Blossoming

We were all pretty eager to get to our new house Saturday morning, so once everyone was fed and dressed we headed over. Little did I know we had some surprises in store. In a good way.

I knew my dad had been working on renovating our kitchen and replacing our upstairs bathtub. It was great to see those in person after all of the photo updates along the way. But, what I didn't know was that those were not the only projects my parents had been tackling. I was led into our family room to find a surprise- a door! It may not seem exciting, but the only way to the backyard before was down a flight of stairs and out three doors. Yes, THREE! One out of the house to the garage, one out of the garage into a shed behind the garage, and then finally one to the outside. With a dog and kids, that was going to be a pain. But my parents (and family!) added a door and a small deck and set of stairs from our family room to our beautiful backyard. I tried out our new door and walked outside to find another surprise: a vegetable garden! Every year I have shared my attempts at vegetable gardening here on the blog, so most of you should know how much this surprise meant to me. It was my "belated" birthday gift from my parents (I say belated since my birthday was in May, but I know they began work before my birthday). When we finally met a few of our neighbors they told us how my parents had been here almost every day. They said, "you have some amazing parents!" And you bet I know it!

Cooking our first meal in the new kitchen:
tacos, of course!

Enjoying the new tub!
They're loving the detachable shower head for rinsing their hair-
first time Drew hasn't cried during hair-washing!

New door!

Birthday garden

Birthday garden only 3 weeks later- it's thriving!

After getting a bit of unpacking done at the new house, we celebrated our first night here just as appropriately as our last in Georgia- with Chicago-style deep dish pizza. From Lou Malnati's no less.

I couldn't even wait to take a picture before digging in

We spent a few more nights at my parent's house while we spent the days working on unpacking our house enough to be livable. I had a lot of help from my mom and my grandma (who was visiting from Canada) as they helped unpack and/or watch and entertain the boys. We finally "moved in" on June 25th. We had some rough nights and early mornings with the boys as they adjusted, but they now seem to be settling in nicely, and very much enjoying their new space. I think the large backyard (mixed with non-sweltering temps!) has definitely been the highlight for them.

Popsicles under our pear tree

Dancing by the garden

Amid all the chaos, my little boys are blossoming, though. For those out there with young ones, I'm here to tell you, it does get easier. While Drew is making himself his own lunches and begging to help unload the dishwasher and clean up after meals, James is working on potty-training himself (with reluctant parents- we're too busy for this right now!), and is all too happy to copy whatever his big brother is doing.

There is definitely still some work to be done both in terms of unpacking as well as work on the house. This upcoming weekend will be a "work weekend" in which we install some new (safer) doors, and work on anything else we are able to do. We knew in buying this house (that was built in 1960 and mostly original) that there was a good bit of work to be done, so I'm pretty sure the projects will be fairly continuous. Our "to-do in the near future" list also includes back splash for the kitchen, trim around our "bar" cut-out in the kitchen, and new tile in the entryway. Future projects include renovating the rest of the upstairs bathroom, redoing the downstairs bathroom, and possibly relocating and replacing windows in the front of the house. We actually had someone come out to quote replacement windows and we were told "in 25 years of doing windows, I've never seen anything like this". Yup. They're that strange.

The part I'm struggling with the most is the unpacking. Most people said they hate packing, but unpacking is the fun part. I have to disagree. Don't get me wrong, I hate packing, too, but unpacking means I have to decide where everything is going to go. For someone who is OCD and indecisive, this is a very painful process. Added to that is the fact that there are so many little things that need to get done before boxes can be unpacked. For example, all of our closets needed shelving of some kind. The boys' rooms had no clothing racks or shelving at all. Ours didn't have enough. Storage closets needed shelving. So in order to unpack quite a few boxes, shelving had to be purchased and installed first. We're moving along slowly, but I'm guessing boxes will be hanging around for at least another 2-3 months and that's probably being generous.

Next up: Fun with family, friends, and new neighbors