Cribs....BDA edition

As promised in previous blogs I have taken pics of our almost (about 98.9%) completed home.  I will apologize, they were taken with my blackberry and some of them are a bit blurry, but you will get the idea. 

So to give you an idea of the island first I have included a map below.....

as you can see the big red arrow on the left side is where we live in Southampton.  The other big red arrow on the right is where I work in Tuckers Town.  I basically commute from one end of the island to the other each day.  Thankfully it is much better views than I used to have on the T.

So back to the crib....
 


1 Port Royal Mews, Southampton BDA

  Here it is! Our apartment is the lower level of the house.  Currently there is no one living above us, which we are very thankful for!  There have been people doing work and with all hard wood floors it is very loud.  Every time a family with kids comes to look at it both Philip and I cringe and hope they do not decide to buy the place! 

There's Philip sitting on the steps outside the front door.  Because as it turns out that is the only place you can get reception on your phone. 

Lets take a look inside:

Here is our living room and our front door.  The way the apartment is set up is very bizarre.  You can't really tell what each room is supposed to be so we just winged it and decided this would be our living room/dining room/ entry way. 

The door you see on the right side of the pic is our spare room that we will be using for guests.  It is also the only room in the house that has a closet in it.  Like I said, very bizarre. 

It has been almost 3 years in the making, but we finally have a dinner table!  Philip and I both love that we no longer have to sit on the couch and try to balance a plate on our lap to eat dinner together.  The first night we had dinner at the table Philip said it felt like we were out to dinner because that was the only time over the past 4 years we have sat at a table together!  The other bonus about the table and the apartment is that we have space once again to entertain!  I love having people over for dinner but the apartment in Boston made that tough.  We had our first dinner party last night and it was awesome!  (thats why there are 2 bottles of wine on the table. It was not all for me!!!)

As we continue down the hallway we make our way into the kitchen.  It is a pretty good sized kitchen.  Large enough to fit everything I wanted, including my china cabinet, in it.  To the right is a walk in pantry which comes in very handy both for our food but also for storage for Philips products on the ice cream truck. 

Before you get the the pantry, you hit Philip's fav room of the house.....

The Bathroom!!!!  Keeping in the "this is so odd" theme of the rest of the place...the bathroom is like a maze! you walk in the very narrow part where the sink is and go up a step where the shower is.  Then you take a right and there is a linen closet there and then a left to get to the potty.  I still worry that when I get up in the night to pee I am not going to find my way back out until daylight.

Right off of the kitchen is (as they say on Cribs is "where all the magic happens") the bedroom.  It is a large room and could probably fit the bedroom from our place in Boston inside it 2 times over!  We think this room was an add on because for one thing the tile is different in this room than the rest of the house.  We are not sure if this was supposed to be the living room because it has what appears to be the front door in.  And if you look in the right corner over there....a washer and dryer.  But there is no closet in this room. 

You can't really tell from the above pic, but right outside our door is every child's fantasy....

its the ice cream truck!  I am going to have to walk way more than 60 miles to work off the pounds I am putting on thanks to that thing.  It is just way to easy to open the bedroom door and go get a root beer float every night! 

So now that you have seen the inside, lets take a look at our whips (another cribs reference for those of you who have never seen the show)...

Here is our current mode of transportation....its the bike! I do not yet have my license to ride it, but am planning on doing so very soon.  Much to both my dads and Philips concerns. I think I will be an excellent excellent driver!


This is our front yard, which is huge (but full of sink holes!).  Philip wants to set up a volleyball net, I guess he still is not clear on how not athletic I am!  Right across the street there was Philips number 1 selling point that sealed the deal on the place...that is a nursery school.  As soon as he parked the truck in our yard the teacher was over knocking on the door. 

And this is one of my favorite details...

its a US Mailbox here in BDA!!!!  I love it.  Its a lil taste of home...bills and all!

Obviously living here is very different than living in Boston was.  Some of the things I am not used to are:

Palm trees....lots and lots of them!

and peach trees!  We have about 6 or 7 of them in our yard.  Too bad for me I am allergic to peaches.  Philip is hoping I will learn to make Peach Pie.  Its not likely to happen ( but I have not clued him in on that yet!)

and the snails!!!  These little guys are EVERYWHERE!!!!!  I have never seen so many in all my life.  They seem to be going away now.  but yuck!

