Big enough house

So this is what it feels like to have a big enough house!  Sue is spending the night here, and even though both she and the boys have gone to bed, I can go back and forth to the basement freely, flipping on lights as I go, moving laundry, etc.  In our old house the basement was both Aaron's bedroom and the guest room.  Now the boys are together in the smaller main-floor bedroom, Sue is upstairs on a real bed in the larger upstairs room, and the smaller upstairs room has no current purpose.  How about that?!

This house is not excessive, but it has room enough to accommodate our family for the next couple of decades.  There's bedrooms for everyone when the boys are big enough to need their own, and even then there will be a room for guests and/or an office.  Someday we'll make the upstairs more full-fledged by adding a dormer, expanding the bathroom, and updating the insulation and wiring and so on, but for now, it's totally fine the way it is.  There's a good section of the basement that should do well for a music studio, with room for Dale's bandies too (whoever they may be) - and they won't even have to look at the washing machine.  That will leave plenty of room downstairs for repair projects, an art area, and well-organized storage (let me fantasize, all right?).

Sue spent the late afternoon outside in the yard with the boys, and they all loved that.  Jordan prefers not to get dirty but helped with the weeding anyway:  he told Grandma that he would use the shovel to scoop the dirt, but she should be the one to pull out the weeds where he had scooped.  Aaron doesn't mind at all being dirty; he dug with any available implement and said "Wormy, wormy, wormy!" every time they spotted an earthworm.  There were plenty - the soil is terrific in all the beds.  There's evidence of much successful gardening, including roses, blueberries, raspberries, peas, kale, broccoli, rhubarb, spinach, onions, and carrots.  We picked and ate some early arugula and admired the large rosemary bush.  The sellers let us know that there are lots of hummingbirds who would appreciate a feeder.  Sue is thrilled to have access to some garden space, and we are thrilled to have her go to town on our behalf -- she's an awesome gardener.  Dale is equally eager.  I'll play in the dirt too, but I expect my specialty to be cooking up all the fruits of their labor.

Sue had come not only to visit but also to free Dale and me to finish cleaning out the apartment.  We have now removed every item from there except the cleaning supplies, and 90% of the cleaning is done... I was disappointed not to get that last little bit done today, but it was better to just go home and have dinner with everyone at a normal time.  Scrub, scrub, scrub.  Every fingerprint on the matte white doorways, every mark on the beige carpet, every dusting of construction particles has to be cleaned up until the place is spic and span.  I feel like the Karate Kid washing all those cars.  

We're in!

We had a great moving day yesterday -- long, but we got all the big stuff (and a lot of little stuff) in just two trips, thanks to super generous help from Bob, Andy, and Hunter. The weather cooperated. And wow, the house! It's so wonderful, and it's our house! We love the layout, we love the fixtures, we are having fun with the luxurious appliances, we even love the paint. It feels like it was ours before we even saw it -- it just makes sense. Of course there are odd things here and there... as in, it took us two days to find even one phone jack (hence no blogging). But hey, who needs more than one phone jack anyway, in these wireless times.

Last night (Wed) was our first night in the house. Phil, who often has a hard time with transitions, made it something of a tough night with the yowling and the scratching at doors and stomping on our bodies. Eventually we figured out a way to enclose him far away from us. Then, after too short a time, we woke up to ... snow! lots of snow. School opened late, which was fine; it was a good day to have a relaxed schedule. Here are the boys waking up.

Cute family time aside, it's a relief to have the school day during which to tame the chaos of boxes, at least enough to enable minimal eating and self-care. Whenever Aaron is here, he has to be constantly monitored, because we are not as yet adequately babyproofed. It reminds me of our sojourn at the Glenway house, when you could not so much as toast a waffle without finding Aaron teetering at the top of the stairs. His balance has improved, but his confidence has grown even faster.

Coping mechanisms

We had a two-birthday-party day yesterday... fortunately, in between, Jordan got to nap. The face paint is a beautiful dolphin courtesy of his classmate Sophia's mom.

Jordan is showing signs of stress from the moving, poor guy. On the surface he's enthusiastic about moving day. But he's a bit of a pill at home, and at school he keeps talking excitedly about his friend Theo - how he is so excited to move in with him, share a room, see him all the time, stuff like that. At face value, this doesn't make sense -- we're not moving in with Theo, and in fact haven't been seeing a lot of him lately. But when we moved here from Maryland, Theo's presence here was an important point of stability for Jordan. I think moving might mean "everything changes but Theo." I feel bad for him that the prospect of a giant change has him mustering all his coping mechanisms. Hopefully he'll recognize soon that this move is a lot easier than the last one.

