The Carpenter Connection: On The Street Where We Live

It's been awhile now since we moved into our amazingly wonderful flat in the Lodge, but we are not taking it for granted. We are soooo happy to be here!!

This is what the Lodge looks like now, in April.
Our flat is on the top floor on the left. So nice!

You might remember that we spent the first month of our mission in a rented house in Ardingly, about 20 minutes south of Newchapel, where the London temple is. It was a great blessing to live there, but a difficult commute in to the temple grounds early every morning and late every night. It is really dark in the winter, at night, on the foggy, icy, winding, narrow roads of southern England.

This was our commute from Ardingly to the temple grounds.
Well, it didn't look like this for very long, but even without the snow
it was a crazy adventure for two senior Americans learning how to drive
on the left side (not wrong) of the road! Thank heaven the British
are really respectful on the roads. Only got honked at once
during all our trips back and forth to Ardingly....

We got word on Friday, February 17th, that there was a two bedroom flat (apartment) available for us in the Lodge on the temple property. We were surprised and grateful! Since we didn't have time to write about it earlier, here's a little photo journal essay of what has happened in the past two months:

The Lodge - about a week before we moved in.

It was a great day when our shipment of belongings arrived from the U.S.
We hadn't seen our stuff since it was packed and shipped (slow boat) from Draper
two months earlier, on December 16th. Thankfully, it all arrived a week before
we moved into the Lodge.

Don was happy to help the movers unload the truck :)

With the help of a few do-it-yourself bookshelves, a couple of trips to Tesco, Costco, and the local mall, along with some furniture from a mail-order catalog, we got our flat whipped into shape.

View from our living room (called a "lounge") to the kitchen

Living room/dining room area

Moving into our sunny kitchen!

The view from our flat. The Visitor's Centre is on the left, London Temple on the right.
At night, it's even prettier when everything is lighted. Some mornings, though,
when we wake up, it is so foggy we can't even see the temple at all.

We are quite content to have our "home" just across the parking lot from the Visitors' Centre and the London Temple. We still pinch ourselves every once in awhile to see if it's really true.

Living Room/Dining Room

The finished kitchen

A view of the Lodge from the east side of the Visitors' Centre.

Planes overhead on approach to Gatwick at all times of the day and night.
I don't mind a bit. It reminds me of growing up near LAX.
Interesting that we lived right under the flight pattern in Washington, D.C., too.