Settling into our new abode

Settling into our new place, buying new and used furniture, stocking the kitchen, washing clothes in my new washer…we feel like we are living a totally new life. Yes, I did bring a few knicknacks from the old house/life, but just a few, not too many. We bought 2 used beds from an expat whose visa wasn’t approved, a king and a queen as well as a desk and chair; we bought a dining room set (sala de comedor), a coffee table, a tv stand and an end table from one furniture store, Colineal. Here’s the dining room table and chairs in front of our wonderful view:

We also ordered the sectional/couch/ottoman but it may take up to 5 weeks to arrive, so we went ahead and bought a futon/bed for the office. That floor is too hard to watch TV on it so we’ll leave the futon (arrives Tuesday along with the bar stools we picked out) in the living room for relaxing until the new couch arrives.

We also purchased a microwave, washer/dryer, and refigerator, here’s what some of them look like in our kitchen:

For the bedrooms, I ordered an ‘allergy treated’ mattress pad, a blanket and navy blue bedspread/shams for our bedroom. A VERY good friend loaned us king size sheets until our ‘shipment’ of household goods arrive, sometime after our visa is approved. We’ve got a queen size mattress pad on the guest bed. When our first guests come, I hope they come bearing sheets! I plan to order them and ship them to our daughter’s, as she may be our first guest.

Our next order of purchases will be window coverings for the bedroom (it has a thin blind, but it’s not ‘oscuro’ meaning the room is not dark enough for me to sleep nicely with all that light) the kitchen and the dining room, and bedside tables for the bedrooms. We are also looking for something to put the TV on in the bedroom, maybe a slim dresser or something that will match the bed frame.

We’ve found a great place for Fish n Chips with cole slaw, $5.95 on Friday nights at Don Colon’s at the Hotel Coronel. It’s going to be our standing Friday night date night!  I love his fish and chips.  We plan to try more of the cafes and restaurants on the street in front of our building, and there’s a large deli not too far away. Also, I’ve been told of a writer’s luncheon every Thursday, I want to meet the other ‘writers’ in residence in Cuenca. We met one, at Don Colon’s last week, hope to see her again.  Hubby wants to get back into a gym routine, probably on a daily basis so I will have some free time to myself.  I am hoping to have some baking successes here, I’ve begun to figure out the oven, somewhat, but it’s fun learning.

This week is a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce about Visa’s, and we plan to attend. We are ready to get the documents translated, notarized and submitted, but we think maybe we should go to this meeting and hear if anything has changed before we submit all the papers.

We are home now! Keep our fingers crossed that the visa is approved, but we don’t anticipate any problems…Ojala!