Scenes from the move

I promised a post not related to our move. But, while I was looking through pictures of our adventures over the weekend, these pictures also got downloaded. So, very quickly, here are a couple of scenes from our big move day which was now almost a month ago!

Dylan Sitting on the Floor Since All the Couch is Disassembled and Wrapped Up

The Truck! (There were a few of them when all was said and done.)

This is the monkey that had been hanging from the tree painted on Dylan's wall.

He had a great time walking around with it hanging around his neck.

And getting tossed around with it hanging on his neck.

I have no memory of what that boy ate and was all over his face. I took a whole big series of pictures of him with the monkey and apparently didn't even stop to clean him up. Mom of the year, right?

This is what Dylan and I did while waiting for Mike and the movers to arrive at the new house.
We sat on the floor and watched movies on the lap top. Dylan also enjoyed hanging out with Smokey
the chinchilla (she's in the cat carrier pictured above).

Once some stuff started coming in, we moved our hang out party
to the living room. I found a box of pillows and we lounged on them
after having a good pillow fight. This picture was probably taken
around 10pm and my boy was still a happy trooper.

Broken Record

So, I haven't posted much lately? Wondering why? Well, not only have we been very busy, but we've been very busy doing the same stuff I've already posted about - furniture\rug shopping, unpacking, collecting estimates, having appointments with people for deliveries and fixings stuff and trying to figure out where to do our day to day errands in our new neighborhood. Instead of boring you with the same old information over and over like a broken record, I've opted to stay quiet.

However, this weekend was different. We took a break (gasp!) from all that rigmarole and had a little bit of fun. While it was mostly in honor of my friend Rachel's visit, I pretended like it was also an extended b'day celebration for myself. So, in hopes that I'll actually have a few minutes tonight to pick out some good pictures of all our fun festivities to post tonight, I am promising you a post tomorrow that doesn't involve stories of moving and all the chaos that follows it. Stuff to look forward to, huh?

One Week and a Half Down

Well, we've now spent over a week in the house and I've had a full week of commuting. What an exhausting 11 days it's been! Mike has been quite the busy guy, working furiously to get the house in order and I've been doing as much as I possibly can. Even though I'm frustrated on a daily basis with my lack of energy to get the things accomplished that I'd like to, when I started writing a list of everything we've done since we've moved in, I'm impressed with us. It's a list a mile long that looks like it took 3 months to accomplish but it was all done by us, with a little help, in just a week and a half. Here's what we've been up to:

1) Got our trash collection figured out and set up. There's no town trash so we were researching paying for bags\dump access versus private pick and went with private pick up. The cost will likely be just a wee bit more over the course of a year but it'll make up for it with convenience.
2) Selling a few items off that won't fit in our new space. Our wicker furniture (that used to sit on our screened in porch) and the file cabinet (that was Smokey's cage base for the last couple of years) have been passed on to other owners thanks to craiglist.
4) We have 4 new rugs. One for the baby's room, our bedroom, the basement and the entryway. We have others just about finalized and picked out for the playroom and the dining room.
5) Our breakfast table and chairs have been shopped for, purchased and should be delivered within a couple of weeks.
6) Our new couch was delivered and set up in the living room. (Bought previous to house closing.)
7) We have great and compact accent chairs for our living room supplemental seating area. It took a lot of scoping to find chairs the right size that would fit the area.
8) With Mike's Dad's help, the granite built in vanity top in the master bedroom was removed. The area where the built in was fit my grandmother's vanity perfectly so it's residing there now.
9) The washer and dryer was delivered and, after some rushing around to find a plumber after Best Buy kindly cancelled our appointment when we didn't call back to re-confirm the appointment time, were hooked up. Oh, and after loads of laundry, we now have clean clothes and towels!
10) Our brand new treadmill was delivered and then put together by Mike. Unfortunately, it's not working properly so we've got a part ordered and a technician schedule to come out and (hopefully) fix it. (Shopped for and purchased before the house closing.)
11) A glass company came out to take a look at our shower and got us an estimate to do a glass enclosure. We chose from our options and the order was put in today. In a couple of weeks, we shouldn't have to worry about showers not being warm enough (because all the steamy air is escaping out into the bathroom and beyond) and cleaning up sprayed water outside the shower area. How the previous owners went 4 years without doing this I'll never understand.
12) Mike found a local propane place, got our grill propane tank filled up and tested out the outdoor propane heater that the old owners left us. After a scary fire incident with it, we'll have to do some more tweaking on it before we let guests warm themselves near it on chilly fall evenings.
13) We shopped (a lot) for and found a console table for the sofa, a media stand for the tv in the living room and a small love seat for the bay window area off the kitchen. All of those will be delivered Thursday.
14) Mike and I took a couple of hours to install the wall tv mount in the playroom.
15) One of our garage door bays was mysteriously opening in the middle of the night every night. After some experimentation to try and fix it himself, Mike got the repair guy out to address it and now it's staying closed as it should.
16) I found a 2nd hand dresser\changing table for baby #2's room as well as bought some new drawer polls for it and it's sitting in the garage ready to be sanded and painted. I hope to do that sometime before the baby actually gets here.
17) We rented a truck on Saturday, borrowed one of our friend's time and got the rest of our stuff from my in-law's basement and into ours. Maybe I can find the Halloween decorations amongst the piles and put some out before the holiday arrives.
18) Mike discovered that a full window pane was missing from the basement window in our workout room. He came up with a sealing solution that should last us until we figure out how to replace it more permanently.
19) I've been working through the new paint wheel I got (if anyone wants to borrow mine again, the answer is no because they haven't made it back to me) to choose colors for some of the rooms we want to paint. I hope to get colors finalized in the next week or more so that we can get a painter in to finish the work before the end of the month. That's my goal at least.
20) Unpacked boxes. Lots and lots of unpacking of boxes!

All of that in a matter of 11 days. I'd say that's not bad!

Well, We Moved!

It's done! We have sold our old house and are in our new house. That was easy......not! The whole process was a bit of a big stinkin' mess, almost every aspect of it actually. I wasn't naive enough to think that it would be easy and everything would go smoothly but I don't think I could have imagined how much actually could go wrong. Good thing we were all well rested and therefore well equipped to handle it. Oh right, we weren't! None of us slept worth poop the night before. Dylan must have sensed the madness about to happen because he was up for about an hour and a half in the middle of the night. Given the last minute prep, Mike and I had gone to bed fairly late and then I woke up early (thanks to the pregnant bladder) and my mind was racing so there was no chance of going back to sleep. With about 5 hours of sleep under my belt and no full night for anyone in the house, it was time to face a long day!

First, there was our walk through for our new house. We scheduled, long ago, to do the walk through the afternoon before the closing. When we arrived for the walk through, almost none of the work they had agreed to get done after the inspection was completed. Plus, the house was filthy! After a lot of phone calls and emails back and forth between realtors, sellers, lawyers and us, it was decided that the closing would be delayed by a few hours to allow the sellers' handyman to try and finish the work. Luckily, I had arranged for our cleaning lady to come do a thorough cleaning of the house so that I wouldn't be icked out using the bathrooms and kitchen as soon as we moved in. So, we let the filthy condition of the house go. We paid for it though because she was there, with her husband helping, cleaning an empty house for almost 6 hours. Yikes! But, the house was pristine and ready for use and the peace was kept between both sides of the buy\sell transaction so it was worth the extra cost. We scheduled another walk through before the delayed closing on Wednesday (which was also our move day) to inspect the completed work.

Except there was no completed work to inspect. After rushing around for 4.5 hours at home getting the last boxes taped up and labeled, instructing the moving crew and getting my in laws set to take over while we were gone, Mike, Dylan and I headed to our new home (and hit stand still traffic in the middle of the morning due to an accident). When we got there, all we found were jobs not done, the seller, the seller's realtor and the seller's handyman saying "see, this is what we're working on!" Ugh. So on the way to our closing (which we were late to), we spoke to our lawyer to tell her the scoop and she then got into a discussion with the sellers' lawyer to find a solution. It was decided that we would with hold some of the money from the closing to cover the work in case it wasn't finished. We've still go that money as several items aren't completed. Supposedly we're waiting on parts but the couple of calls I've made to the seller this week have gone unanswered so we might just be holding onto that cash indefinitely. Who knows!