Moving in

Dale slept the clock around. And we had a very successful day today! We got ourselves to Seattle, liberated the Corolla from the trailer, and figured out where to put the truck. We're on the third floor, but thank goodness there's an elevator, and they gave us the "stop" key so we could keep the door open for loading and unloading. In the middle of the day our savior Bob arrived, and we got a good routine going: Bob and Dale hauled stuff up to the door, I brought it into the apartment and kept an eye on the kids. Here's Jordan and Ava having a little drink by the fire.

Later in the day the kid factor went up (Aaron woke from his nap, and Susanna and her friend Penelope came home from school) and the unloading efficiency went down. But we got the truck more than half unloaded, which is fantastic progress. And I unpacked the kitchen.

Happily, the walkway was not nearly so bad today. When they're not actively working on our area, it's safe.

We're back at Kari and Danny's tonight, but tomorrow morning, we'll go back to Seattle to stay. Jordan is eager. Saint Bob will help us again in the afternoon, and hopefully they'll get the truck emptied out. And we'll start really living in our house!

Dale's here!

He has arrived, safe and sound!  He went 900 miles a day.  He is taking a nap.  All is well.

That's more like it

We got into the apartment, and it's great! Bekah and Ava met us there, and the kids romped around while I did the walk-through. It's about the same amount of space as the Haddon house, minus the attic and basement (which is a big deal) but plus another bathroom and a gas fireplace. The main living area is just one big open area, overlooked by the kitchen - a good arrangement with the kids. The kitchen is pleasant and functional, more than I'm used to. There's a big wide south-facing window along the far wall of the living room, through which the sun was streaming today. There's a view that is partly the roof next door and partly a nice vista down over the U district - including my new office building! There's the same view from the master bedroom. Jordan's bedroom is in the front of the house, looking onto the courtyard; Aaron's is the walk-in closet off the master, which is more than big enough for the purpose. There's a small and mostly unappealing balcony. Closets. And last but not least there's a generous utility room with washer/dryer and plenty of space for Phil's facilities. It's quite a bit nicer than the other apartments I've stayed in (Olympia, College Park) and I think it will accommodate us very well for the next few months.




Jordan's bedroom:

Aaron's bedroom:

Entry closet:


There is one huge, serious drawback, and that is the construction on the exterior. It is horrific. Look at the walkway. And we have a toddler.

I will never be able to put Aaron down out there, ever, and even Jordan and I are going to have to seriously watch our feet. Not to mention guests. Can this be legal? Even in the name of necessary improvements? We already argued for (and got) a bit of a break on the rent, but that was with the understanding that the walkway in front of our door would be completed when we arrived. This is so extreme that Bekah and I pretty much found it comical.

On the bright side, the courtyard might be sort of cute when it's done. If we're here then.

And if I feel too sad about the situation, there is a Grief Support Community just down the street.

When we had completed our apartment business, the five of us went to the zoo. That drive was six minutes. I practically shrieked with joy when I clocked it. We had lunch, and then since it was on the chilly side, spent our time in the Zoomnasium, a nature-themed indoor playground. It rocked. Aaron ran around going "Pbbbbth" at the elephant (his trumpeting sound) and making fish lips at the fish, and Jordan and Ava took turns hatching out of a big rubber egg.

This afternoon, Jordan is playing with Sam for a change. When Harry gets home from school, the three of them will go with Aunt Kari to the farm where they pick up their box of veggies. Aaron will stay here with me and Grandma Sue, who is aching for quality grandson time.

We've arrived!

It was the usual cross-country travel day, very tiring, but did anyone nap?  Nooo, not until we got into Uncle Danny's car in Seattle.  Then both boys fell asleep hard in the back seat and what use is that to me?  Jordan roused for the excitement of the cousins and their house full of toys and guinea pigs and a lizard and a dog, not to mention Grandma, and had a fantastic evening.  Aaron just wanted to go to bed.  But he'll have fun tomorrow.

It's wonderful to be here.  I can't believe I actually live here now.  There's been a misplaced piece of baggage, and the person at the desk asked me if the address on my driver's license was current, and I froze.  Uh... no?  I guess not!

