Moving In

As of today, we have been living in the new house for one week and there are still almost a dozen boxes left unpacked, in the rooms in which they belong. This weekend, we're gathering the rest of our things from the apartment and, if we have time, cleaning up after ourselves. We have until the 15th to move out.

The house is functional. We have all of the large furniture moved, internet set up, dishes mostly unpacked, and a play room full of toys. We bought a washer and dryer at an Arc Thrift store, and they seem to work perfectly well.

Things I'm enjoying about the new place:

1. large shower stall with nice tile floors and a built-in bench in the master bathroom. It's nice just to have a second bathroom to ourselves (and thus not full of step stools and potties). But the shower is quite nice. It really is so much better than standing in a bath tub to take a shower.

2. Play room with french doors. I can see what the kids are doing even when the doors are closed, but I don't have to put up with quite so much noise. Don't get me wrong, I can still hear them. The shrill noises are just conveniently dampened.

3. Porcelain tub. It's in the "kid's bathroom", and it's not a claw foot, but it is certainly an upgrade from the shallow, formed-plastic tub at the apartment. It's deeper, and it doesn't slowly, quietly drain while you're taking a bath. Also, it cleans phenomenally easily.

4. The neighbors. To one side, we have middle-aged military veteran (long-term) renters who are extremely personable and full of smiles. To the other side, we have a quiet family with one, school-aged daughter remaining at home. Across the way, another quiet household from which we've only met one member so far. Everyone seems exceptionally neighborly.

Things I'm not enjoying so much:

1. The floors. Almost the entire house has wood or tile floors. My feet are freezing without socks, or slipping around with them. Also, the dogs' claws are unprecedentedly annoying. On the other hand, watching two large dogs try to navigate such slick surfaces is fairly entertaining. Besides, this problem could be solved with slippers and rugs.

2. It's so big. This will be nice in the future, but I'm only a few weeks from the big day with baby E, and chasing three kids and two dogs across a house that is almost 2.5 times the size of my old apartment is proving... uncomfortable to say the least. It seems like I spend a lot more time "taking breaks" on the couch or at the dining table.

I haven't really had a chance to put the kitchen to use yet. There are still a few boxes in the middle of the floor, full of things I don't use much. Besides, the last thing I'm concerned with right now is baking. The same is true for the yard. I am really enjoying being able to let the dogs out with relative ease, but the kids haven't spent much time out there because I can't physically keep up with them at the moment.

The move really wore me out. I had a few days of concern surrounding it during which my doctors were concerned I might have high blood pressure, but it turned out I was probably just dehydrated since I wasn't keeping track of my water intake while things were being moved. It took me most of this week to really recover from that.



Baby E and I are scheduled for surgical separation on the 26th of this month, only 5 days before his predicted due date. I'm excited to meet him, and to have my body to myself (more or less) again, but we still have a few loose ends to tie up. We need to put his crib together, order some cloth diapers, and actually settle on a car seat still. I do hate waiting until the last minute.