Friday, November 11, 2011

A Moving Story

We're here and mostly settled into our new home. It's been quite the interesting three weeks as we have worked on this move. My dining room still looks like a box factory and the old house has one day of cleaning left on it, but we're beginning to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel.

We started our move by thinking that we would do things slowly, as our landlord gave us until Thanksgiving to get moved over. (Yes, both places have the same landlord.) We thought our big moving day would be the 12th. The first week we moved nothing but storage items over from our old basement to our new attic. That one week alone showed us two things: This was going to take more effort than we thought AND it was sending our lives into a tailspin. We decided to halt all schooling until we were settled and moved up the big date to the 5th. So as the second week started, we were furiously packing whatever we could and making trips to the new house once or twice a day with the van as full as it could be. We even took our babysitting kids over and they helped our kids get their toys settled into the new rooms. (Their mom gave us permission to put them to work.)

Monday of that week was so awful and stressful for me (partly b/c I scheduled a 31 party for my birthday) that on Tuesday we didn't know what to do. Rob's mom called and he jokingly asked her to take the kids for the week...and she agreed to take the boys from Thursday-Sunday. That was such a huge blessing. While they can be very good workers, we could see the strain on them and the stress for me. Anna was such a good girl while we worked in both places and did get to spend the big moving day with a friend.

This past week, Rob has been working on the remaining things in the old place as well as cleaning it. It has been a bigger chore than expected, partly due to his lack of time during the day and the fact that he keeps finding more things to clean! We're trying to leave it immaculate since the previous tenants of our new place trashed it and it took our landlord two months to clean it up. We just plain feel sorry for him.

I have been trying to get things unpacked here as well as keep up with normal household tasks, but it has been very trying. I have had fibro flare-ups on a daily basis, kids that are wired to deal with, and a dryer that no longer heats. I told Rob not to bother with the dryer until he has the other house cleaned up...I can deal with drying racks and drying some loads multiple times. I have finally caught up with the laundry, thankfully, but it has been trying. I'm looking
forward to next week when Rob and I can work alongside each other to put the house together.

We are enjoying our new home in spite of the stress. The kids have such spacious rooms, I have a wonderful stamp area, and even my bizarre kitchen is working out okay. I will have to take a picture of it and post it here...it is a funky set-up for sure! The house was built in 1875 and our kitchen was created in the 1930's when the place became a duplex. We do have a gorgeous curving staircase and chandeliers in three rooms. I can't wait to get the place completed and decorated!

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