Key

You know you're really moving when you reach in your pocket for your keys and instead of the usual fistful you get ... one.  And it's the key to the car.  That's all I've got.

Loading up, continued

It's possible that we got too small of a truck.  We (meaning Dale) had to work very hard to get most of our stuff in.  (I have been more of a boxer/hauler.)  And some just did not fit, even in the car on the trailer.  But it's an excuse to get new lampshades.  And believe me, if Dale couldn't do it it couldn't be done.  His ancestors were those Egyptians who built walls where you can't slip a knife between the stones.

I tell you what, though, I feel for those Egyptians.  Hauling all those boxes down from the attic on Thursday was totally exhausting.  Friday was more about the psychological difficulty, for me, of how much there still was to do.  And we didn't get it all done on Friday.  The original plan had been for Dale to drop the boys and me off at the airport on Saturday and then leave in the truck, but there was still a lot of work to do after that.  He will leave Sunday.  

We need to remember when we move next:  A sixteen-foot truck does not actually hold all of our stuff (in one trip), and we need three days to load it.  That's after boxing up everything that's not in immediate daily use.

Loading up

The truck is half full and I am half awake. A lot of up and down the stairs with boxes today. I got very tired, and maybe dehydrated because now I have a splitting headache. I hope to awaken refreshed in the morning, ready to pack up the rest of our daily stuff and fill the other half of the truck. I don't know if everything will fit. Dale is an excellent packer, with a keen spatial sense; if anyone can do it, he can. And as he said, "Whatever doesn't fit, well, we probably don't need it."

Camry goes west

A couple of guys with thick accents came to the house today and drove off with the Camry.  I was hoping to see them load it onto the gigantic car carrier, but that of course does not come down our street.

Cleaning out the car first was sort of amazing.  Four boxes of kleenex and a roll of toilet paper?  Two sippy cups, several dinosaurs, a number of Jordan's socks (he likes to take them off in the car), quite a few Cheerios.  Balls.  Drawings.  Flashlights.  Water bottles.  And maps of places we will no longer go.

Dale will tow the Corolla behind the moving truck.

Leaving campus

I left campus today. Goodbye office! I will miss my office. Not aesthetically (it's a pretty horrible little space), but there's a lot of history in there. And in my new place I only have a cubicle. (But I'm lucky to have that, so never mind!)

My former parking garage, the door nearest my office, and the grander door in the front.

The palatial gym, where I have spent many excellent hours.

The student-run vegetarian food co-op, our favorite place to have lunch. "Food for People, Not for Profit" -- Their logo is a clenched fist punching through a sandwich.

Eventually I turned in my parking pass, handed over my keys to the person who gets my office next... and that's it! I had to take the bus home, because my car is gone. It took forever. The University runs this shuttle system, which is increasingly underfunded.

I can hardly be said to be ending my relationship with the University of Maryland - I am still employed there, advise two UM students, and am principal investigator of two grants through there - but this is the most concrete goodbye I'm likely to have.

Jordan, taking it in

Yesterday Jordan called me in to his bedroom as he was waking up, invited me to curl up with him, and said, "Mama, tell me some more cool things about Seattle that I don't know."  I wondered if this was part of him coping with all of the goodbyes we said this weekend.  I told him some cool things about our apartment:  that it has a balcony, and a fireplace, and that it is just a few blocks from Theo's house.  (Ten, actually.)  I had to explain what a fireplace was - I'm not sure he has actually experienced one.  "Like the campfire at Uncle Michael's house, only in a special safe place indoors," I said.  He thought that sounded great.

Then at breakfast he said, "Mama, I think that after we live in Seattle for a while we will want to move back here."  I carefully did not say, "Nope!  Ain't gonna happen!"  Instead I said, "You think we will miss it here?"  He said yes.  

I wonder what this is like for him, and how it will unfold once we arrive.

Goodbye, places

We didn't get to visit everything we wanted to say goodbye to this weekend, but we covered a lot of territory.

(No, I didn't take the pictures!)

Upcoming weekends

This weekend is our last weekend for tourist activities.  It's rainy, so we probably do the indoor parts of the zoo on one day and the Natural History museum on the other.  We're sick of them, but they're our haunts, and Jordan can have a last hurrah.  Dale's working half days.

