Assisted Procrastination

Things I’ve learned about moving and some enlightening observations (AKA, a glimpse into my life the last couple of weeks).

1. Smoke alarm batteries die immediately after packing extra batteries away in storage. I robbed the alarm clock just to stop the beeping every 90 seconds, but this almost guarantees the alarm clock will now die.
2. Kitchen light bulbs we have NEVER had to replace suddenly die under the prospect of our moving out. Out of the 5 bulbs in the kitchen, 2 have died in the last week. That’s equal to the number of bulbs we’ve replaced in the almost 8 years we’ve lived in the house.
3. We started hearing another beep in the basement, but have no clue what was alarming. Leaving the back door open for a few minutes and chanting “not my house – not my problem” seemed to resolve the issue.
4. The cats are freaked out and are protesting by way of hairballs in both in walkways as well as in the most unsuspecting locations. Like under the nightstand. Really?? Blech!
5. Always be sure to leave another door to the house unlocked to avoid the need to wake the sick, sleeping 8 year old at 10pm when you somehow manage to lock yourself outside. No one knows how the door came to be locked. I suspect the cat.
6. No matter how much stuff I can fit into a huge box, it’s no good if it can’t be lifted. For that reason, there is no such thing as too many small boxes. Buy double what you were thinking. Then come over to my house and pack some crap. I’m tired of packing.
7. There is no appropriate size box for the LeCruset Dutch oven. It’s already far too heavy even when empty. The same is true for the food processor. And any box coming from my husband’s office.
8. Leave out *3* bowls for use in the final days in the house. It helps reduce the fighting that results when only 2 bowls are available for breakfast.
9. No matter how much progress we make, it always looks like “just a little bit more to pack” though the packing is never-ending. It’s like unloading clowns from a VW bug.
10. Buying a new-construction home from a custom builder (read: not an assembly line chain builder) means many phone calls to setup services involve customer service reps questioning my ability to recall the new address. The cable company even went so far as to ask my husband if he was “sure that’s the right address?  Have you BEEN there?”

More on the entertaining aspects of a custom build later. Right now, I have to pick out door hinges. Because these things are apparently not obvious, require much deliberation, and involve more “samples” to add to the pile, which already includes varying colors and shapes of really heavy and sharp granite, cabinet doors, wood planks (which are not cut to sample size because they were all out – instead we have varying lengths of wood flooring), and a stack of brochures, pamphlets, and swatches that could make your head spin. And I haven’t even started looking at baseboard molding options!

At this point, I would like to reiterate how grateful I am that it’s stopped snowing. I was starting to wonder if an igloo was in our future. Instead, it’s a 2+ week delay on the delivery of the house. But it will be well worth all the aggravation. If only I could get this point across to the cats, I might not have to fear putting on my shoes in the morning.

Good news – We sold the house!

Even better news – We’re buying a new house!!

Bad news – There’s just over a week between when we have to move out of our current house and when the building of our new house SHOULD be done.

This plan almost came together perfectly, but it’s OK because now we can experience what it’s like to be homeless, middle-class style. We’ll be living in an extended-stay hotel. With the cats and ferrets. And, of course, The Kid. It’ll be an adventure! Really! (I keep telling myself this with hopes that I’ll eventually believe it.)

For the time being, life feels like the calm before the storm. That time when we should be hanging the plywood over the windows, but can’t quite get the motivation to do so because the weather outside is so beautiful. So instead, my living room sits FULL of boxes – some packed, some assembled and empty, most still flat and waiting (though all are labeled and organized by size, because I’m compulsive like that).

I can’t yet bring myself to take the pictures off the walls. I know it’s one of the easiest ways for me to get the motivation and feel & see progress, but past experience tells me that when I do, the house will echo. An echoing house feels empty. It immediately stops feeling like “home” and I want to hold on to that feeling as long as possible – for me and for the family. We’ve lived here for almost 8 years and while we’ve had our share of complaints about this house, it has been OUR house all that time. I have pride in being one of the few remaining “original” owners in the cul-de-sac. We picked out the counters and the cabinets and the carpet and the appliances. I painted the rooms. Well, some of them – I just couldn’t decide on colors for all of them and for others, the furniture moving made painting seem like an impossible task not worth the effort so it still feels like an unfinished project – a work in progress. We’ll do it all again with the new house, and on a grander scale because the new builder isn’t a “Wal-Mart” style company mass-producing houses like an assembly line. It will be a welcome and refreshing change from our first attempt at buying new construction.

But still I feel connected to my house with walls. The more we pick out the bits and pieces for the new house, the more excited I become, the more I feel like the new house will eventually be what we want. It’s shaping up to be an amazing spring full of new house adventures. DH will get more acres than he’s ever owned, all screaming for partitioning, fencing, farming, and, most importantly, a tractor. We’ll move in at the perfect time for him to begin the laundry list of projects he’s been itching to try for years. While I’m incredibly excited to design my own kitchen, I think I’m most excited for him to get to try his hand at farming. Crops first, animals to come sometime thereafter. (I’ll get crap for saying it, but I’m looking forward to the crops, not the animals.) I’m hopeful that he’ll be successful enough with our staples that we won’t regret skipping the CSA this year. Though we’ll continue to support local farmers, we’ll be better able to diversify and buy only what we need to fill the gaps. To offset, I’ve evangelized the wonderful benefits of CSAs so I’m hopeful others will join in my place. (If you’ve not heard my pitch, let me know and I’ll unpack my soapbox just for you!)

The new house is currently past the framing stage, but not yet to drywall. It has plumbing, electric, and (most importantly) cable/satellite. We hope to have walls soon and have been told they should arrive before we move it. This should help The Kid better understand and accept the new house as a nice place to live. Right now, she’s not buying it. But she has started packing and organizing. Because she’s compulsive. And because she’s my daughter. And the countdown is on to the move in just a few weeks.

And in case you thought this blog was all about YOU procrastinating, I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. This whole long post was all about me telling you what’s what in my world in an attempt to put off packing. Because I’m a master procrastinator and you are my enabling audience. Now pass me the bubble wrap! (Because I like to pop it – not because I’m going to get around to packing anything today.)