The move went without incident on Friday and took much less time than I anticipated. I'll tell you, nothing says "you're moving" like a 30-foot van in your driveway. Four chipper fellows arrived a half-hour early (always a good sign) and went about their business like a well-oiled machine.
Once we were loaded, Rick came ahead with the truck. I stayed behind to do the final clean, with help from my daughter. It was a pretty emotional day. Our son came after his night shift to say a final farewell. I think he may have been the saddest, although Laura's emotions are always closest to the surface, so it's a toss-up. This is the only home they know. After one final, teary walk through a very echoey house, I too said my good-bye's and wished the house a long and happy life with its new owners.
And then the trek to the "new" home. By the time I was near Horseshoe Valley, I felt my shoulders relax, and enjoyed the rest of the drive. The mover-bees did a speedy unload and then left us with all our old things in new places and a sea of boxes.
We have quite a job ahead of us. I started on the kitchen at 7 a.m. yesterday and by 4 p.m. had it under control. The thing about moving into your "cottage" and making it your "home" means that you have duplicates of everything. So for every incoming item, there is something outgoing. Sort of like two moves in one. We are filling boxes for the Salvation Army at almost the same rate as we are emptying the ones we brought.
My new studio space is awesome! I was really hoping to see it before it was totally filled with stuff, but that was not meant to be. In fact, not only is all the furniture that is supposed to be in there, in there. Everything that didn't have a specific place is also in there. So with all the furniture and boxes, it looks more like a warehouse than a studio.
But the bones are beautiful. It's not exactly as the contractor and I discussed, but it is a bit cozier and still has lots of space. And I hope to get at least the perimeter set up this week, with the furniture in place. I will have one long wall that will be a hodgepodge of the pine chests and sideboards that didn't have a designated place. Antique file cabinets and tables too, so it will be fun to figure out the function for each one.
But alas, the studio will have to wait until the principal rooms are done. And I don't mind, since I can hook elsewhere in the meantime, provided I can find my "rug hooking box" that has my frame and hooks, etc.
In the meantime, I took this picture of a little piece of art called "Moosecapades" to show you at least some of my new pine walls. He's sitting on a shelf that was built out over the concrete block and goes all around the room. It will be the perfect display place for all my many "moosies".
I figure since it took us a good month to get everything packed, I shouldn't expect it to be much faster to unpack. Although I think I'm even more motivated to get things set up than I was to pack them.
And since I'm at least semi-retired and don't have to head back to the city unless I want to, I have all the time in the world to do it. And I'm very happy to be here.
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2 comments:
Sounds like you are embracing your new life ~ it's a wonderful thing!!
I was thinking of you all weekend at the OHCG annual as I know how much you would have enjoyed the weekend but you also had this big move to do too! Congrats on being in the house. The unpacking will go quite quickly (voice of experience here) and you'll be amazed what the place will look like in two weeks.
By the way, Rhonda did an amazing job on the colour talk. You would have been very pleased. AND, the whole conference was fantastic. The organizers should be extremely pleased. Cheers. Susan
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