Next weekend is busy.  Friday, dinner at Fanta's.  Saturday, my work party in the afternoon and Dale's work party for dinner.  (Perhaps meanwhile, the house will be overrun 

with prospective buyers?)  Sunday, goodbye brunch at the neighbors' with the whole street invited, followed by the Takoma Park Street Festival (shown), which we would normally nap through but we need to stay out of the way of the open house.  Judy chose the date to coincide with the street festival; Long & Foster has a very popular table there where people can meet all the agents, and they hand out fliers for the open houses taking place that day.  She says it gets a lot of traffic.  Sounds good to us!  good enough to miss a nap.

What I don't need

You know what?  I like not having a recycling bin in the house.  What does it do, anyway, but get overfilled?  And foody and moldy, in the case of the plastic and cans.  Our current system is to just accumulate one kitchen session's worth of stuff on the counter nearest the back door (where the microwave is not), and then take it right outside when we clean up.  I admit this works partly because the outside bin is right there.  But it's a little revelation, anyway.

My other revelation is how little I need the microwave.  Even with hungry children whacking their spoons on their tables to hurry me up, a pan is fine.  

However, no way would I want to attempt breakfast without the toaster.  The toaster is a necessity.

Change of realtors

We have separated amicably from our original Maryland realtor and will quickly sign up with another one - maybe even two other ones, one for each house.  Our former realtor was a great buyer's agent for us, but in this market, we need a serious seller's agent.  We're looking forward to reinvigorating the sales process... things have been rather discouraging so far!  Fortunately, there hasn't been anything we've been itching to buy in Seattle.  Maybe it's all for the best.

Establishing ourselves

Getting a new address enabled us to get new phone numbers (landline and cell) and internet service.  Whee!  The other utilities are set up by the apartment.  I arranged with USPS to forward everyone's mail.  I also got my new work address, and gave that to the mailroom here so they can forward my (90% useless) professional mail.  I arranged for our home phone and internet service to be disconnected the day we leave... we have to physically return the cable modem, which is an annoying thing to have to do at the last minute, but the alternative is to be without internet service for (gasp!) days.  How would I blog?

Remaining jobs include discontinuing the other utilities and unhooking all the bank stuff - arranging for a new account and changing over all the automatic deposits and payments.  There's nothing forcing us to close the account here... it just seems wrong, part of our Maryland past.

We have to wait until we're physically in Seattle to get driver's licenses.  That's likely to be an all-day project.

Discipline

It is a discipline, leaving the house picture perfect every day.  I think we spend half an hour each, every morning before we leave the house, cleaning up every little thing and picking up after ourselves.  Every object has to be put away, bedcovers straightened, pillows fluffed, blinds adjusted, floor swept, sink wiped.  There are no collection points.  No recycling bin in the kitchen - stuff just goes straight outside.  No dirty laundry is anywhere (it's all washed immediately), and no clean laundry either (it all gets put away before we next leave the house).  No dirty dishes in the sink, no clean dishes in the dish drain, and no dish drain on the counter.  No wet towels hanging in the bathroom (they go in the laundry).  We have switched to disposable diapers for now because we can't collect three days' worth of smelly diapers to wash, and don't want a bin taking up space anywhere; we just put the disposables in the kitchen trash and take it out frequently.

There are also fewer collection points for things we are trying to remember.  There's no visible calendar, because nothing is on the walls.  There's no dry-erase board for a shopping list because nothing is stuck to the fridge.  Thank goodness the computer always looks neat and sleek on the outside.

Countdown

Jordan and I were at a coffee shop last week (an occasional treat when I pick him up early from school) and I asked him how it feels to live in our house with all our stuff packed up.  "Does it feel a little funny, does it feel just the same, is it kind of fun, or what?"  He thought, and chewed his mini scone, and said, "It feels a little bit strange, Mama, because I don't know when we will move to Seattle."  This seemed very perceptive, to me, to be troubled by the uncertainty.  (And I love how he's calling me Mama lately.)

Now, though, we know when we're moving!  So I set up a countdown calendar for him.  It's September and October, cut out from a spare calendar his teacher had lying around, and taped to his activity table in his room.  We put a sticker on each day, and there's a big purple star on the day we fly to Seattle.  Jordan is just getting the hang of calendars and immediately asked, "What day are we going to Eli's for dinner?" "What do we do after we fill up all these boxes?" (the September ones), and "Why are there these animals here?"

Unfortunately I didn't notice until we got home that it is a 2009 calendar, so the days are one off.  I decided to just go with it.

32 days to go!