Beginning once again

Here are some preliminary shots of the house, now that most of the unpacking has been done, except for the garage, which is the big dumping ground. O dear. 

The sun just blazes in as the back of our house faces east. We've had a bunch of rain so there is heavy dew on everything, including the windows.

The breakfast nook. We had to get a countertop microwave, since the flipper of this house installed a big exhaust fan/light over the stove. Since we already had this little cabinet, I hoped it would fit, and voila it did. Room enough for the toaster, which keeps the crumbs off the speckled granite counters. We can watch the birds on our neighbors deck, and have seen a bunch of cuties daily. Haven't seen her shih tzus since we moved in. But we did meet her lawn man and hurridly hired him to do our lawn today before it really becomes a jungle. 

I'd be having my coffee on the deck if it weren't so wet. 

 Cannas in bloom and pink roses too, right outside the breakfast nook window.

 The living room for the time being. I already ordered a different rug in black and white (probably ivory...o well) buffalo check. I had this turquoise one and tested it out and thought, nahhhh. The chairs are my old Poangs from Ikea when it first opened up in Illinois, way back when. They  have been living with my sister, and now are baaaaaack! Everything hinges on begin black and white and red, even if that means brick red. I put the couch in front of the fire place which is an unsightly black hole until it is filled with logs or something. Here's the view from another angle:

 The first iteration of the studio. The room is the smallest studio I have had, and I am going to make it work anyway. The table on the left is right up against the closet doors, but is easily moved if need be. Wheels on everything!! The windows face west and the blinds are still down from yesterday afternoon,

 and then this morning I opened them to bring in the morning sun. Lots of greenery outside the window, which faces the street, so I can see when UPS arrives, heehee. Actually, today we will receive the Home Depot truck with our new washer and dryer.  Woowoo!

 The kitchen which is a work in progress. I am getting rid of that faucet and have ordered a new one. I've already had a plumber out here yesterday due to my stupidity. I confess I couldn't make the showers work. No hot water, while all the other faucets had plenty. Turns out that I was moving the handle to the left for hot when in fact they move to the right. Why is this? My sinks all have the hot on the left, so what is that all about. $50 bucks to find out how dumb I am. But one of the handles leaked and he fixed that, so it wasn't all a waste. 

Here's my current faucet and the one I am replacing it with:

Could they be more different? 

Because the walls are covered with penny tiles, I couldn't mount my knife rack and saw this idea on Pinterest (source of all good ideas) and it works for now, or forever, who knows. Already had those vases, and just added beans. In this pic you can see the granite. Not my fave, but I am so happy with EVERYTHING else that it just doesn't bother me at all.

 A few of the figs I just picked, well, half of them. I ate the rest. Two trees, two different varieties. Both yummy.

 I am keeping the table set, because it is so red and white. No curtains in this house, hurray!

Ding dong, the washer dryer has now arrived. Gotta go watch it happen!

Update:

 Already working for me,

And the delivery guys, who could have been a comedy duo, also fixed my fridge issue. The water in the door never came out because the fridge was pushed up against the water hose and it kinked. So now I have icy cold water from the spout. Yay!