No, we are not doing that.
You can already access this blog by going to 209stonecrest.com or to 4477southwoodheights.com. Are we that self-absorbed that we feel our blog needs a 3rd access point?
Oh wait, you can also get it through 4477southwoodheights.blogspot.com.
So, yes.
Yes we are.
We made it to our 2nd weekend in the apartment. In some strange, twisted world, the path from a nearly 2000 square foot house (if we included all living space, it's probably more, but that's neither here nor there) to a 3000+ square foot house is through a 900 or so square foot apartment.
The detour also includes a storage unit, a family basement, 2 garages, and basement freezer.
We have stuff, what can we say? We're a family of 4, each member of which has enough stuff for a family of 4. We don't even know what half the stuff is that we have. But it's our stuff, and we couldn't bear to get rid of the ... thingies, or doodads.
So, here we are, finally decompressing, stretched out on the living room floor, with our heads in the
dining room and our feet in the office.
The move was a challenge. First, because of all of our stuff, second because we didn't quite grasp the enormity of the stuff we had, and finally because it was our house. We made it the way we liked it. Literally. If a wall or door wasn't right, it was gone. If a wall needed to be put in, it was. If we got halfway through a renovating project, of which there were many, and decided something wasn't right, we stopped, reversed course, and did it right. Contractors love us. Who wouldn't.
But it was our house... the first house we bought together, moved into as a newly engaged couple, then left almost seven years later as a family of four.
Yeah, it was a challenge.
Oh, yeah, and the whole phones thing. I had to do a bit of work in the morning - that's the cost of not getting ahead, but no big deal. I was up early enough... except that apparently instead of shutting off the internet (and TV/phone) on Thursday, I woke up Wednesday to find it off. I always choose my words very carefully, and likely told them I needed it through Wednesday, which apparently in their mind meant turn it off Wednesday. My fault for not being clear. So I used my cell phone as a 4G modem, which worked great. I even posted on Facebook...
This was the last picture of Stonecrest taken from my phone - in fact, it's not even saved on my phone anymore; I stumbled across it while looking for stuff that synched to Facebook.
It looks organized, but only because the pile of stuff we were bringing to the apartment had only begun to grow. We made it through the morning, making our last runs of stuff into garages and basements, and about 1:00 in the afternoon, looked at the living room, and realized our 2 or 3 trips in 2 cars was going to be more like 23 trips in 2 cars and rented a U-Haul.
Simple enough, 4 hour rental, in and out. So we loaded it up, still packing the two cars full of stuff, and drove to the apartment. After which we drove back to U-Haul, extended our reservation into the next day so that we could get a certified check, which apparently we were supposed to have been told we needed.
In the process of the extra trips, the temporary fish tank fell and cracked, and later in the evening, the hood of the regular fish tank fell and shattered.
Good times.
Whatever. One last night in the empty house for me... could've really used a blanket - it was a cold night.
We finally got settled in Thursday around noon. Priority one: Marissa's room. Both kids obviously were displaced, but she's the one who noticed we were pawning her off a bit more and understood to some extent what was going on. So we wanted her to feel at home in the apartment, and once she got past the chaos in the living room and a few unpacked boxes in the hall, she walked into a room to find a bed made up in her own sheets and comforter and plenty of familiar toys - and even something new, a special pair of sisters from her favorite Disney movie. She was happy, so we were happy.
We would've done the same for Lucy's room... if she had a room. But I'm sure she's content in her corner of our bedroom.
We've now made several runs back and forth with boxes. We knew packing that we were bringing a few boxes only to have to take them back into storage. We've also unpacked boxes from storage to find things we needed here. This is why we didn't "store" everything, but rather put it in garages and basements. Thanks to the families for giving up lots of space to house our boxes. The big stuff like furniture and TVs and stuff went in this:
That truck is big. If we'd known this 53' was available, we probably could've just moved into that instead of building a 54' wide house.
Traffic on Stonecrest would've been snarled for hours. If there was traffic on Stonecrest. Nobody has ever had to leave one of our parties early to beat traffic - though on occasion they have because the party sucked.
The transition and chaos were a bit rough, and having to work mornings for the first 3 days we were here didn't help. Nothing like settling in on the first night and setting an alarm for 2:45am. Our house wasn't always the neatest, but except when Alicia was out of town, I always knew where everything was - so it's a bit stressful not knowing where everything is. I'm still missing a printer cord and wireless mouse receiver. We're looking for a lamp. How do you lose a lamp? But except for the glitches, we're destressing.
Almost normal.
So close, but not quite.
Close enough that going out town for a few days, Alicia knew better than to trust me alone with 2 kids, so she left Marissa to enjoy daddy-daughter date night and took Lucy with her.
Close enough where we can smile about silly things like a box of radio station envelopes being the perfect size for my studio equipment:
Close enough that we can see a funny bumper sticker and laugh about it for days. I mean c'mon.
HONK IF YOU HAVE TO POOP
What parents wouldn't tell their 4-year old what it says. Yeah, she repeated it all the way home, but that's the chance you take.
Close enough that it didn't get on our nerves until her third day of repeating it.
Close enough that we can do the countdown to move-in in days instead of weeks
40.
40 days and 40 nights.
After the summer we've had, that timing seems appropriate.
We took another tour of the house today. We needed a little reminder of why we were going through the stress.
It was a nice little pick-me-up. Or pick-us-up. Is that the correct plural?
Want a tease? Or maybe a cabinet?
Thanks for visiting.
Inside update tomorrow, hopefully
Phil & Alicia
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