Thursday, July 12, 2007

moving toward home

It is pouring rain this morning and the house is dark and quiet. The children are still sleeping at five minutes until 9:00am. I know I should wake them but frankly I am enjoying the solitude. We are supposed to pack their rooms today. In about a week we'll move. We are nowhere near ready for the moving vans to arrive. I confess that I have never been ready for the moving vans until the night before they arrive. Well, once I was. But that was due to the fact that it was a corporate move and the moving guys did all the packing as well as the loading and unloading. All I had to do was make sure the house was neat, pick up the baby, and get out of the way. That was many years ago, the baby was my almost grown daughter, and I have forgotten completely what it was like to have the luxury of someone else packing up my belongings.

I remember all too clearly our move last year. It was really a chore. We had lived in the same home for twelve years. It was a three bedroom, two bath, two car garage house on a corner lot and it was filled to the brim with all of those important and not so important things a family collects over time. We had a big garage sale and I still had to box things up and move them out just to put the house on the real estate market.



Before we knew we'd have to move away from home, we had started looking for a larger house, something bigger with another bedroom in our same school district. I knew we needed more space but I don't think I realized just how small our house was until we moved into this one. There is so much space here that I felt a bit lost at first. In fact, I missed my little gray house. I missed my beautiful soaking tub that sat under a skylight in redwood decking. I missed the vaulted ceilings and the natural light that filled the house. I missed the walls I had stripped and painted and papered, the woodwork I had stained, the tile floors my husband had painstakingly laid. Oddly enough I missed the intimacy of the smaller space. I missed lying in bed and hearing my boys murmur to each other across the hallway.

I think what I missed most of all was the feeling that the little gray house was my home. This house is not my home. It is roomy and has storage to die for, but it isn't mine. I can't change the fixtures or the wallpaper in the extra bathroom or the carpet. I can't rip out the horrible bushes the homeowner didn't tend for years. I can't change the kitchen counters or tear out the wall between the laundry room and the half bath to make it big enough to turn around in. I have wanted to do each of those things since the moment we moved in.

I am not looking forward to the logistics of moving. I most definitely am not interested in packing or unpacking. I don't want to get the kids up and make them work the next week of their summer away. But when it's all over and I am sitting in a house full of boxes waiting to be emptied, I know I will feel happier, more content. We bought a house. And once again, I'll have a place to call my own.


13 comments:

lilokmermaid said...

Congrats! May you make many happy memories in your new home!

Shirley

Kim said...

Thanks, Shirley. We are starting to get very excited!

The Good Woman said...

I'm so excited for you. But I must admit my two hot tips for moving (and we've done this a few times are:
1. Pack early.
2 Unpack immediately you arrive.

I feel our approaches may differ...

Kim said...

GW, I'm more of a late packer. I like to keep life as normal as possible until we need to get ready. I do always unpack immediately, though. I don't like all of my things packed away in boxes. I like to have them out around me to use. I will tell you that the moves are harder than they used to be. I think there is a direct relationship between the number of children, their ages, and the difficulty of the move. When the kids were little, it was so much easier. Or maybe I was just younger. ;)

Iota said...

Good luck. You did it! When I started reading your blog, you weren't even looking (or not with much enthusiasm), and that was only May!

lady macleod said...

Moving like exercise is only fun when it's over.

congratulations on the new house! We must have photographs when you are settled.

I love that photograph of the boys and lovely daughter looks very dramatic.

Kim said...

Iota, I can hardly believe it! Things always seem to happen for a reason. If we hadn't had a deadbeat landlord, we wouldn't have our lovely new home!

That is exactly right, Lady M. I will share photos as soon as I can. The boys look much sweeter in that photo than they really are. You are spot on about my girl. She's quite the drama student.

Thank you both for stopping by.

laurie said...

congratulations. moving is a bear, but being moved is wonderful. i can hardly wait, on your behalf.

when doug and i moved into our house (12 years ago now!) we moved everything ourselves, in a rented truck. and then he got sick and was very sick for three days. and me surrounded by unpacked boxes.

it was july, very hot, he was very sick, and the house was very very much a mess.

but even with all of that, i was so glad to finally be Home.

you will be too.

Kim said...

You are so right, Laurie. This morning one corner of my living room is completely filled with packed boxes. The kids and I really got a lot done yesterday. My middle one likes to keep track of things. He told me we packed 41 boxes yesterday. We are well on our way!

wakeupandsmellthecoffee said...

Hi Kaycie. I come to you via Lady M.'s blog. What you said on her blog got me thinking. I like Barack Obama as a candidate. I know he's inexperienced but wouldn't just his name send a message to the Islamic community that the USA isn't completely Bushwhacked?
Good luck on your move. I always like to unpack the kitchen stuff first and move on from there.

Kim said...

Perhaps it would, WUASTC, but he's so inexperienced I don't think he is the best option. At this early stage of the game, I am still reading, listening and taking it all in.

I am taking a break right now from packing my kitchen. It's always one of the last rooms I pack and the first I unpack, too.

Thanks for visiting!

laurie said...

kitchen first, yes. and bathroom.

all else will fall into place.

(and oh yeah--for our benefit--the computer!)

Kim said...

In order to hook up our cable and internet, the company requires computers and televisions available, so they'll be among the first things unpacked.

My addiction to my laptop would have taken care of that anyway!