The house!

It turns out that our presence is going to have to supply most of the charm to our new home -- it's pretty ugly. Here's the best view of it:


...which highlights the very nearby and quite beautiful Bennett Elementary School.

Jen took 122 photos while in Fargo, but managed not to take one of the actual front of the house. After first accusing me of erasing the photo she must have taken, Jen now admits that it might have been a mental block -- she didn't want to record how awkward this house is. Here's a shot from the real-estate flyer:



All right! Now, having said all that, I think we're going to enjoy the year there. The interior spaces are quite nice. Here's a quick tour.

This is the view of the main floor -- steps down to the front door, and another flight from there to the two bedrooms downstairs.


This is the view of the kitchen and main eating area, directly behind the first shot. There's a bedroom up front, which will probably serve as an office for Jen, and one in back, for me and Jen. There's no actual master bedroom in the house -- no bedroom has an attached bathroom. Odd. But we're pretty used to our bathroom being a public space.


Here's another shot of the main floor. The doors lead out to a nice deck...


... and here is that deck:


This is the view out the front window:


This is the view from bottom of the stairs, with one bedroom to each side, and a big playroom directly behind the camera. Jen seems to have sold Joey and Ellie on sharing a bedroom, which I wouldn't have dared attempt.


This is the secret hiding place Joey discovered in a closet in one of the bedrooms, which I'm sure will get some use:


This is the back of the house:



Ok. that's the tour. There's nothing particularly notable about the individual bedrooms or bathrooms, plus, they're hard to photograph. On to Bennett Elementary!


This is the drop-dead gorgeous library at Bennett:


It's not clear to me why they have such high ceilings in the school -- wouldn't they be hard to heat? I'm sure they know what they're doing.

This is a cluster of classrooms. They tend to have a bunch of rooms lined up, with a common area up front, where activities can be conducted among several classes:


This is the really cool part: Lockers!


Everybody gets one. Katie is very excited, though she would prefer that only the upper grades were issued lockers.

This is the lunchroom -- also very nice. I love the exposed woodwork in the ceilings, which seems to run throughout the school:


Moving on! This is a shot of the brand-new Hornbacher's grocery store that serves the neighborhood:


Yum! Here was the highlight of the trip for Joey -- the waterslide at the hotel he, Jen, and Judith stayed at: