Had anyone told me how energy zapping moving would be, I probably would have kind of believed them but not really understood it. It's like being sleep deprived with a newborn. Until you experience it yourself you don't really understand. As I'm trying to frantically catch up on my blog, I'm looking at the dates and realizing that it's May. The spring is completely gone. Somehow the stress of selling, packing, repairing, purging, renovating, and moving made those last three months completely disappear. We've been in the house three weeks not and I feel like things are finally beginning to settle. Actually, I think I'm just completely wiped out and might have a mental break down here any day unless I surrender and stop trying to get everything exactly right, right now. Here is some photographic proof of what we have been living through with the move.
This was the first night we had the keys. The kids could not wait to see the new house. Cambrie had been in once to help Julie move some boxes, but McKenzie had never been inside. This is the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.
The boys were over at the house with me a lot as I tried to talk to contractors and made sure the work was done right. We needed to paint the entire house and recarpet. There were a lot of decisions that needed to be made and I kept second guessing my choices all the way up to move in. One of the more stressful changes was that we decided to move the laundry room down to the basement so that we could install a mudroom right next to the garage. These cabinets came from the mudroom. Not a bad place to play while the grown-ups talked.
Being mom's helper through this whole process means that Daxton had to run a lot of errands with me. The little guy was a trooper but every so often it was just too much and he had to crash somewhere.
Things were in chaos in the old house as well as the new. Because I was torn in so many different directions I didn't always have enough energy, or mental energy, to deal with normal life that was still going on. I can't remember exactly what activities we had going on this day, but by the time 10:30 rolled around I was beat. I looked at my kitchen and didn't even know where to start. Instead I sat down and ate Scooby snacks dipped in Nutella.
For awhile I tried to take care of packing things bit by bit. I would focus on dejunking the toys, then the linen closet, then the winter stuff, then the sewing room, then all the framed pictures. It worked for awhile and then when I unpacked I knew I didn't have a lot of junk to get rid of (I already made a dozen trips to ARC and Precious Child), and it was easier to find homes for the stuff in the new house. We reached a point though when we were out of time and things just started getting thrown into boxes. Those are the boxes downstairs in a pile that I can't even think about sorting through just yet.
The boys still found ways to keep life fun and interesting. I'm so glad they had the ability to do that because it was definitely a marathon. My mom helped them build a fort with the boxes we had packed up.
The girls were just as anxious as I was for things to start coming together at the new house. Our timeline gave us an extra week for hiccups in the plan and we ended up using every last day. One day after church we went over and installed the kids' light fixtures. It was a great boost of energy to keep us going because the end was in sight. It also helped when I had to deal with a carpenter who kept disappearing when he was supposed to be building my mudroom cabinets; when I had to arrange for a contractor to come and move the entire laundry room because Jeremy simply didn't have enough time; when I had to call an HVAC guy to come in immediately to move some vents before the carpet went in; when I had to juggle sheetrock guys, painters, inspectors, realtors, and a carpet guy who kept delaying installation until the night before we moved in.
Moving day itself was busy, busy, busy. The movers arrived around 10 and as we walked around the old house showing them the plan, I was depressed to see just how much I still needed to put in a box. As they loaded the truck, I frantically boxed stuff up. I couldn't have done any of it though without my mom. She was simply amazing. I'd go upstairs to talk to the movers, come back down and find that the entire storage room was boxed up. Or I'd make my kids a sandwich and discover that she had unpacked the food storage room in the new space. She was crazy efficient and I really, really don't think I would have been able to move without her help. Because it was a close move the movers ended up making three different trips. When they initially gave me their estimate of 8-9 hours I didn't believe it. There's no way we had that much stuff! I was wrong. 7:00 rolled around and they still weren't done. They weren't slacking by any means, in fact they were amazing workers, we really did just have that much stuff. The first two loads they were really good about taking all of the boxes into the rooms where they belonged. By that third load though we were out of time and they just dumped it all into the new garage. We had boxes surrounding us for nearly a week. Luckily Ryan came out the next day to help with all this leftover work. He and Jeremy finished cleaning out the old garage, sorted through the new garage, and began organizing the garage. Having him out that weekend made a huge difference.
It's amazing what a simply table can do. Daxton had really been feeling lost and unsettled, but once we set up the table he sat right down like he was home.
We still needed a permanent table for the space and Daxton was the lucky one who got to go shopping with us while we decided what to do.
We had been in the house about a week when Laura Sosa brought these over. We'll really miss her as a neighbor. She was so kind to the kids and we loved seeing her outside walking her dogs. Having her over at the new house brought us one step closer to this house feeling like home. Our stuff is here, but now we need memories and friends.
We finally received word that the new tenants were moving into the house, which meant it was our last night to say goodbye. I had to go in one last time to vacuum a couple corners and once I finished I finally cried. All the memories from the Happy Birthday decorations, to the applesauce on the walls, to the preschool artwork hanging up, to the places where the kids used to play hide and seek came rushing back at me. It was such a perfect little house. It felt like home from the first time we walked inside, and still feel like home even when it's empty. I went to pick up the kids to get a final picture with them in front. A lot has changed since we moved in seven years ago.
I had forgotten to lock the front door and so the kids let themselves in. They gave the house a hug goodbye then cried the entire drive home. I laughed then because I had already cried and it was a bit funny watching them in complete hysterics. But I get it, it's hard to say goodbye. Almost harder because we'll still be so close and we'll see it so often. I really hope the new family loves it as much as we do. I wonder what they'll do to the kids' rooms? I wonder if they'll paint or take down the chandelier? I wonder if they'll love and appreciate the doorbell on their little hut under the stairs? So many questions.
And as we settle in I try to wrap my head around the reasons we moved. The reasons why we put ourselves and our family into the energy zapping journey. When I see the boys run around the backyard like this it just feels right. The new space that we can grow into and make new memories, bigger memories.
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