Little House on the (ex)Prairie

I’ve been planning to blog how life is in our little rental house. “Cosy” is one way to put it. I had to measure the size of our one bathroom the other day: 5 feet x 5-1/2 feet. Interestingly, just as we are expanding our storage space at our home, we are learning to live with less in our rental. Hmmm. Hopefully we won’t forget that lesson anytime soon.

Here’s a picture of the outside of our rental house. I had to do just a bit of contaniner gardening. Steve enjoys reading the paper on the front porch. The cats also love the porch – there is plenty to watch between birds and squirrels in the trees and cars and people at the convenience store next door.


Two things are getting Steve through the summer: Baseball and Zuma.
Here is Steve parked in his chair watching the Twins take on the Yankees.



And what is Zuma? A highly addictive computer game we learned at Aunt Mary’s last winter. We all play it now, but Steve is the only one to get to “Sun God” status. Here’s the boys, emulating their father, sitting at the counter between the living room and kitchen.

Christopher and AJ have the expansion attic space, with a skylight and a window at each end of the attic. It’s a “bachelor pad” for the younger set with beds, train table, toys, bean bag, and absolutely, hands-down, the best of all, a TV and DVD player.

We are a little less than 2 miles from our house, but there are new parks and restaurants to discover in the neighborhood. Christopher and AJ have been zooming around the block on their scooters, and Christopher has learned to ride his “new” bike (it’s an original Schwinn Dragster).

And lastly, we are escaping frequently to the cabin on weekends. Here is a photo of Steve getting some help trying out his new hammock next to the lake. Aww.