Moved!

We have moved into our new home! The former owners of this place graciously allowed us to move belongings into the spacious garage a couple of days ahead of our closing date. The move would have been significantly more challenging without that provision, and we are grateful that we were allowed to do that. Even so, there were some hiccups in the moving process. Several heavy items were a big challenge to move, and one big wardrobe remains in our old home as it simply would not come out (and nearly did in a couple of our helpers in the attempt). After moving all day long (9:00 a.m. to after 10:00 p.m.) the day before our closing, we slept one more time in the old house, on an air mattress. 

Moving day chaos

So many people helped - even Elle!

Moving our final belongings out the next morning became a bit of a challenge as well, as we kept discovering more and more things that were still in the house. R.J. could see the problem long before I could. In the end, we made it out before the 7:30 a.m. deadline, with the help of our amazing friend/realtor, Pete Dokken. We took our cat to our kids’ apartment while we closed on the new house, and because I only THOUGHT I closed the kennel, she escaped for a few minutes out in the parking lot. It was very cold and snowing, so by the time we got her back she was shivering. I apologized for being a bad cat mom, and I think/hope Rilla forgave me. The closing itself was seamless and fairly painless, but when we emerged from closing and checked the weather, what had been a slight chance of snow turned into a Winter Storm Warning. We moved from the garage to the new house in snow. R.J. and I ran out of steam somewhere in the mid/late afternoon of Friday, January 18. We still needed to move in some heavy items but called it a day. After our first sleep in our new home, we woke up to a new, much longer driveway that needed shoveling. Thankfully, more gracious friends showed up that afternoon to help us move in those final big items as we were still out of gas. In all, I counted at least 27 people who helped us with the move and many more who brought food or prayed for us. God even provided an extra day off school (weather-related closure) for me to continue settling in after the weekend was over! We are so very blessed.

Friends helped set up our dining room table

Our snowy driveway, on the day after we moved in.

We are now in the process of unpacking and trying to figure out where everything goes. In spite of my de-junking for the better part of six months in preparation for the move, we still have TOO MUCH STUFF. Moving here has been extremely good for me. There are so many belongings that no longer hold joy for me, and I am ready to part with them. There was something about seeing how many boxes it took to hold all our things (and then being a part of the process to move all those boxes) that made me reevaluate my need for those things. I decided as I packed that a garage sale in the spring would be a great way to meet my new neighbors. More sorting is occurring as we unpack, to figure out which items belong in the garage sale category. Yay! Fewer belongings will be better. We consider that we basically are moving to a three bedroom apartment with this move, as we will have one level of the house only. However, the addition of our fabulous garage for storage, and our four season porch as well, really does mean we are doing quite well on space. I will say that EVERYONE should have a four season porch available while unpacking. It makes a great place to stack empty boxes and to stash items until I decide where they go. I love it!

Our new bedroom

Dining room, looking to the kitchen

Living room, looking to the dining room

Rilla, looking to the neighborhood

Our tradition of family nights is continuing at the new place!

Our four season porch/moving staging area

This whole process – preparing myself for moving, preparing (and repairing) the old house for sale, finding the RIGHT new place to live, and then actually moving – has  been emotionally and physically exhausting. Saying goodbye to the old house was draining. R.J. and I both found ourselves almost unable to make decisions at by midway through the first moving day. I even hid in the empty basement for a while, with the cat. I picked up a broom and swept the floor just to make it look like I was doing something down there, even though I knew I was just hiding. It was too much! I’m so glad for those many people who just came in and moved stuff and made decisions when we simply could not. Our friends and family rock.

Goodbye, old home. You were magnificent!

Winter has been in full swing here in the Midwest this week. After a very mild end of December and first half of January, this past week or so (pretty much ever since we moved) has been intense. Overnight last night, we had a storm that dropped just over seven inches of snow on us and now we are headed into an arctic deep freeze. School was cancelled today from the snow and the next two days have already been cancelled from the cold. On Wednesday, the high is predicted to be -19, with a low around -30 and wind chills dropping the temperature another 20 to 30 degrees at times. This is a good time to stay inside, which is working to our advantage as we unpack our belongings. The extra time off work helps, too. You know what? It is exciting to be in this new place. I am enjoying settling in, and the stress has decreased exponentially now that we are on this side of it all. The chaos is also decreasing and this house is becoming our HOME. I am so glad to be starting a new adventure here, with R.J. by my side.

The view out our window today at sunset. Beautiful! 

Come visit us sometime and see the new place!

I think Rilla has forgiven me for accidentally leaving the kennel unlocked!