The Big Move

Poppy & Matt were in charge of the truck

Matt's room full of boxes

Matt was co-pilot for the day!

We're finally here! I know everyone has been anxiously waiting to hear about the move & see pictures of the new house. Things have been pretty crazy, & I am just now getting the opportunity to sit at the computer for a little while to get you all up-to-date. The move went very smoothly, all things considered. Or as smoothly as it can when moving out of a 3rd floor apartment anyway. The move actually took place over several days. On Saturday morning, my dad picked up Matt and they went to Providence to pick up his big box truck from his office. Matt was so excited to be "co-pilot" for the day!
Meanwhile, Allen, Ashley & I continued to frantically throw things into boxes. Dad & Matt returned, Rick arrived, and the exodus began. Matt & Dad were in charge of loading the truck, while Allen & Rick made dozens of trips up & down the 44 stairs between the apartment and the street ( they could barely move by Monday!). We filled up the truck and headed over to the new house to unload. My friend Chris joined us after lunch, and we got everything unloaded. Then the unpacking started, mostly because we needed to empty the boxes so we could pack up more stuff! We took our sore & achy selves back to the apartment to sleep, and repeated the process on Sunday. Thankfully we had a lot of help on Sunday too, when we were joined by Suzie, Becky & Dan. All in all, we managed to move everything that was boxed, and a good deal of the smaller furniture pieces. I still cannot believe how much stuff we had in that apartment! Somehow when you have to box up everything you own, there is more of it than you ever thought possible. We then had a couple of days to concentrate on unpacking before the movers came on Tuesday to bring over the rest of the furniture. The kids enjoyed "camping" at the apartment, where they slept on their mattresses on the floor. We couldn't actually stay overnight at the house until Tuesday, because we were waiting for the occupancy permit. So we're here, and we love it! We're tired and still a bit sore, and we've been unpacking & shopping like crazy. I actually had to go out and buy toilet cleaning brushes in triplicate! I guess that's the price one pays for 3 bathrooms. I think that has struck me as the strangest purchase so far. But we're getting back to normal, and things are looking pretty good. I realized that I have no pictures of the house since we've moved in, so I'll do that tomorrow and try to get them up here for you to see.

Paint, paint, and more paint!

Matt, Steve & Allen in Ashley's room

Charlene & Rick in Matt's room

Cathy & Dad



Charlene in Matt's room



Chris in the Master bath

Ashley in the Master bath

Ashley's room is neon green- and it glows!

Matt's Jungle Green room

Allen & Molly's room

the Kids' bath

Rick in the office

Al in the Dining room

Roger in the dining room

It was a beautiful fall Saturday. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing gently, the smell of paint in the air...yes, folks, I said paint. Lots of paint. About 14 gallons worth so far. The painting saga actually began two weekends ago, when we made our first trip (of many) to Home Depot to buy the paint for the whole house. For months we had debated the colors, decided and second-guessed, calculated the square footage of all the rooms, and we were finally ready to take the next step. We consulted the Home Depot experts as to how much paint to buy, and we left with what we needed. Or so we thought. Turns out we actually needed DOUBLE what we bought. Hence the many trips back to buy more paint. I am now on a first-name basis with some of the cashiers, and I suspect they'll be seeing a lot more of me before all is said & done. Ashley's room was the first to get started. It was so excited to see that first swipe of neon green paint go up on the wall! Before long, we had people painting all over the upstairs. It was a bit crazy with all of us inside the house and the construction crew outside working on the deck, not to mention the tile guy on the first floor. We had family & friends stopping in all day to help, and we got a lot done! By the end of Saturday, we had all three bedrooms done, and a first coat on both of the upstairs bathrooms.  On Sunday we finished the upstairs and moved downstairs to the dining room and office. That's about as far as we can go for now, because there's still too much activity on the first floor, and there are still unfinished walls down there. We're hoping to finish it up next weekend. Of course, we never would have gotten so much accomplished if it weren't for our family & friends. So a great big thank you to everyone who helped us out! Here are some pictures of our progress. And if you find yourself free next weekend and want to come and paint, we'd love to have you!