And finally here are our neighbors...

that pink house right behind us has a very large pool.  Maybe Iwill learn to make that peach pie so I can go and introduce myself!

So that's our Crib! Now go on, get outta here (one last Cribs reference!)

Home Sweet Home.....Almost

So we are almost all settled into the new place....I know, I'm sorry I have not taken pics.  I promise the next post will include pics of our place.  Being that we have out first house guests coming this weekend it acted as a wonderful catalyst for me to get my butt in gear and get everything done.  Right now the only outstanding thing we need to do is get our guests a bed to sleep in.  Philip is promising to do this Wednesday...after my threat of us sleeping on the air mattress if they do not have a bed by Friday!  We got an AC on Friday afternoon  to cool the place down so poor Bridget doesn't die of heat exhaustion!  This was only after Tuesday when we decided we needed a dehumidifier and Philip decided that I could hold it on my leg on our bike on the ride home.  That was a sight!  I am so happy there was no one around us to take a pic of that.  When we bought the AC I made sure he had the car to go get it.  His reasoning for carring the dehumidifier on the bike was he has seen 2 Filipinos on a bike carring a mattress, if they can do that then surely we can carry the dehumidifier. Keep in mind both of his hands are needed for driving so really it was me holding it and praying I didn't drop it. 

I am starting to get used to island life again.  There are so many things I forgot were so different than home.  One of the big ones being the cost of goods here.  I know anyone who has been to visit knows what I am talking about.   We went grocery shopping the other day.  Keep in mind we do not have a trunk to put the bags in so whatever we buy we need to be able to carry on the bike.  This is what we got...

3 bags....and $198 later we had food for 3 days!  Of course $40 of that was 1 (crappy) bottle of wine and a 6 pack of Corona (that didn't last 3 days!). This was the first trip that was under $200 so I was very proud of myself and my money saving abilities! 
We have our first dinner guests coming over tomorrow night, can't wait to see how much that grocery bill is going to be tonight!

Rain Rain, go Away....

It has been a very dry summer so far on the island (completely opposite of what spring was like at home!) but it seems that we are going to make up for it in the next few days.  We are expecting rain for most of the week, which is a good thing for our water tank so that we are able to bathe and have drinking water...but very bad for the Ice Cream business!  Also, apparently our bike does not like the rain as today was the second time it has gotten wet and the second time it has refused to start.  This leaves me with no other option than a 2 hour each way bus ride too and from work...that is if the bus even shows up!  I never thought I would see the day when I would say "I miss the T!" but here it is.

We had a very eventful weekend!  On Friday after spending 4 hours on the phone with Bank of America (which has resulted in me cursing them and deciding that on my next trip home I will be closing my account...not that they care!) we were finally able to get my stuff off the boat.  Philip had arranged a truck to pick everything up and bring it to our house.  Of course the truck driver forgot so Philip found 2 guys (1 who was so old her could barely walk and the other who had a can of soda in his hand that he claimed was "just soda") and a truck and was able to get everything to our apartment and loaded into our living room and spare bedroom!

Our Spare Bedroom

 

Our Living room



I was so happy to come home from work to find our house looking like this, I immediately pulled out my list that told me what was in each box (we had to keep a running list of each box by number with all of the items inside them.  It was a pain while packing, but made finding things and unpacking very easy!) and found the magic box...



That would be the box that held my wine glasses!  No more having to drink my Sav Blanc out of a solo cup for me!!  Philip was also very happy to finally have everything in the house so he didn't have to listen to me one more time say "I can't wait to have my stuff!"  He had worked so hard to get it all set for me on Friday that we set him up with a place to sit and have a beer to relax with....

the only problem was it didn't fit inside our place with all of the boxes.  We decided to kick it white trash style and move our table and chairs to our front yard!  We are 1 pick up truck on cement blocks away from being NASCAR fans!

