Life in a motel: breaking free

We busted out. Yep, that's right! Last week we left the Motel Puyallup and got into our not-so-nice-and-shiny house.

A few days before we were supposed to move in, the landlord talked to me and let me know that the recently-departed former tenants had left the place in a sorry state. He had been to the house a few hours after they left and found the crayon and pen marks all over the walls, a broken door and a lot of just plain ol' nasty dirtiness.

Here's a walkthrough of the house when it was still dirty:



So we made a deal. Since we needed out of the motel very badly--and we need to pay less money, not more--we agreed to the first month's rent half off in exchange for us doing all the needed cleaning work. It was quite the undertaking for the first two days, but we got it all done.

We moved out of the hotel and into the house for good last Thursday. The kids are thrilled. They have so much more room to jump, play and scream. As an added bonus (not for us), the house is about half a block from the train tracks. Yes, it wakes us up at least twice a night, but when the train crossing bells go off at the end of the road the kids run to the front door and watch the train fly by. We've been saved many times from fit-throwing, shrieking, flailing kids by the sound of a train whistle.

Hope to post pictures of the finished product in the near future. Anne-Marie has worked her decorating magic splendidly, so once it's finished it will be broadcast to the masses.