Other than that snafu, the closing went well. It happened right during Dylan's nap time and yet he was an angel. While I signed papers, Mike chatted with the sellers (who were really kind by the way and gave us a list of all kinds of helpful contacts AND left a nice welcome package at the house for us) and Dylan played with his Toy Story Moving Day Package of figurines, watched a bit of a movie on the iPad and looked out the window at the world. He was SO good! The closing took about an hour and a half and then it was time to head back to the house and back to the moving chaos. Dylan fell asleep on the way back but, unfortunately, woke up after just a 40 minute snooze. Seeing as how he normally naps about 2 hours, that was definitely not enough refresher time for the little guy, especially after the poor night's sleep he had. He got a bit upset when he walked in the living room hoping to watch tv but finding it empty instead but was ok after a hug from Mom, an explanation that they were packed to go to the new house and a diversion to go play outside.

With the movers still packing up, seeing Dylan look really tired and not having much else to do to be useful, my mother in law and I went on a walk in the hopes that Dylan would snooze a little more. He didn't but he did have some chill out time, I got a little exercise and we took one last trip to the neighborhood bakery to get a cookie for Dylan and some treats for the movers.

When the trucks were almost loaded and ready to go, it was time to move the cats over. With Luci and Oliver running loose in the back seat with Dylan buckled in, I took the driver's seat and my mother in law took the passenger seat. It was rush hour traffic time (I can't remember exactly, but probably approaching 5) so I opted to take back streets in the hopes that minimizing the stop\go action would be easiest on the cats. The cats always try to be agreeable in the car but nerves and motion sickness get the best of them. Luci sat quietly on the seat and foamed at the mouth while Oliver was up and down puking (Dylan let us know that Oliver was getting sick) and pooping. We had provided a litter box for him for such an occasion but he didn't quite make it there before nature called. And nature called quite stinkily! There was no way the pregnant sensitive nose lady could make the trip with that stench...we had to get ride of it. I'm not supposed to go anywhere near the stuff that comes out of the back ends of the cat for fear of cooties that can be harmful to the baby, but my mother in law is not nearly as equipped as I am at navigating the back seat of the car from the front (too many years since she's assisted babies in the back seat...for that matter, when her babies were young car seats weren't really a thing so they were probably in her lap or right beside her). In any case, I had to figure it out. Armed with a big wad of paper towels, I scooped up the poop and handed it to my mother in law who was armed with a plastic bag to wrap it in. Unfortunately, the stench got too close to my nose and it made me gag....so much so that hanging my head out the window breathing in fresh air for a few minutes was not even enough to suppress the gag reflex. For a moment or two there, I thought I was going to join Oliver in the vomit fest! Thankfully, I didn't. So, while the ride was not uneventful, we did get the cats to the new house successfully. As my mother in law says, the ride was like being in an episode of I Love Lucy.

Once we arrived, I got the kitties settled in the upstairs room that will be baby #2's abode next year. Since we had little to nothing going in there from the movers, it was the perfect place for them. Then we waited. The word from Mike (back at the "old" house) was that they were waiting for another truck to meet them and then they would load up at the storage unit. (Luckily the extra truck would also come with more hands to unload.) After much more waiting, we were told that one of the trucks was lost on the way to the storage unit. More waiting and we were told they were finally heading our way. At 8pm the trucks finally arrived to unload at the new place. During this wait time, Dylan and I entertained ourselves with toy play and watching movies on the lap top. My mother and father in law had to call it a day and left before the trucks arrived. They felt awful abandoning Dylan and I sitting on our fireplace mantle in an empty house but it had been a long day for them, they had given us a great amount of help and I was appreciative of what they had done for us during the day. We couldn't have gotten to that point without them.

Even though I had very carefully planned out and packed a suitcase, along with a pile of other necessities, for our needs that night, the suitcase didn't make it into Mike's (or my) first car load. It wouldn't have been an issue except that Mike got trapped in by the moving truck and was unable to leave to go back to the house to go get it until they finished unloading. That was at 10pm. The missing stuff included a pack in play for Dylan to sleep in so we didn't have to wait for his crib, sheets for all of our beds, pj's for all and towels for showers. So, poor tired Dylan had to wait to go to sleep. When Mike returned with the stuff, the crib had been unloaded so we just quickly assembled it so Dylan would be as comfortable as possible. The little guy, after not getting a good night's sleep the previous night, have an abbreviated nap and a very busy day, got to bed at midnight! 4.5 hours past his bed time. And I tell ya, I cannot brag on the kid enough! He was a serious trooper and in good spirits all night. He and I sat on the rug (once unloaded), found a box of pillows to lounge on and entertained ourselves with movies and pillow fights most of the night. He was SO good and impressed me SO much! I don't think I would have made it through if he had fallen apart because I was more exhausted than he was. What a kid I have. He is seriously the best.

Needless to say it was a very long moving day. The movers collected payment and headed out our door after 1am. A 15 hour plus day for them. They were great too. Even though they were obviously exhausted, they stayed pleasant, joking and extremely helpful to us throughout the whole ordeal.

The closing on our old house was last Friday so we had the next day, Thursday, to be completely cleared out of it. That was not without drama either. But, that'll have to wait for another posting. I've got some boxes calling my name.

Things We Will Miss About This Old House

A few days ago, I put up a post about things we will miss about our old (in age and status) house. I did this so that focusing on the negative could make leaving it behind a little easier. However, as tonight is the last night we'll spend in the house, nostalgia is creeping in and I want to give some respect to the things we will miss about it.

It's charm.
It's built in hutch and nooks.
Our location in a great neighborhood in walking distance to everything.
Our Boston address. (this will be the first time since moving to the area 12 years ago that I'll actually live in the burbs, outside of Boston city limits.)
Our low Boston property taxes. The taxes in our new town are A LOT more!
Being close to several good friends that we enjoy seeing on a regular basis.
All the decor that we so carefully and methodically picked out over the years.
The beautiful vaulted ceilings and skylights we had done 3 years ago.
The sunroom\playroom. Such a bright, happy space that has been a perfect spot to get in some reading on the weekends or to catch a snooze.
Our amazingly landscaped yard which we've only been able to enjoy for a little over a year.
Dylan's room. My Mom and I put so much love and hard work into making his room the coolest kids room I've ever seen. Though we will be transferring the artwork, in picture form, somehow to the new room, it just won't be the same.
All the happy memories we've shared there....and there have been many. Primarily, it's where we brought the love of our lives, Dylan, home and laughed with him for the last 2 plus years.

Now that we're into our last moments there, the sad feelings are creeping in. Our home has been good to us and we'll miss it a lot. Goodbye Cass St and Boston. We'll miss you bunches!

Packing Frenzy

7 years in one house (the longest I've lived anywhere in my adult life) will cause you to accumulate a good bit of stuff. That stuff seems to multiply when you're trying to wrangle it and pack it into boxes. Despite the pruning we've done of our possessions over the last several months, there seems to still be a lot. And, with a house twice the size to fill, throwing out some of our furniture and decor just isn't an option until we get somewhat settled into our new space and see what works there.

The move is definitely going to happen Wednesday. Well, it's as definite as anything in this process is which means I'll believe it when I see it. The last several weeks have been filled with a lot of headache and uncertainty in trying to wrap up this whole move process. Time line changing events happen daily and we're trying to roll with the punches....and then make all the calls necessary to deal with the snowball effects of those changes.

In any case, this weekend was the last big packing weekend. And boy did we pack! While there's still all the stuff left that has to wait until the last minute to get packed, we have rooms filled not with daily life things, but with boxes. Lots and lots of boxes. Of course, this being the last weekend in our home, we couldn't let it pass by without one last go round of some fun family traditions.

Dylan is obsessed with pancakes. I've been making them once a weekend most weekends (whole grain ones of course) for the last couple of months. So, of course we needed one last pancake breakfast!

This is how happy pancakes make Dylan.

