Coming up for air…

Before we get into how messy my current situation is right now….let me just revel in how much I love it when Will does his monkey walk. 

I love it.  more than a lifetime of bacon. 

And yes, when he does it, I sing the “Wanna be like you-ou-ou…” song from Jungle Book…

I’ve been getting sad eyes lately.  Apparently his antibiotic didn’t get rid of both ear infections (or it did and then he got another one) and now he is back hittin the meds.  Poor guy. 

Now let’s talk about the trainwreck that is my life lately.  First up is the small improvements we have been making on the house lately. 

We have had quite the to-do list for the new house and the old house and literally it feels like the world is exploding into pieces of chaos and we are chasing those pieces down and then desperately grabbing at the other pieces, juggling everything at once and trying not to drop anything.  It’s like survival by the skin of our teeth.

A week ago they started installing the furnace….if you are new to join us, our new house was a foreclosure and it qualified for a rehab loan.  This means that there were items that required ‘fixing’ by a government approved contractor immediately upon closing…one of these items was a basement furnace.  I got a couple pictures of the space before…where it looked like a cartoon telephone tube type porthole…

 

to finally this fully functional furnace with what looks like a high ponytail of dredlocks:

Hopefully having the furnace now means that we will have less chance of any reoccuring mildew issues.  Although washing walls with bleach means supersoft hands…so there is an upside

The other big item that was on our contractor’s list was the water heater.  The house didn’t have any hot water while I was attempting to clean it…so you can imagine that I became quite familiar with carrying jugs of water from one house to the other and my neighbors became quite familiar with seeing me head for the woods (no running waters equal no flushing toilets).  Thankfully it only took four days to get one installed. I will never take running water for granted again.  

Our new water heater is electric (which we found is not as efficient at gas) but it is an energy saver model and with the rising gas prices, we hope to save a little bit in that respect.

The garage was robbed of it’s garage door openers….

So the first chance we got, we scored some garage doors in order to utilize the space while we moved.  We figured that the garage would be a perfect ‘dumpin ground’ – so that as we unloaded the stuff from the move, that we just have to open the doors and all of our junk would be safe and sound from any rain or weather while we figure out where to put it.  It also means less trips up and down stairs - my knees are thankful.  I gotta also thank Boots…my sister’s main squeeze for helping out with the installation.  

 

Before we officially moved in, we knew that it would be vital to invest in new appliances for our kitchen.  A fridge is absolutely necessary with a little one in tow…so we couldn’t waste a single moment in our search. 

For the fridge, Jeremy wanted a french door style.  I have never been unhappy with the side-by-side style, so we knew that we were in for trouble with two differing opinions.  In the end, I gave in to my darling boytoy.  Let’s remember that fact honey when I ask for a little girl, mmkay? 

The dishwasher was a  compltely different story.  We were totally on the same page.  We wanted a dishwasher that met only two qualifications.  One – it had to clean well.  Two – it had to have the controls hidden.  Will is really into pressing buttons.  Enough said.

We found the best prices over President’s Day weekend at HHGregg.  They were willing to negotiate prices…which most places don’t do…and offered next day delivery.  I can share more details later.

Yes – this is the delivery guy.  And yes, you can imagine me with the camera saying “work it!  oh yeah!  say I make this look good!”.  that really happened.

What else happened is the carpet.  We decided that it was the best decision to replace the carpet in the bedrooms right away…before we moved in furniture and made a small job into a gargantuan job. 

I can give you the full-blow-by-blow later…but just know that we took out the weirdly colored carpet and brought in a neutral (and supersoft) new carpet.

 

Now for some moving info….

first, shortly after our Valentine’s Day closing, we decided that every single time we visited the house, that we should load up the vehicle with odds and ends.   

Will (and Cole) became quite familiar with riding alongside Laura Lynn boxes and random furniture.

We originally thought that we would be those normal folks who rented a moving van and would buy boxes and bubble wrap and organized and labeled and all that.  Then we got to multiple trips everyday back and forth from the house….each time moving small boxes and random vases and teddy bears and christmas decor. 

 

Then we got to thinking….maybe we could just do it all without a van? 

And so we did. 

It was crazy….seeing the house filling up with items….seeing the other house shed picture frames and chairs and dishes.

