We've moved again!

WE'VE MOVED!

I know, to normal people who live in a house for more than 2 years at a time this might sound crazy, but to MILITARY families, like us, this is a fact of life. You PCS (permanent change of station) to a new base somewhere around the world, then you’re put in TLF (temporary living facilities) and you have from 1-2 weeks to find a house. You try as hard as you can to find a house that's big enough, nice enough, will take pets, has a yard with grass, isn't too far from base and the most important of all, one that you can afford! This is very tricky since don't forget you only have 2 weeks, and it might just be November (when there aren't a lot of houses, and yards don't look the best.) This is how we got stuck in the RED LODGE house. It was nice and newish, but way too small and a distance from the base.

Since the day our household goods were dropped off I knew I didn't want to stay in Red Lodge for our entire 3 years in England. We would be moving ourselves the minute our 1 year let was up, because once you choose a house the military will only pay to move you on base, not to another home off base. In November our year was up we started looking. Things were supposed to be slow and with no pressure, but after looking at a few homes and watching them fly off the market we decided to jump at this home in Mildenhall village. It's older but with more space, it had a terrible kitchen and parking for only 1 car but heck it was 2 minutes from base

Now I know this is a little unfair but the before pictures of our kitchen are from when we originally toured the house. The family knew we were coming over and had time to clean but didn't. The entire house was a hoarding mess but we had to see through the clutter. The kitchen was ugly, old, greasy, broken, burnt, and falling apart in some areas. Dave said he would clean it up nice for me but I thought the Landlord could give me a better offer. I called him and asked if I could paint the cupboards. He did me one better and promised a new kitchen while we were gone on Christmas holidays. We were away for 3 weeks and this:

Turned into this:

Now the kitchen looks so good and I'm proud to have friends over. I actually want to hang out in it. I told Kevin (landlord) that I loved the new kitchen and would take excellent care of it. That I was extremely lucky to live in his house and that he did a great job. A little sucking up, just in case he really does think about raising the rent!