We've Moved!

It's official - we now live in the house we own! We had to be out of our apartment on the 31st, so we spent the last two days of the month moving and cleaning. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in a year in a half. As we were packing and cleaning I came across some boxes that I hadn't even unpacked from when we we moved into the apartment. Most of it was school/teacher stuff, but still, I found it a little unsettling. Now that we are in a place which I know we won't be leaving for a long time, I can only imagine the stuff that is going to accumulate. I don't really considered myself a pack rat, but I guess you could call me a saver. For example, I have saved every ticket stub from every concert I have been to. I keep telling myself I need it for memories or I'm going to make an craft or art piece out of them, but really, they just pile up. I get this from my mom and let me tell you how I figured this out.

My parents have been incredible this past month. My dad has been a huge a help with the bathroom reconstruction and my mom and been pretty helpful with just about everything. She stayed with us for a week after Christmas - packing, painting, tiling...everything. But what I discovered is my mom is also a "Saver." I found myself putting things in the Goodwill pile and then my mom would say, "Why are you getting rid of that? Don't you want to save that?" For example, I had an old shower curtain that I think someone had given me as a gift about 10 years ago (note to anyone reading this - a shower curtain is a really weird gift). I put it in the Goodwill pile and my mom says, "Don't get rid of that. That's a brand new shower curtain. You could use it for a picnic tablecloth." So now I have an old shower curtain that I know is going to sit in our basement for the next 10 years and will never get used for a picnic tablecloth.

I have a feeling that once we are done with all of our remodeling the childhood boxes will start arriving. My parents saved a lot of my special toys from childhood, like my Carebears action figures and cloud car or my my buckets of Lincoln Logs (the old school ones made out of actual wood, not the plastic ones they make now). Once we get to a stable location (as in a have a mortgage payment), my mom unloads these childhood boxes on us. For example, when my sister moved into her last house my mom brought most of my sisters childhood toys to her house. This happened to be right around Christmas time so my mom unpacked these boxes and set up these toys under my sister's Christmas tree. Kind of funny because she received most of these toys for Christmas about 20 years prior.

The thing is, Jesse is what I like to call a minimalist. He doesn't seem the need to keep around much and in a way, I really admire this. When we first moved in together, I was amazed at what few belongings he had. I think he took a carload to be moved (with the exception of his bed). On the other hand, I took a Uhaul truck to be moved. Granted, I supplied all the furniture and kitchen supplies, but still, it's the saver in me. What can I say, I was raised this way.

Anyhow, while we are offcially moved into our place, we are far from being settled in. The bedrooms are done and liveable, but that's about it. We are finishing up the bathroom this weekend. The toilet is in an working (thank goodness), and we plan on installing the sink tomorrow. We finished tiling the shower walls today and will grout tomorrow. It's starting to look like an actual bathroom and I must say, it's turning out really well. We set up a faux kitchen in the basement to serve us for the time being. Now that I've become a little more realistic with our time tables, I expect we'll finish the kitchen in February or March. Eveything takes about four times longer than we initially expected. And for everyone this applies to - we know, you told us so.

Happy New Year Everyone!