Stuff landed where it did….nothing in order…nothing planned.  Just stacks of pillows in a corner, baskets in the corners, bedding in the middle of the rooms. 

We got help from different strong friends for the big stuff…

But most of the little stuff just made it’s way into any free square foot we could find.  It was this mess of chaos.  A trainwreck in every sense of the word picture. 

One thing I am very thankful for in the new house is big opening doors.  We had zero trouble getting stuff in. 

Every night our home was getting more and more bare.  It was sad.  Very sad.  I had moments where I cried…times of weakness…I even considered chaining myself to  the big oak out front…and asking Jeremy if tearing up all the papers on the new house. 

During the day I was cleaning, walking Will in the new neighborhood and by the creek, administering meds, packing, unloading, crying and reminscing….and at night, we slept on the mattress on the floor.  It reminded me of our wedding night.  The first night in the house looked very much like this.   We had no furniture…just a mattress on the floor and twinkle lights strung up on the walls and rose petals strewn everywhere.  My boyfriend is very romantic and I will always hold that memory dear.

Will was a champ during the entire process.  Even with a slightly hormonal mother and two ear infections and bronchitis, he would attempt to take naps anywhere and everywhere….although most of them were in the carseat on the way back and forth to the new house.  I did manage to capture this picture of him just after his last nap in his old room.  I love the grin with the paci still in…(but is there anything that this kid does that I don’t love?!)…

Jeremy worked.  That’s it.  He worked and worked and worked.  He worked his job like he always does – a long day with focus and commitment.  And every free moment, he squeezed in fixing, moving, driving, picking up and putting down.  He worked like a mad man.

Our very first night in the new house we snapped a photo.  It was random and lovely and hilarious and exactly perfect.  We set up the camera and the timer was counting down and I cuddled up to Jeremy…his hand was around my back and I pulled him closer…not realizing that I put my hand right on his ‘goods’.  He of course was like oh-la-la…and I couldn’t help but laugh.  The fact is that even though we were both dead with exhaustion, boys are never more alive than when you grab their youknowwhat.   

We had friends over Saturday to help set up some stuff…it was so nice to have company…and to create memories in the new house.  I think that is what I miss the most and what I look forward to the most….memories.  I am nothing if not ridiculously sentimental…and I thrive on a room spilling over with memories.  The matching jackets of Will & Ethan are definitely getting added to my memory-bank.

Monday morning, we handed over the keys to the new residents of our old house.  I have a video of the empty house…it’s strange and foreign to see it that way.  But I couldn’t have asked for a more special family to live there.  They are literally an answer to prayer…for a lot of reasons…but mostly because I feel like the house is loved by them as much as we did.  It makes handing over the keys to our ‘first baby’ a wee bit easier. 

Of course, I did take a moment in between all the crying and moving to break in the new neighborhood…yes…I picked my new neighbor’s trash and am proud of it.  I found quite the treasure too. 

We also had our very first houseguests.  Our friends Brook & Kent came over to mount our television and share in a good ole fashioned friend’s night.  They have two little girls who joined Will during bathtime.  He didn’t enjoy bathing with two girls as much as I thought he would.  I can’t wait till they are teenagers.  Will is gonna brag about this photo then. 

So that is what is up with us lately.  A little bit of everything.  And a whole lotta mess.

Oh and I did want to talk about one thing while I’m talking about our trainwreck of a house.  I know that many of you can’t wait to see what we do to change the new house.  And I want you to know that I legitimately would love to do everything right away.  But we are not.  We are not planning on even unpacking for a while.  We have made very little plans.  We are not even planning on making plans.  Our only plan is to live with it.  Live with the mess.  Live with the boxes and the bad paint colors and the crazy knobless cabinets.  We are gonna live with the trainwreck.  No design plans.  No making perfect.  No decorating.  And after the dust settles and we do make changes…they are going to be with things we already have.  Maybe with a little tweaking.  very cheap tweaking.  I know this news is a little disappointing to some of you hoping that we would tackle our new digs quickly….but this is our reality and with new carpet and new appliances, our bank account is screaming in pain at us. 

Now that you got the good, the bad and the ugly…tell me…anyone else attempt moving without a van?  Or have a lovely sleeping-on-a-grounded-mattress memory? or perhaps buy something from HHGregg or get new carpet recently?