Reemergence

We.Have.Internet! Here, in our house. Didn't realize what a gift that was before. Granted, I've had my iphone all along but I can't blog pictures from my phone. Yay for Comcast for finally hooking me back up.

Where to start? Moving day a few weeks ago was some good times. We moved on the morning of the Utah/BYU game and Mike insisted that we book a UofU moving van.

It was pretty cool. The movers had our house loaded up into the van fairly quickly and then deposited it all here ...

The garage at our new house. The picture doesn't even really do it justice. It's a relatively deep garage and we filled every inch of it -- boxes 6 deep in some places. I was pretty meticulous about packing all of the boxes, writing what was in each box and which boxes we needed easy access to, but the movers got ahead of us and pretty soon it was deeper than we could wade through. Finding everyone's buried bedding several days later was quite the experience. 

Why did we move into the garage, you ask? At this point, we actually hadn't even closed on the house yet. But the sellers were very understanding that we didn't want to have to move everything twice (from a storage unit to the house later that week) so they gave us early access. We spent a few nights at Grandma's (thank you, mom!) and then finally moved in. We officially sold our home on a Monday and closed on this new home the next day. After 4+ years of looking and "almost" buying  6 different homes and/or lots (which included many ups & downs and more than a little impatience on my part), this one finally happened. And we couldn't feel luckier. (Couldn't feel more lucky? Which one should it be, Erin the Grammar Nazi?)

Here's the before pictures with the previous owner's stuff in it. Can you see the potential? Cause we certainly could.

The new kitchen will combine the old dining room and kitchen, centering it onto the family room. Finally a great room/kitchen combo with lots of entertaining room! I'm pinching myself that I get to plan out the new kitchen. I can't wait for the before & after pictures.

We moved just the bare essentials into the upstairs while Matt, our amazing general contractor and great friend, and his crew started remodeling the downstairs. It hasn't quite been 2 weeks yet but the basement is done and we started moving furniture down yesterday. Nothing changed structurally downstairs, but it's amazing what new paint & carpet will do for a place. The new moldings & doors are my favorite.

Even without furniture, the kids were more than excited to get the tv hooked up. No internet, tv or phone for 2 weeks have been "awful!" (their words) or "wonderfully quiet" (my words).

That is Haley's room. I have wanted moldings like that for forever. It took the guy maybe 30 minutes to put it up. Which means that he'll have to do the other girls' rooms, too. And the dining room. And anything else I can think of.

There's still a ton to do and we're still 80% in boxes. Our family theme these days is "It's in a box." Hey mom, where are the Barbies? In a box. Have you seen my (fill in the blank for just about everything)? It's in a box. But we're making some progress and I can't wait for the finished product.

I can't thank everyone enough for helping us get moved and semi-settled. Great women came on moving day and took my kids to play, brought me Diet Cokes, helped to clean and move the final stuff, loaded up their cars with artwork and framed photos, have brought us meals and other goodies since we don't have a working kitchen, etc., etc. We have been lovingly taken care of and I'm so grateful.

I'll keep taking pictures and posting the progress. We'll update the exterior someday, too. But in the meantime, come see us if you're in the area. A steady stream of visitors has helped in the transition for all of us.

Back to unpacking. Maybe I'll finally find the silverware so we can stop using the plastic stuff. :)