The new HOME

We are in and settled in our new house.

We love it! I do feel like I'm on a kind of vacation and soon I will have to pack my bags and leave this place. But no! It's our home and I love it and feel incredibly blessed and thankful. Every day we have silly smiles on our faces as we enjoy the novelties of the perks it has, like in-ground sprinklers, double sinks, a walk-in pantry, a hot tub, a garage, a large basement and room for Riley, storage out the wazoo and space for everything. It really has everything we were looking for, and more. We had a very good moving day. We had hired movers, which arrived bright and early at 7:30am. We didn't even have the keys to our new place yet! I showed them around the house and they were relieved with how little there was (really?) and how packed and ready it was. I didn't feel super ready though, as I was still doing my hair in the bathroom as they were loading up the bedroom stuff! I had to strip the beds and wash/pack the final dishes we had eaten off for breakfast. It seemed odd that the day you are living in one house, you can leave it and completely move to another one! By 9:30am, the three mover guys had the entire truck full and ready to go to the new place. We got the keys at the same time and went to see our new home. We hadn't been in the place since we had our inspection back in January or so! It was so different without any furniture in it, and was just HUGE. I got to direct traffic and furniture, and had left my dad at home in charge of the old house, and busy vaccuming. A few other friends and family joined him to clean and tidy up the last things there. In no time at all, the movers had unloaded most of the things and went back for a quick pick up of random shed things. They came back within half an hour and drove their big truck down to the basement door and dropped everything off there. I think they were done the whole move by 12:30pm. It was incredible. Not only that, my family and a friend had cleaned what I had left (a bathroom, the fridge and the floors), so they were done at the same time! Every box was in it's room and all the furniture in place. Greg and his mom were setting up beds, and my SIL and friend were setting up my kitchen. My aunt and mom had come too, and were setting up curtains, closets and book shelves. My FIL had driven Shea home from piano and picked up Riley from school. It was so great to have all the help. The kids had never seen the place, so when they came home from school, it was quite exciting. The next few days were crazy with getting things set up, buying things like coat hooks, garbage cans and rugs to put in places. I drilled many holes in the walls for drywall screws and mounted a massive gorgeous mirror we got from our realtor. I got the kitchen/dining room prepped for painting (lots of filling holes, sanding, and washing). On Tuesday morning (5 days after we moved in), the painting began. Kristy and Pam are professionals, so they had the kitchen done in no time. On Wednesday, I spent the day getting Liam's room ready for painting. It needed more help, as the previous paint job had bled onto the ceiling and the baseboards. So I found ceiling paint and baseboard paint, and got those cleaned up. Then I washed and filled and sanded the holes, removed all the plug plates, etc. On Thursday the girls came again, and they had Liam's room done by lunchtime. It looks so good, and Liam was thrilled. We put pictures up on his walls, and he has a new night table and curtains, and his room looks great. What an improvement from having a pink and yellow room for 5 days! He didn't complain, but you could tell that he was sure relieved to see the lime green and grey! Now I've put the paint brushes away and have been doing yard work. The yard is great and doesn't have too much to do besides weeding. They had pulled many plants out, and in one spot I built a rock divide as the garden didn't really have an edge to it. There were patches in the yard where pots may have been? so I bought some dirt to spread out and planted some grass seed. I have lots of room for tomatoes, beans, carrots, and sunflowers. I may add some zucchini, lettuce and peonies yet this summer. I don't think I'll plant berries this year, but should be able to find a spot for them. I could add raised beds eventually, but for now I'm going to enjoy what I have. I have less grass to mow than at our last place, as we have a lot of rock area, driveway and woods. There is a perfect gravel area for our trampoline and a fire pit. I'm so thrilled I won't have to drag the hoses around the yard to water, as it's all set up automatically. The boys are enjoying the basketball hoop on the garage, the ping pong table we just bought at a garage sale, the whole basement of the garage to scooter and play hockey in, the trampoline, the trails nearby for biking, the hot tub and their rooms. Liam now has a much closer ride to school, and though Shea has to travel almost double what he did, he is doing well on his bike. We tend to join him on our bikes, on the way there, to keep him company. I still feel like I have a lot to do, with sorting the garage stuff and a few random boxes. But all in all, we feel quite at home and have all our main things unpacked and set up well. Getting the bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms and bootroom in order is definitely the priority. I was supposed to be working the last two weeks, but it hasn't been as busy as they anticipated. It has been nice to have the time off to settle in. I will be going back next week for three days for sure. I need to put some before/after pictures on here for you, but as usual, they are all on my phone. I will do that soon. I still have some furniture to buy, and will eventually paint the rest of the house. I think I will leave that til winter and just fill some of the holes and do touch ups for now. Can't believe that after all that time, and SO much work, we're here! :)