Another Hines family tradition, since long before Dylan came around, is Saturday pizza night. I LOVE pizza and making it at home, with healthy ingredients, is pretty much the only way I allow myself to eat it. So, for our exciting Saturday nights as newlyweds, we often made pizza and hung out on the couch. I know, can you stand the excitement? Once Dylan came around and was old enough to eat solid foods, he came to love family pizza night too. In fact, one of my dearest memories of that little guy is on a pizza night. While I was cooking some up just over a year ago, I got to see Dylan take his first steps in our kitchen! Good memories, I tell ya!

Pizza and Party Cups

Pizza makes my boys happy!

On Sunday morning, Mike had soccer so Dylan and I got to hang out and pack together. Before we got to the packing business, we had breakfast to attend to. Sometimes on weekends, I let Mike sleep in while Dylan and I get up to go for a long walk. When we do that, we usually stop at Panera on the way home and pick up bagels for breakfast. Dylan loves bagels probably only 2nd to pancakes. So, Sunday morning, we started the day with a walk down to Panera for breakfast. With our weekend traditions done, we were clear to pack up the rest of the kitchen equipment!

Now, I'm kind of the queen of to do lists around these parts. Even though this moving thing is stressful and driving me insane, I must say there is one serious upside to it....I feel very accomplished since my to do lists get totally checked off! But, I guess that's what happens. When you're moving and everything HAS to get done, you don't have an option but to tick off all the boxes.

By late Sunday afternoon, we all needed a "get out of the house and away from the packing" sanity break. We got in the car and drove north a little ways to a huge, amusement park type furniture store. For those that live in the Boston area, you know where I'm talking about. For those that don't, know that I'm not exaggerating. This furniture store is massive and not only has a theater, restaurant and ice cream stand, but has a jelly bean store, statues of Boston icons all made out of jelly beans, a water show and a trapeze school. If furniture doesn't entertain you, something else there will! There are some furniture pieces we'd like to get sooner than later so a trip to the mega furniture store was necessary. Plus, as a nice treat, my in-laws met us there, shopped with us for a bit and had dinner with us. Dylan always love spending time with his grandparents!

It was an exhausting weekend but we're definitely feeling a lot more prepared for the move. There's still work to be done but we will get it done. Today and tomorrow at work will be hectic (this also being my busiest time of the month at work). Wednesday we close and move into our new house. Thursday we'll get any last bits out and the current casa cleaned then close on it Friday. I'll take Wednesday to Friday off work for all of this and hope to also get a good bit of unpacking done. My in laws have been kind enough to offer to come help us all day with Dylan (and whatever else we need) on Wednesday. This means we won't be relaxing in the near future...unless relaxing means passing out from exhaustion! So, until I get a chance to kick up my heels again, I'll have to keep one of my new favorite pictures of me and Dylan in mind. This was taken sometime over the last couple of weeks when I took a movie snuggle break with my boy. Don't we look peaceful??

Things I'm Not Going to Miss About This Old House

Moving away from our house is very emotional for us. We've put so much time, money and personalized decoration into it that it has truly been our home for almost 7 years now. There are a lot of things about it that we'll miss. However, to try to make leaving it more bearable, we've decided to focus on some of the negatives about it we'll be leaving behind and not have to deal with anymore.

The squeaky hardwood floors.
Our wet basement that's good for storage only when lifted off the ground by a crate.
The antiquated two pipe forced steam radiator heating system that only plumbers over 100 years of age (IE none) actually know how to work on properly.
The garage that was built for a 1926 size car and hasn't fit one it in since.
Being extremely close to neighbors (not that I have anything against our current ones but a little more privacy will be nice).
Window A\C units. The invention of central A\C is truly glorious.
Not having electrical outlets on every wall. Even with our multiple renovations, there was still 1 or two walls in the house where a plug was always needed and didn't exist.
Having only 1 full bathroom that's pretty small. It can be pretty cramped with all 3 of us in there in the mornings.
The drama that goes along with prepping it for sale.
The drama that goes along with selling it.
The drama that goes along with moving out of it.

Our new house is also a very young house and won't come with the set of problems that an old one does. While I'm not ignorant to the fact that I'm sure we'll inherit new problems, it will be nice to leave these old problems of our old house behind.