Home Again

We are slowly settling into the 'new to us' house. Moving day was very eventful, and not surprisingly long and tiring. The challenges of moving into a house built in the 1950s became evident pretty early in the morning. Some of our furniture would not fit down into the basement because of the smaller doors. We were donating a refrigerator, washer and dryer to Habitat for Humanity ReStore and just getting the fridge out of the basement was a huge challenge. The doors had to be removed before it could be fit out. We also had to coordinate the large amount of trash that the sellers had left on the curb when they cleaned out the attic. I use the term cleaned out loosely, because we found all kinds of goodies up there when we explored it and tried to put our own stuff up there. By goodies I mean mostly empty boxes and not the $50k in cash I was hoping to find :) So back to the furniture not fitting...our leather sectional was in no way going to fit downstairs, even though it would make a better fit for the recreation room turned family room with the 52" TV. So we compromised and put it in the living room upstairs. No big deal. But that meant the living room furniture had to go in the basement, and that took 3 tries and removing several pieces of the couch before it finally fit through the door. I was seriously crossing fingers and not watching as the movers tried time after time to maneuver it through. In any event, it fit and everything else followed suit pretty nicely. By about 4 PM, we were all 'in' the house - albeit with things in the wrong places and boxes seemingly everywhere.

The first few days were busy with unpacking boxes, moving furniture, cleaning and organizing. Who am I kidding?!?! It's all still going on, of course! But we have the kitchen and dining room done, and only a few boxes remain in the living room. The kids room are still a work in progress, mostly because they lost a lot of storage space from the built in shelving units in their closets. Keely's room is in better shape than Quinn's. The basement is coming together too, but there are still lots of boxes down there (mostly books). I've got the easy job, going to work during the day while James is here organizing and working on the house. We've made several trips to Home Depot, a trip to IKEA and lots of trips to the grocery stores to restock the pantry. I definitely forgot how much money goes out the door when you buy a house. It seems like a never-ending credit card swipe :(

In other news, today we will be visiting and touring the kids' new school. The neighborhood is very quiet and we haven't met many people yet. Patience is a virtue here, and the schools are not even out for summer yet. We did meet our next door neighbors, and they had us over for dinner on Saturday night. It was great, they are very nice and we got along well. They have one daughter, she is 10 and has autism. It is not a great match for a friend, but the kids did enjoy playing with her on Saturday night. We know there are other kids around because we see them at the bus stop so time will help meet them I am sure. It took 5 years before the kids had friends in our neighborhood in Utah, so we know it takes time. I guess I was just hoping for a busy kid-friendly neighborhood, but kids just don't play outside like they used to and friends seem to come from school and activities (sports, etc.). Because the houses in our area are older, there is quite a mix of ages in the area - from elderly original owners to newer young families to mixed families with interesting combinations of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

We are getting settled and I am happy with the house. It's beginning to feel more and more like home, and it's definitely good to have a home again. My goal is to get settled before we leave for Ireland in two weeks. I think it's do-able!