Moving on down the road

We live here now.

This summer was not an easy one in our house and the blog has really suffered.  I am determined to get things back on track though before there is a new person living with us and I think the big move is probably the best place to start.  The buying and selling of houses was where everything summery and fun went on hiatus.  Replacing it was/is a to-do list a mile long that consumes every bit of "diminished due to pregnancy" energy I have.   I spend the remaining free time on the nearest couch or bed, drooling into my pillow.

The selling:

The sale of our house was not without a bit of stress.  We had an initial offer and contract within 8 hours of listing and thought everything was going to be fine.  Silly naive souls, we were.  After their inspector, who we feel must be an avid user of hallucengenic substances, suggested that our roof was in imminent danger of collapse and that our backyard (inudated with rain in a very wet July) had a sewer or water main leak.  A sewage leak!  I should think the neighbors might have noticed.  We politely declined to replace the roof and put the house back on the market.

In retrospect, it was only a few weeks later that we were under contract again.  Those few weeks felt the longest of my life, however, as I struggled to keep a 2 year old and a 5 year old content and the house spotless and ready to leave at a moment's notice.  If we weren't under contract by the time we returned from Maine, the plan was to lease it out.  

We should have gone on vacation earlier because within 24 hours of leaving Houston, we had two competing offers, including one that accepted the roof as is, in writing.  Hurrah!  

The moving:

Oh, how I hate moving!  There are hardly words to convey my feeling on the subject.  I am still having moving nightmares, made more vibrant by my hormones no doubt, in which I remember boxes we forgot or another run we still need to make.  

We hired movers to bring over all the furniture and everything I alone could get packed before their arrival.  Note to future movers:  it takes a lot longer to box things up with two kids in the house than it did before you had any.  I was under the impression I got most of the house boxed up, but as the trips continued for two weeks after, clearly I was wrong.  I shudder to think about it.

The during:

The second Bowling to get pneumonia while moving.

On August 15th, we were in the house and sleeping here.  On August 17, I took the closing papers to Alastair's new school to get his registration transferred over.  On the 27th, he started kindergarten.  On the 31st, we closed on the other house and were officially done with moving boxes.  Not unpacking them, of course, but the moving was done.  Finally.

During our trip to Maine, Alastair picked up a cough on the airplane.  It didn't seem to slow him down one iota on our trip and truly, it was just a yucky sounding cough without any other symptoms.  By our actual move in date, he was starting to sound like an 80 year old with a two pack a day habit, and I took him in as soon as I could, which wasn't immediate for obvious reasons.  Turns out it had developed into actual pneumonia.  Mother of the year, right here folks!

Some before/after teasers:

Goodbye, Crazy Town red.

 

 Hello soothing and sophisticated.

 

There is good woodwork and bad woodwork, people.  Ugly must go.

Almost there.

There is plenty of work still to do, starting with the installation of all the new hardware that has just come in, building and installing the new gameroom cabinetry, sourcing a chandelier for the dining room, having the hardwoods in the front installed...  I could go on, but you will have to wait for another post (or 10) with those projects.  Or you could stop by with some caramel bullseyes for the beleaguered pregnant woman and see for yourself!