Moving

Guys, this moving thing is hard. 

I miss my old house. It was the perfect cozy size and I keep thinking about it. I just want to keep this house stored away some where until I need a retirement house. I walked into it to start painting today and it smelled like my house, it felt like my house, the colors were my colors, and James looked so happy rolling around the floors while I painted. I miss it. 

And maybe that is the point, as with all things that we love in life, they point us to our eternal home. We shouldn't be too comfortable here. I should long for my eternal home as much as I do for my little haven house on the south side of town. I don't. But I should. In a way it is good to force myself to be uncomfortable and to leave things I love. It shakes up my life. It is a reminder of what really matters.  

I have a entire house post saved in my drafts, but I haven't unpacked my computer yet to be able to edit it. You can look forward to more house sappiness in a week or two. 

James thinks so too. We all miss the play closest. 

Edit: I guess what I miss is the smallness and coziness. I'm not used to big. I'm not sure if I like bigger better. The boys do. 

Cleaning and painting

It looks even more impressive in person. :) I only scrubbed the kitchen, dining area, and hallway. It's a lot of work. I still have the front entry way and the whole fireplace room. 

I also washed out all our trash cans today, painted our bookshelves, and primed the coat closet. 

Little by little. 

Inch by inch. 

And I discovered a cat living in the ductwork below our kitchen nook... Grrrr.

 

Kitchen Packing

If you have read my blog for a while, you know that the kitchen is my favorite space in the house (my sewing room and play closet under the stairs are in second and maybe my cozy living room...). But I LOVE my kitchen! 

I love having an efficient kitchen. Love it. It makes cooking more enjoyable and just makes me happy. So, the thought of people helping me unpack and asking me a hundred questions and not putting stuff where I wanted was really stressing me out. Plus, having to make decisions on moving day seemed extra stressful. 

The more I thought about it the more I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry or try to do everything myself. Both of which are terrible ideas. Then I had a brilliant idea (at least I think it is pretty smart). I wrote up all the cupboards and drawers and both my old and new house. I then assigned everything a new home. 

Now when I pack a box from the kitchen I mark where it goes in the new house.

They are also marked with what shelf in the cupboard they go to. Now anyone can unpack my boxes for me and I can go and get other things accomplished. :) 

And the comments on my blog don't seem to be working again for some people. So, if you want to volunteer to help unpack boxes, because it will be so easy now (ha ha), text or call me. 

Do you have any favorite packing tips? 

Floors

I only took one shot of the finished floors today. I paired it with two before photos I had.  

Same spot in the room, just from different angles. 

Before photo is looking out of living room towards front door. 

After is from the front door looking into the room. 

These are both looking in, but you can't see the corner with the most damage from the cats in the before. Almost all of stains are gone! 

Goodbye ugly stained carpet. 

Goodbye cat stained hardwood. 

Goodbye cat smell. 

Goodbye shelf full of cat figurines. :)

I LOVE the way they turned out. I just keep looking at them and looking at them. I can't believe how beautiful they are. I'll post more photos (probably in a few months when we get more settled in and I have time) of all the other rooms. The master bedroom is the only one that we couldn't get the stains much lighter. It must have been the cats favorite room. Ugh. 

Time: Jared probably put about 80 hours into them. I had about 20. 

Equipment used: drum sander and edger sander. We rented them for three days for about $400. We bought a pole sander for the finished sanding job and a squeegee to apply sealer. We owned everything else we used. 

Sealer and Poly: Bona Amber is the seal. Bona Mega the poly. We purchase them online for about $500. 

Rooms: four bedrooms, a sewing room, one hallway, living room, and school room. 

Square footage: 1200sqft. 

Total cost ended up being around $1000. I haven't added up all the receipts yet. Quotes for the floor were $3000-$4000.

Busy busy

Sorry for the silence around here right now. It has been a little busy. 

We spent some time with our favorite girl cousin. She and Warren speak the same language. Four kids is no joke though. Crazy crazy. 

James found his feet. 

We played outside lots and lots for two day while it was in the 60s. 

It was Martin's birthday. 

He used to be this small. :(

And Jared has been sanding lots of floors ... I just helped a few days. 

Comments

I have the comments set for me to moderate every comment because it seems to be the only way some people can comment. 

I've tried relaxing the settings from no moderation to some moderation (I would rather it be that way - so much easier). Those options don't allow some people to comment. So, for now when you comment it emails me and I have to approve the comment. It will post a few hours later when I approve it. 

Sorry about the delay.