to anyway. I want an active, involved job for at least the next few years. I'm thinking once I get worn down a bit more, I can see about shifting up to the officer status (and after I get my degree AND am an Avionics Electrical Technician Second Class). At least that way I will probably end up on a cutter, which I won't be doing while I'm enlisted (aviation rating means air base). Also, he told me that my radius for liberty (I don't have "days off" as other people know it, I am always on call and am only completely free when I'm on leave, of which I get 30 days per year) is 12 driving hours. That's a HUGE radius (some places are 30 minutes, in particularly high-security, particularly volatile stations). And he said that if I want to go beyond that, I just need to get it cleared with him (so if I want to fly to, like, Seattle or San Francisco or whatever for one of my three day weekends, I can). If Carla weren't coming by on August 8-10, I'd totally be going to DCI finals (I'd rather see Carla and her mom, but I like that I had the option if I wanted).
Also, between Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence, my base pay, and Kirsten having a paralegal job, the two of us will be making... ahem... very good money, and little to pay off. Especially for two people in their 20s without kids. We are expecting to be completely debt free within one and a half years. And should I ever be accepted to Officer Candidacy School and become an officer... we will not have to worry about money ever. Not that we're worrying now, but seriously. We will be set.
Is anyone else excited? Because I'm super excited.
Unless I end up in an air station in Kodiak Alaska. But at least we'd probably save a lot of money.
But here are pics! (cut to not kill your friends page)
Here's the house itself, we have the lower half. The neighbor upstairs is a middle-aged to older guy, a music teacher who, according to the landlady, plays either tuba or trombone, she thinks. Duuuuuuuude.
The Foyer to our place. Not exciting, but looks pretty good. I like having a foyer. By the way, none of the stuff is ours, these were taken when I was viewing the place, so it's the stuff of the people moving out. Hence the boxes.
The living room, windows to the left of the image face the front of the house. The fireplace you see hiding behind is a working gas fireplace. Sweeeeeeet.
This is the dining room. Their table and chairs fit so perfectly I kind of want to get the exact same kind. Maybe. That's a bit off, money will be tight for the first month or two.
To get an idea of the layout, this is the view from the kitchen: Dining room to the living room to the front window.
The extra bedroom a.k.a. study a.k.a. the Alone Room. Standing order for the extra bedroom is if someone is in it, you leave them alone. I think it's important to have time to yourself, and Kirsten and I both are independent people and enjoy our alone time, so a two-bedroom was considered a necessity to us.
The master bedroom. It's not huge, but it's definitely a reasonable size. It has two closets (in separate corners, so no having to take turns getting in, which I thought was cool).
Not pictured is the kitchen, which I found a difficult time getting a proper picture of because the doors are placed to make it difficult to take pictures (though convenient for actual use). It's not huge, but it's not tiny. I'd say a 3 butt kitchen (meaning 3 people can reasonably be expected to work in it without jostling each other and constantly getting in each other's way).
It also has a lot of space in the basement, where there is a washer and dryer exclusively for our use (the upstairs neighbor has his own set). The neighborhood is GORGEOUS. The lots are a good size, but the houses are small, and people take a lot of care in their yards. In fact, the yards are GORGEOUS and the houses are really diverse, not the same house over and over down the street. I'll post pictures that I took in an ETA, once my phone actually SENDS the images.
ETA:
That's all for now. Things area going very well, but my brain is TIRED. So I think I'm going to go watch mindless violence and special effects in the form of Transformers 2. I am not expecting anything good. I am expecting a mental void. I have this next weekend off!!!
OH! And I found out a few things at work: My Officer in Charge (the commanding officer of the station, but he is not the "commanding officer" either because he is enlisted, a Chief Petty Officer, or because Station is attached to Sector, which has its own Commanding Officer) insists that it's possible, with an AA, to go to OCS, even without 4 years or an E-5 pay grade. I don't want to anyway. I want an active, involved job for at least the next few years. I'm thinking once I get worn down a bit more, I can see about shifting up to the officer status (and after I get my degree AND am an Avionics Electrical Technician Second Class). At least that way I will probably end up on a cutter, which I won't be doing while I'm enlisted (aviation rating means air base). Also, he told me that my radius for liberty (I don't have "days off" as other people know it, I am always on call and am only completely free when I'm on leave, of which I get 30 days per year) is 12 driving hours. That's a HUGE radius (some places are 30 minutes, in particularly high-security, particularly volatile stations). And he said that if I want to go beyond that, I just need to get it cleared with him (so if I want to fly to, like, Seattle or San Francisco or whatever for one of my three day weekends, I can). If Carla weren't coming by on August 8-10, I'd totally be going to DCI finals (I'd rather see Carla and her mom, but I like that I had the option if I wanted).
Also, between Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence, my base pay, and Kirsten having a paralegal job, the two of us will be making... ahem... very good money, and little to pay off. Especially for two people in their 20s without kids. We are expecting to be completely debt free within one and a half years. And should I ever be accepted to Officer Candidacy School and become an officer... we will not have to worry about money ever. Not that we're worrying now, but seriously. We will be set.
Is anyone else excited? Because I'm super excited.
Unless I end up in an air station in Kodiak Alaska. But at least we'd probably save a lot of money.