Move Complete... Settled in!

October 10, 2019

Please: Excuse the spacing... I give up on it!

Well, that went well albeit exhausting!

After my last post, packing began in earnest... or should I say frenzied? It was so much harder to divide things into two households - a selection of things to leave for DH in his apartment, and everything else to go with me to our new home - and downsize at the same time. When all was said and loaded, there were still things in the house that we did not have room for in either household and had not yet sold. Poor hubby was also left with the task of doing the final cleaning, since I had to take off the next day to race out to the new home and prepare it for the delivery of furnishings.

My trip out was uneventful, which I was very grateful for. We were still under stress that the sale of the house would go through, and there were several things till needed to be done to our new home before I could truly settle in. But the dogs and I zipped across 3 states to land in the 4th, safe and sound and in less than 9 hours!

I have had to manage several home fixes or upgrades, get all the Utilities set up, and manage the move-in mostly by myself, but for that first weekend when the furnishings were delivered, I was lucky enough to have my younger son come out to help (husband was stuck in Illinois with responsibilities that he couldn't get away from). DS the Younger was a big help, since he was there all 3 days. DS the Elder lives in town, but was busy with his work.

Living room on Move-In Day

Just because the furniture was delivered and I had help for a couple of days, did not mean that I got all settled in just then! IT HAS TAKEN ME TWO MONTHS to Unpack the main floor, sorting out one room at a time, then finally get my sewing room painted in an extra bedroom in the lower level, and all of the boxes unpacked and furniture arranged so that everything is useful.

Painting my cave-like Sewing Room

Sewing Room done and moving in!

I still have one corner of the lower level TV/Family room that needs some tweaking as well as the guest bedroom, but I need husband here to do that. He WAS here for a week in September, but all his time was spent sorting out the garage and setting up his workbench etc

Beneath all those boxes, there is a family room!

I have been helping with the Grandsons every week - sometimes only once and other weeks it has been several times. They are FUN!

Grandsons at play at Grandma's House

Cooking with Grandma

Our house in Illinois DID sell and almost on schedule. The "Closing Date" had to be moved a couple of times due to paperwork glitches and availability of all involved to sign papers, but it still went well. We only lost $500 from our original purchase price.... in spite of all the unseen improvements! considering how much we have lost on other houses through the years, this was okay.

So for the past 2 months I have been working a little at a time on making my nest tidy and settling in.

DS the Elder's New Home

DS the Elder's new house has been growing steadily and I hope they DID get the last of the roof on yesterday as today the weather has turned nasty: cold and raining with the possibility of that horrible "S" word....

I have even been doing the yard work. DH bought a nice battery-powered lawn mower and I have been able to manage the mowing, albeit in increments. The battery doesn't last for the whole lawn, which works to my advantage: I do it in sections over several days... which means I am never done and seem to always have mowing hanging over my head! Still, I've only had to has DH the Elder for help once. And I have started on making the back yard into an edible garden. DS the Elder helped me to build three raised beds, which are planted up (black raspberries in the back bed, and a few winter-hardy veggies in one of the closer beds) or ready to go for spring!There will be many more raised beds as I hope to grow almost all of our veggies as well as many fruits. This is just a quick start!