Moving

We've moved a few times in our marriage, but this one felt the longest and hardest. Once we closed on the house at the end of September, I started bringing loads of stuff up to the new house. Once Andy completed his last Sunday, we started kicking it into high gear. But we were not fully moved out of the house until mid-November. Part of the reason it felt so long to me was because of my process. I'd pack things up, load them into the van, drive them up to the new house, unload from the van, and then unpack into the new house. That process helped us settle into the new house quicker, but it took us a bit longer to get to that point. I also didn't take any days off of work; so the days felt really long when I'd leave work, head to the house to pack/clean, then go to sleep just to repeat the next day. I spent one evening going through old papers and shredding stuff we didn't need.

It reminded me of doing this job with Bella before we moved away from New Jersey.

We didn't take too many pictures of the process, but here is a mostly empty living room. When we've moved in the past, the wall decor was always the first thing I'd pack because it was not essential for daily living. But it's also the stuff that makes a house feel most like a home to me and I was not emotionally ready to take them down even though neither house was really feeling like home anymore by this point. I loved the fireplace we put in. It's one of the things I'll miss most about this house. 

Since Bella was away at college, I got the fun task of packing up her room. Here's an in-process photo I sent her. 

I didn't know what was important to her and what wasn't, so most everything got packed up. 

All her stuff ready and waiting for her to sort through at the new house.

Andy took some photos of the house once we got it all cleaned out. I stopped over after school once last time and had a little cry as I walked through the empty rooms. This was never our forever home, but saying goodbye to a place that holds ten years of family memories is no small thing.

I had lots of the kids artwork hung up in the laundry room and on the basement walls. I knew it wasn't practical to save it all, so I took pictures of everything. I also asked Andy to be the one to take them down and recycle them because I couldn't do it. These were some of my favorite from the years.

Here are some progress photos of the new house. The boys are enjoying this loft area upstairs. It functions somewhat as an extension of their shared bedroom. 

We didn't have any kitchen seating for a while, so these island stools were one of our first big purchases for this space.

Andy hung our TV which was no small task due to cutting into the wall for the box that accompanies our TV.

Next project: installing the pendant lights above the island. 

They really cozy up the space.

Starting to come together, but still lots to do: hang curtains, put up fireplace mantle, hang artwork above couch, and eventually add stone or brick to the fireplace. 

Our parents gave us a generous housewarming gift and we used a portion of it to purchase a new dining room table. 

We shopped for our table on the weekend before Thanksgiving but weren't sure we'd have it in time for the actual holiday. It wouldn't have gotten delivered until after, but we were able to pick it up from their warehouse just in time. Here is Andy assembling it on the morning of Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving meal was actually the first meal we ate on our new table!