We both had to work on Saturday, so not too much got done.  Sunday was a totally different story!  Philips brother made the mistake of just stopping by and we put him to work for the day!  We were able to get everything about 90% unpacked and assembled.  And finally for the first time in 2.5 years Philip and I were able to sit at the table together to eat dinner!  Philip said it felt like we were out to dinner because we have not done this in so long.  

Stay tuned for pictures once we have everything put away...hopefully over the next few days since Philip can work on it while the rain keep him from the truck.   

red house nine: 3 Days, 60 Miles, and A Million Blisters.

red house nine: 3 Days, 60 Miles, and A Million Blisters.: "A non-house related post that touches everyones life and heart. Just about 11 years ago I lost someone very, very dear to me; that day chan..."

Sunday Funday becomes Just Another Manic Monday

So what started as a very nice sunny lunch in Dockyard quickly went south when the skies opened and the rain everyone else in NE has been getting for weeks decided to show up here all in one half hour! (I have the photographic evidence to prove this, but IT is screwing with me tonight, so the pics will have to wait). Due to the rain and the concern that we may melt we decided it would be best to stay and have another drink and let the rain stop. Once it did we walked around some of the newer shops in Dockyard and bought the most expensive tube of toothpaste I have ever seen in my life. As I said yesterday the next stop was going to be the farm stand for some fresh veggies...that was until our bike (the one we had bought only 3 days earlier) decided that it did not like the rain either and therefore was not going to start. We ended doing something Philip has not done in years (if ever!) we took the bus home. By that time the sun came out and it was time to walk. Philip and I did a 10 mile walk which I am happy to say he was a real trooper for! It was by far the best training walk I have done here so far and I think I may have recruited the newest member to  Baby got Rack 2012!

Well the good news is Philip took the bus today (2 days in a row!!) and got the bike started (once again becoming my hero so I do not have to depend on the bus. It tends to not show up...ever!) so we are back on 2 wheels again.

The next adventure is going to be getting all of our stuff that has been in Boston into our apartment here. It is looking like it may happen this Friday (fingers crossed!) which will be nice, no more cooking with plastic butter knives and a wok! Stay tuned for more updates....

I am finally able to upload pics, so these are some of the shots from Sunday Funday in Dockyard....

This is just after the downpour started, you  can see all of the rain behind Philip.  And yet my hubby is so cool, he doesn't even take his sunglasses off!

Here is the before when the rain started...

and then 3 mins later, this is what it looked like again...

Finally we went to the glass blowing factory because I think it is awesome to watch....

too bad for us this was the sign that was posted there....

oh well, better luck next time I guess!

Sunday funday!

So Philip has decided to take the day off work today! This means Sunday Funday BDA style. I am guessing it is going to be nothing like Sunday Funday in Boston, but still a great day never the less. So what to do....that's the big question. Right now we are thinking we will jump on the bike and head to Dockyard. Grab a bite to eat with all of the cruise ship tourist and then hit up the fram stand for some fresh veggies. Then....walk 12 miles! Philip thinks he will be able to keep pace with me, we shall see. So sit tight and I will update you in a bit on how the day goes.....

Back to BDA....

So as the title of this blog says, its is the day to day life of Katie and Philip.  Katie (that's me!) grew up in NY and most recently lived in Boston.  Philip is a home grown onion (that's what a Bermudian is called...hence the title).  We have been married for just over 3 years after having met here in Bermuda while I was on island for 2 week for work.  Our love story is not typical but is very special to me.  We happened to cross paths and spent 2 amazing weeks getting know each other.  On our first night out together Philip said he was going to marry me, and that is exactly what he did.



Katie and Philip- April 12, 2008
Our wedding at Fourways Inn


 I ended up moving here to Bermuda and we lived here for just over 2 years.  We decided to give the US a try and moved to Boston in 2008.  As of three weeks ago (May 2011) we are back on the Rock!



South Shore Rd, Southampton, BDA overlooking the Fairmont Southampton

 So taking after my friend Kelly who has an awesome blog about her adventures in completely gutting and redoing her dream house (www.redhousenine.blogspot.com) I thought this would be a good way to keep everyone updated on what it is like living here in Bermuda!  So I hope you enjoy!