most days we just lay around ze castle

This house is filled with things we've never had before: a fireplace,

a sweeping front staircase,

decorative parkay floors,

a swirling staircase,

a spacious master suite,

substantial safety features on windows,

(edible!) grapes on terrace,

and enough s p a c e  f o r  e v e r y o n e.

It's only been a few days, but we are enjoying some serious down time. After months of operating at a frenetic pace, nobody seems to mind that we spend a lot of time at home. And by home, I mean our ridiculously large new house in which we could fit five of our old houses. This house is really lovely and peculiar at the same time. This post is undoubtedly the first of many highlighting the many details I am still discovering.

Unlike our former wood-and-plaster home which creaked, groaned, and shifted with the seasons, this one is built of concrete, as many of the local homes are, and it's like living inside a rock. It's clearly built for entertaining, so hopefully we'll soon have enough friends here to fill the space. I believe the bones are good, but there have been certain additions that leave me dumbfounded. If I had to describe the house in two words, they would be tacky elegance.

We are adjusting to the 9-hour time difference. The first few days were messy, one night we all woke up ravenous at 3am, so I made a second dinner. I realized later on that it was, in fact, dinner time where we came from. Things are better now. The girls love the new space, but baby is still uncertain. I think the swirling staircase will eventually win him over.