Throwing out our boxes

So this weekend was obviously a lot of hard work. I think that’s the most work we’ve ever had to put into a move — and we are experienced movers!
Ben playing on the back deck
Still, I don’t think we could have predicted how great it feels to be in our own house. Its incredible — there’s so much space! We kick Ben outside in the morning while Abi’s napping, and he’ll play happily for an hour on the deck by himself. Nic worked constantly to get the kitchen and living room into a usable state. And the basement is definitely my bat cave. Its awesome.
Side note: We budgeted $600 for furniture for the basement, so I went out one day saying “I’ll bet I can get a leather couch for $600 if I deal hard enough.” I ended up getting 2 leather couches for $610 (after tax.) One of them isn’t great — its significantly discoloured. But they’re so comfortable! Watching movies in HD is something you really have to do from a leather couch.
Beside that, in what is not yet, but will eventually be, a separate room, I have a giant desk that is perfect for working on.
Our bedrooms upstairs are all a little small. We’re still pondering how to arrange everything. But each of the kids is in their own room, so that’s already a wonderful change.
Oh ya, have I mentioned the hot tub? Saturday night, after working hard all day, and with the kids sleeping soundly, we slipped into the hot tub and finally, and possibly for the first time this summer, relaxed. Of course, I woke up sick the next day — which always happens when I relax. But I’d been trying to outrun a cold all week, and I’d pretty much held it off until the move was done, so I was content to take some Tylenol and sleep for a good part of the day on Sunday. In the evening we had some friends out… to sit in the hot tub with us. Its awesome… like… its this little bonus blessing from God. On top of everything else He’s blessed us with, He threw in a hot tub.
This weirdest part of this move — even weirder than moving into a place we’re allowed to renovate in any way we chose — is that we’re throwing our boxes out. Some of our boxes we’ve had for our entire marriage (incidentally, that would be 7 years today — Happy Anniversary, babe! This year, I got you a house!) since we’ve always known, no matter where we were, that we weren’t staying long. We’d become experts on squeezing our stuff into various sized apartments, and leaving room to store the boxes. But this time, we don’t need them. We’re not leaving here any time soon!
It feels weird. But it feels good! We are finally home!
Come visit us in our house — and bring your bathing suit!