The 'Castle' - Ground floor

So ... yes, it has been quite a while since the last regular blogs ...
and most of that has to do with settling in to the new place here!
Theo and Kaia seem very happy with everything - lots to explore and places to hide from Mommy and Daddy!
The house is 7 min. from school so that is a major convenience for all of us.
We have some friends on this side of town, but not as many as the Njiro side.
The house is all rooms, bathrooms and stairs!
Tia Leslie and Uncle John visit us starting tomorrow and poor them! - they'll be sleeping on the top floor a few stories up!  Lots of exercise!!!  (these are the top flights of stairs in the house up to the guest room)

The mosquitos have slowly gotten better too - far fewer these days ...
The garden is a wonderful work in progress ... PJ has done some very creative gardening but more on that another day ...

So now, to finish off a bit about our new place here ...
Here are a few pics of the ground floor ...
One of the most bizarre aspects of this place is the switches (here, there, everywhere!) - there is a switch outside for our hot water on the ground floor ... (not pictured) - and this switch here (groan! - also outside ...) pumps the water up to the 2nd floor (cold or hot!)  BIZARRE!!!!

and a switch at the bottom of the stairs on the ground floor - for the 2nd floor hot water!  What the heck?!

Here is our living room ... a strange small-ish corner of the ground floor ... not the greatest of pics, does not do the big / soft / comfy leather couches justice!

Here, another odd little corner of the ground floor, is our dining room area ... fancy/nice wood table with a sink nearby just in case ... sort of in the middle/on the way between kitchen and living room ...

and lastly, for today ... a strange oven/water boiler/stove outside of our kitchen ... close to maid's quarters ... have not used this yet ... for a rainy day ... or maybe we'll fire it up for Leslie and John!  (not sure why/how!)