So we are (or rather, I am) at the stage of tweaking the organization of our place. It took me quite a while to figure out where to place things in the kitchen, dragging in metal shelves, then dragging them out again. I think I’ve finally figured it out, but I need to tweak the food cabinets and they’re a bit hodge-podge. We have a separate storage area too, that I’ve put items in I don’t foresee us needing for a long time (or odd things that we’ll never use – like two mop-heads I bought for the mop that we sent to storage, or one metal foot to Ron’s old bed that we sent to storage – I’m assuming the other three feet are with the bedframe, but we’ll see). I did carefully wrap everything that went to storage in either tarps or large trash bags and then sealed and labeled with duct tape. I’d been forewarned that the dust/dirt will be overwhelming for non-covered items. Figuring out the uses for all our closets (we have 8, including a pantry) has been a continual musical-chairs-like event, too. But again, I think I’m getting there. Thank goodness I have a well-honed organizational gene (and for those inevitable items which just can’t seem to find a home, there are lots of cabinets and drawers, too).

You’ll see that we have a large living/dining area, that I have also placed a small desk/office area for me in, as well as an oddly placed dresser under the window (disguised as a dresser, but really a cat bench – we will eventually find a less-obtrusive cat-bench but it does the job for now). The majority of furniture (other than couches, curved bookcases, Ron’s desk and our bed) is provided by the embassy.

Our guest room is cleared of stuff (finally – as the primary dumping ground it was the last tackled). It is ready for visitors, and we can get a queen bed in as well, so don’t worry about bringing sleeping bags.

Ron’s office is fairly tidy, though I can’t vouch for the tidiness-duration.

Our bedroom needs a little more art work, but otherwise is very comfortable (thanks in large part to us transferring out of the Arctic Zone).