Our New Home!

It might just because I'm a bit nosy but as friends have moved overseas I have wished so badly to have a little tour of their house, just to see what life in a different country looks like. So.. for all those curious friends like me (and to make sure we have a record of our first home in India) I went thought the house tonight to give my best effort at a tour :) 

Welcome to our new home! It is truly a HUGE blessing from the Lord!! 

This is our front door. We live on the "first floor" which is actually two flights up.. the bottom floor is our landlord. Our landlord is a really nice older lady who was a doctor and has her eldest son, daughter-in-law and grand daughter (Ezra's age) living with her too. They have been very available to any questions or concerns but not to intrusive.. a very hard balance to find here.. the first of many blessings! 

When you come in you walk into the dining room. There is a really nifty built in shelving/cabinet thing. We haven't quite figured out how we want to decorate it but now that we have all the necessities that will be our next step.. and a fun one! We just put up a "in everything give thanks" word art from hobby lobby - it's a very good reminder! Also note the shoes by the door. For the most part people take their shoes off by the front door because it is really dirty outside and you don't want to track that inside. 

As you walk in you see the dining table. There are four chairs and a bench on the back side so when we have friends over for dinner we can line up the kids on the bench.. haha  

To the right there is another neat built in shelving thing and another hobby lobby wall decal. I was able to walk to the market and get the frame custom made to fit around the decal in 15 minutes for under $10.. too cool! The door on the right is a bathroom. 

On the left is the living room. The rooms are divided by a neat glass/wood half wall. Ezra loves playing with it. The big doors in the back go to a long skinny balcony that overlooks the street and a park. 

Indians like very flamboyantly fabriced couches.. as in - big gold flowers and bedazzled. These were the simplest ones we could find.. haha Above them are the canvases I had in Ezra's nursery.. I grew to like them so much that they've been upgraded to the living room :) 

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If you walk left from the front door you pass the kitchen. This is a miracle. I had prepared myself for a small dingy kitchen because that's more common but God so outdid himself in providing this wonderful kitchen! It has modular cabinets, granite countertops (super cheap here.. haha) and two windows! 

We can't drink the water from the tap here so above the sink we have a water filter. Above the cabinets you'll see a water heater - we turn it on to get hot water for washing dishes. Also inside the sink is a bucket of veggies sitting in water, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to clean off the pesticides. After about 30 minutes I can clean them off and put them in the fridge. 

Electric stoves with an oven like most American homes is not common in India. There is usually only room for the fridge. So.. this is our gas stove. Fire makes me nervous but I'm getting pretty good at it! 

My one requirement for the house was room for a bigger fridge. Most fridges are about 200 liters.. like a large dorm fridge but I was told by wise women to get a large one.. so we splurged and I'm so thankful! Beside the fridge is our on the counter oven. It works just like normal oven but it's in Celcius.. I always have to google the difference from F to C. The microwave and coffee maker are normal. Though the microwave does have the ability to be a convection oven too.. pretty neat and totally over my cooking understanding.. haha :) 

This is Ezra's room. He loves to climb up the stairs and slide down on to his letter mat - with me standing right behind him of course! He sleeps in his little PeaPod tent.. it's been great! And he'll use that until he is ready for the big boy bed. 

Our third bedroom is pretty empty. We were actually given this bed and this desk.. so that's there.. It's pretty low on my priority list. The door goes to the back balcony where Ezra's swing and our dryer is. A dryer is another rare thing in India but God is so good to have provided one for us and man are we already SO thankful! 

On the other side of the house is our room. We were about to watch a movie so Luke had the projector set up when I walked in to take pictures . 

Luke waiting patiently for me to stop taking pictures :) 

He doesn't understand why people would want to see our house.. I told him it's a girl thing.. haha 

I have always wanted a chair in the corner of our bedroom and we finally have a room large enough for one. I'm so thankful to have built in closets in every room because we didn't have to buy dressers or armoires. Next to the closets is the bathroom. 

The fact that we have a wall around our shower is really rare too. Most showers just run out into the floor and the water (hopefully) runs to the drain. 

We don't have a big water heater.. instead every bathroom has an individual heater that you turn on about 30 minutes before you want to take a shower and it will warm up water. It saves energy. 

The light switches here are crazy! For every outlet there is a switch to turn if off and on.. does that make sense? 

Two other interesting things... there is no central heating or ac so here is our little but powerful heater we use sometimes. We'll ACs later in each bedroom and the living room. And this orange machine is awesome! It is used to zap mesquites.. haha Mosquitos here can give you diseases so they are the enemy! 

I hope you feel like you've come over :) If I could serve you chai tea and cookies I would.. (that's how Indian's welcome guests). This is certainly not how every house in India looks. Homes range from slums to mansions.. It's crazy! We have a nice apartment because these are the ones that have electricity, showers, western toilets, american style kitchens etc. I am so very thankful for how God has provided for us! 

Soon I'll gather photos of our neighborhood too because there are definitely some sights to see!