Moving

We had a full week between closing on the house and officially moving into it. We set it up this way mostly so we would have a full weekend to get settled. Instead of having the movers move everything on Saturday followed by a rush of unpacking on Sunday, we took things a little slower. Kevin took Friday off to be around while the movers came, and we had both Saturday and Sunday to get settled in the new house. Which is especially important since I'm currently out of PTO in anticipation of my maternity leave.

It also meant that we were able to use that gap week to start moving over the things we could move over. We did our entire kitchen this way, bringing plates and glasses slowly so we wouldn't worry about them breaking. We brought games and DVDs and clothes. As we decided that we wouldn't need things until after we moved, we took them to the new house. By the time the movers showed up on Friday, all that was left was furniture, cleaning supplies (which stayed behind another day) and a single suitcase with last minute clothes and toiletries.

It's actually a good thing we were able to get so much moved on our own, even if I spent the week in a haze of exhaustion. The movers had a hard time fitting the rest of our stuff in their truck. Which actually surprised me, because I don't think we have an inordinate amount of stuff for the size house we had. But it all fit in the end, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.

The other upside of moving things piecemeal is that the house was already almost put together by the time we officially moved in. Clothes were in closets, linens were folded, the kitchen was all set up. It didn't take us long at all to go through the remaining boxes and do a few loads of laundry and dishes. By the time we'd been in the house a week, the only thing left to do was hang pictures. And if we still need to hang those pictures nearly a month after we moved in, well, we made good progress for a while at least. The finishing touches will happen this weekend, or at least before our housewarming next weekend.

It's so nice to be settled in the new house. There are a few things that are already driving me bananas - the dishwasher is tiny and the kitchen in general is a bit shoddy. But for the most part I love it. My books are all out in common spaces now instead of hidden away in my office. Kevin has his own office, so I can use the living room without disturbing him. I'm even getting used to the longer commute. Now all we need to do is sell the townhouse and everything will be settled.