Side/Back View of the new house
The new house is pretty fab. Though it looks bigger than the last house, it's about 1000 square feet smaller. This house makes more sense to me though. We don't have three living rooms that will go unused like at the last house. We're all living on the same floor at the moment. While the men restore the ground floor of the house, we are living on the second floor. And when they are finished downstairs, we will move down there so that they can do work up here. Here are a few pictures of the 2nd floor which we are living on.
The uptairs living room which we've turned into a dining room.
This will later be made into the master bedroom.
The stairs lead to the top floor which will have Antoine and Nicholas' rooms
This is a view of the other side of the living/dining room.
I love those doors.
An outside view of the living/dining room with Google en garde
The french have a different way of doing things. Their houses are still habitable while work is being done. I've been to several homes that are being reconstructed. The work also takes much longer here than it does in the states. It's probably because they use a lot of concrete and barely any wood. [According to my host dad, it makes no noise]. I remember when my parents had our house built, it barely took 3 months. The reconstruction of this house alone should take twice as long.
Fire/BBQ pit, outdoor seating/party area
This three level house is beautiful. Right now we have a huge living/dining room, five habitable bedrooms, two bathrooms, two toilets, and two kitchens. When the construction is finished we'll have eight bedrooms, three bathrooms, four toilets, one humongous kitchen/dining area, and one large living room. There are french doors everywhere. My bedroom along with Léa and Camille's have french doors leading out to balconies so we enjoy waking up to the view every morning.
My bedroom from the hallway
My room continued...
Balcony
The view of my room from the balcony
Terrace below the balcony
A lot of my habits have changed during my stay in France. For one, I turn off the water during every lather interval in the shower. I got this habit from the guy I couchsurfed with. I noticed that he would do it, so I tried it--thinking that it was what I was supposed to do. And honestly, now, it makes so much sense to me. A.) You save water, B.) You're not washing off all of the soap or shampoo before it's done its job, and C.) It's already so warm in the bathroom you don't need the water on to keep warm. This is how the french bathe apparently, and I am all for it. I'm still fresh and clean. I just do more for the environment.
Another thing that's changed is that I dress more conservatively. If you compare the pictures of me pre-France or even my first week in France, you see that I am very bright and colorful and kind of just don't care about how much of my skin shows as long as I don't look slutty. Nowadays, I'm always in boots and a cardigan. Dark colors were always one of my 'things' before but now I'm in a place where it's not only acceptable, but encouraged! I love it here. French girls dress modestly--but with style, they don't straighten their hair, and they only use the essentials in cosmetics and they look fabulous!!! I've always thought things were a bit overdone/over-dramatized in the states but being here definitely proves to me that less is more.
I've also started to drink coffee every day. Most of you know that I am highly sensitive to caffeine so I limited myself to one cup every two weeks at home. I've had to go to numerous doctors for this problem because I had started getting strange caffeine induced panic attacks. It's odd. I would be at a stop light and my hands and feet would getting sweaty all of a sudden, then my pulse would get so fast and heavy that it would feel like my heart was in my throat. I would then get light-headed as if I was going to black out. I've never actually passed out but it scared me enough to see some specialists. I was tested for heart diseases, hyperthyroidism, etc...Negative results for all. After all of the doctors concluded that it was not in my head and that I don't abuse caffeine, they collectively decided that my body must have created a way of storing caffeine. They came to this conclusion after a little experiment. After a month of not consuming caffeine (in coffee, chocolate, tea, soda, etc...) I still had the panic attacks and when brought to the hospital my caffeine levels would be through the roof. It's strange now that I get to enjoy coffee once, or twice a day even. I wonder what's different about the coffee here. Or, maybe, my body fixed itself. Whatever's happened, I'm glad I am able to experience the art of coffee once again.
I've picked up a lot of habits from the kids I nanny as well. Léa and Camille like hugs so I've been more of a cuddler with the kids. You all know I like my space, lol, so this is a change. Baptiste plays soccer so I've been super active with him out in the yard. And Gregoire gets up at the crack of dawn so I'm also up much earlier--without an alarm clock surprisingly.
It was fun having all of the kids here over fall break. Not only did I have the triplets and Gregoire, but I also had Antoine and Nicholas. It was kind of crazy watching 6 kids every day but they're all so well-behaved that I didn't really have to do much in the way of discipline or control. I did, however, learn to say no. They would ask me to do a million things with them and I had already done a million things with them earlier so I got a bit worn out. No worries though. The internet connection here is better than it was at the last house so I would just pull up an American movie, tell them to sit, and they'd all watch intently. Ha haha. They'd even learn some new words and phrases. [No worries, they're kids' movies so they learn good words ;-)] I'm still an advocate for doing all of the outdoorsy things but at the end of the day, I want to just make dinner, drink some wine, and chill with the grown-ups.
Now that we're pretty much settled and unpacked in the new house, I'm looking for ways to decorate my room--either to leave for the next potential au pair or as a guest room. I have beautiful goldenrod walls, I was thinking of doing maybe light-blue bedding. Something I would never have the guts to do in my own house. I'm either in completely bold, warm colors or all white. What do you think? Let me know if you have any suggestions for the blue. I was thinking bedding like this...
YOU a cuddler and hugger? Who would have thought?! :)
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