Moving On Up

Day 28:

We're moving! Ok, not really, but we're changing from one floor to another. Let me explain. The first floor of our house (that my in-laws own) is a student residence. Yes, we're married and we have roommates. Not cool. The second floor of the house has two bedrooms, a possible kitchen and a bathroom with no shower. And the third floor of the house is my half finished studio. Right now the second floor is unoccupied, but it's in pretty bad shape. So we are going to fix it up a little bit (really just wax the floors and paint the walls and do some major cleaning) and move up there. It will be almost like having an apartment to ourselves, except that we'll still share the kitchen with the people downstairs. Even though our new place has the pipes and everything hooked up to have a kitchen, we don't want to invest money in buying a fridge, stove and sink.

I'm so excited about this because I'd really like to have some more privacy. Not only from our roommates, but from my in-laws. It's nothing against them, really they are wonderful, amazing and generous people. But I am a person who really needs her own space. When I moved out to go to college in Florida (I'm from Michigan) I never went back to living with my mom or dad. Once I got a taste of freedom, there was no going back! And now, being here, next door to my in-laws, is a little bit too much like regression for me. They don't even have to knock on the front door to come in to our house, because their house is connected with ours. They just come in through a side door that's always open and walk right into our patio/kitchen area. I can't handle that. I hide in my room every time that happens (multiple times a day usually). And we have politely asked my MIL to back off a bit but she got really angry and hurt and didn't speak for us for two weeks...and then just started talking to us again one day and went right back to doing what she always does. So I really don't want to hurt her feelings and I think that by going to the second floor where we have our own separate door, that will naturally create a little privacy without having to ask her again. We'll just keep it locked. Although if it were locked, I would not be at all surprised if she got a ladder and climbed in through the window. In fact, I wouldn't even bat an eyelash. I'd probably just sigh and then resign myself to the fact that she'll never let us be truly alone and independent until we leave the country.