Good news – We sold the house!
Even better news – We’re buying a new house!!
Bad news – There’s just over a week between when we have to move out of our current house and when the building of our new house SHOULD be done.
This plan almost came together perfectly, but it’s OK because now we can experience what it’s like to be homeless, middle-class style. We’ll be living in an extended-stay hotel. With the cats and ferrets. And, of course, The Kid. It’ll be an adventure! Really! (I keep telling myself this with hopes that I’ll eventually believe it.)
For the time being, life feels like the calm before the storm. That time when we should be hanging the plywood over the windows, but can’t quite get the motivation to do so because the weather outside is so beautiful. So instead, my living room sits FULL of boxes – some packed, some assembled and empty, most still flat and waiting (though all are labeled and organized by size, because I’m compulsive like that).
I can’t yet bring myself to take the pictures off the walls. I know it’s one of the easiest ways for me to get the motivation and feel & see progress, but past experience tells me that when I do, the house will echo. An echoing house feels empty. It immediately stops feeling like “home” and I want to hold on to that feeling as long as possible – for me and for the family. We’ve lived here for almost 8 years and while we’ve had our share of complaints about this house, it has been OUR house all that time. I have pride in being one of the few remaining “original” owners in the cul-de-sac. We picked out the counters and the cabinets and the carpet and the appliances. I painted the rooms. Well, some of them – I just couldn’t decide on colors for all of them and for others, the furniture moving made painting seem like an impossible task not worth the effort so it still feels like an unfinished project – a work in progress. We’ll do it all again with the new house, and on a grander scale because the new builder isn’t a “Wal-Mart” style company mass-producing houses like an assembly line. It will be a welcome and refreshing change from our first attempt at buying new construction.
But still I feel connected to my house with walls. The more we pick out the bits and pieces for the new house, the more excited I become, the more I feel like the new house will eventually be what we want. It’s shaping up to be an amazing spring full of new house adventures. DH will get more acres than he’s ever owned, all screaming for partitioning, fencing, farming, and, most importantly, a tractor. We’ll move in at the perfect time for him to begin the laundry list of projects he’s been itching to try for years. While I’m incredibly excited to design my own kitchen, I think I’m most excited for him to get to try his hand at farming. Crops first, animals to come sometime thereafter. (I’ll get crap for saying it, but I’m looking forward to the crops, not the animals.) I’m hopeful that he’ll be successful enough with our staples that we won’t regret skipping the CSA this year. Though we’ll continue to support local farmers, we’ll be better able to diversify and buy only what we need to fill the gaps. To offset, I’ve evangelized the wonderful benefits of CSAs so I’m hopeful others will join in my place. (If you’ve not heard my pitch, let me know and I’ll unpack my soapbox just for you!)
The new house is currently past the framing stage, but not yet to drywall. It has plumbing, electric, and (most importantly) cable/satellite. We hope to have walls soon and have been told they should arrive before we move it. This should help The Kid better understand and accept the new house as a nice place to live. Right now, she’s not buying it. But she has started packing and organizing. Because she’s compulsive. And because she’s my daughter. And the countdown is on to the move in just a few weeks.
And in case you thought this blog was all about YOU procrastinating, I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. This whole long post was all about me telling you what’s what in my world in an attempt to put off packing. Because I’m a master procrastinator and you are my enabling audience. Now pass me the bubble wrap! (Because I like to pop it – not because I’m going to get around to packing anything today.)
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