We’ve completed our first week in the new house.  

We're movin' on up!

Sadly, I’ve been taking photos with my digital camera rather than my cell phone.  But since I haven’t unpacked the home computer and associated accessories, I can’t get the images off it.  Whoops!  I have a few pictures from my phone now, but I don’t have the “before” images to share.

The move was pretty uneventful, nothing broken (that we’ve found yet), though my subwoofer took quite a tumble in when the trailer was getting unpacked.  It fell and hit the leg of our dinning room table, leaving a big dent in the leg, but what Sandy doesn’t know won’t hurt me!  I haven’t tried the subwoofer yet, it fell about 10 feet, so it might not work so well.  Ugh!

The kids are still camping on the floor in our room while we fix their rooms up.  My goal was to have both rooms done before going back to work today but I didn’t make it.  With the move out, closing, and move in I wasn’t able to even get started until Wednesday.  

Athena’s room was in pretty bad shape.  It had ancient vinyl wall paper, which was over un-primed wallboard, so it took the better part of 18 hours to get it all down.  Then the walls themselves were pretty damaged so there was lots of repair work to do.  Once that was all done we finally got started painting, which I finished about 1:00am Sunday night.  I don’t have the before picture, but I have a post-wall paper and completed paint job shot:

Athena's room - after wall paper removal

Athena's room after painting

We’re loving the house and the area.  The kids are hanging out with their friends, we’ve been to a neighborhood cocktail party, and we’ve spent time on the deck and in the hot tub.  Those things are helping dull the backaches from hauling boxes around.  We’ve got the kitchen together, so we’re no longer eating off plastic plates and we’ve moved off the folding table and into the dining room too.

Our first meal in the new house

We’ve reached the point where putting something away requires moving at least 2 things that have been piled in the way.  I’ve not started on the garage or storage areas yet, but we’ve gotten some clothes unpacked, the BBQ grill is working, and I can find the ice cream when I want it. All in all the place is coming together and we’re happy, though a bit overwhelmed with it all.

Tonight is our last night in Herman Manor.  

We moved here in February 1998.  I was 29.  I had a wife of 4 years, one child (age 2), and no pets.   We owned few things that weren’t leftovers from college.  We had 25″ TV (from college), a couch (from college via my parents hand-me-downs), 2 pine bookcases we’d bought for $99, a bed, a crib, a table and chairs that were Sandy’s aunt’s college furniture before they were even Sandy’s.  

We still fit into our college clothes.  Sandy drove a 1978 Chrysler LeBaron and I had my 1994 Saturn (my first real purchase after getting my first job.

It was pre-Y2k, pre-Internet bubble, pre-September 11th, pre-George W, pre-gray hair.

We didn’t have anything, didn’t know anything, didn’t need anything.  

It’s 10 1/2 years later now.   We have 2 kids (12 and 8!).  My carreer has gone well.  We have things.  LOTS AND LOTS of things!  We do still live with our childhood dressers (both Sandy’s and mine) and a few other silly things we’ve never replaced (like our homemade headboard), but we’ve done well.  

Packing the entirety of our lives into a 27 foot trailer was a daunting task.  When you live in an 1800 square foot house you find ways to make storage space.  For us there were lots of shelves and a huge (and fully loaded crawl space).  It took days to empty out that crawl… long, dusty, allergy filled days.  We opened old boxes and looked at our lives gone by: pictures, mementos, costumes, uniforms, letter jackets, toys, clothes, decorations; things that had made us happy, things that had made our lives full.  So many went into the trash, or were put out one our many “free for the taking” piles on the driveway, some things we kept, but far fewer than we let go.

By the end of last week we were drowning in boxes.  ”Boxes boxes everywhere, and not a spot to think” was how I proclaimed it.  Athena had to crawl under the dinner table to get to her chair; our living room was a canyon of boxes so that you could scarcely see someone sitting next to you; the dishwasher was being run once a day because we kept running out of plates.

On Saturday morning DeAnna and Chad showed up to help us (as they always do!) and brought along 3 of kids from their high school too!   It was great to have some young muscles in the house schlepping boxes and furniture out to the trailer.  For $150 in cash, plus some doughnuts and pizza we had a relatively uneventful load-in.  But several times during the day one of the boys would remark to me “man, you have a LOT of stuff!”   

I was embarrassed by this, and saddened too.  I half thought that when I handed each boy a $50 bill at the end of the day it might have been the first time they’d seen one.  I’m sure that’s a foolish notion, but it was bizarre to see my life through the eyes of a 17-year old.  I wanted to defend myself, to explain to them how humble our beginnings had been, to tell them how Sandy and I used to go the the airport and sit and make up stories about the strangers we saw because we had no money to go to the movies, to show them the home-made Christmas tree ornaments we still have, but it wouldn’t have mattered.  All they could see was boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff.

Chad was a magician.  With the truck 2/3 full it was clear we were in trouble and I’d already learned that it was not possible to find a rental truck on short notice on a holiday weekend.  Stuff was going to have to be left behind and I was starting to really feel the weight of the coming decisions.  But some how we got it all in there with room to spare.  It was simply amazing.

Today I packed the “untruckables” into pick-up beds and yard trailers – lawn mower, hoses, potted plants, garage stuff, yard stuff; things far to bulky, heavy, or dirty to box up and put next to our clothes and mattresses.  Sandy spent her day cleaning and cleaning.  She was determined that the new owners not walk into their new house and find it smelling odd or having other people’s dirt in it.  The house sparkles.

And now suddenly the place is empty.  The rooms echo when we call out to each other.  There are no pictures, no chairs, no cups, no toys.  There are no clothes, no TVs, no iPods, no towels.  There are only a few final cleaning items in the kitchen, a box of rags, 3 mattresses with pillows and bedding, and 4 laundry baskets – one for each of us – to hold our morning routine needs and tomorrow’s clothes.

No one could go to bed tonight.  The usual routines didn’t make sense.  Sandy is working in the morning, she’s getting up just after 4 am, so I wanted her into bed early, but everyone was needy.  Athena was crying over the dogs and tomorrow’s ballet class and the sleepover she’s going to.  Orion was pouting and then suddenly had a massive nose bleed, getting blood all over his shirt and the living room carpet!  (no drops here, we’re talking a gusher! QUICK, CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN).  No one would get into their PJs, no one would brush their teeth, no one would go to their rooms and go to bed.  It took forever to get everyone to relax and lay down.  Only…

I can’t sleep.

I loved this house.  I get attached to buildings and things.  They are emotional connections to my life and it’s hard to leave them behind.  I know all the reasons the new house will be wonderful; how it will enrich our lives and how we’ll make wonderful new memories there.

But this is the house where we brought Orion home from the hospital.  It’s the house where my kids learned to ride their bikes.  It’s the place where the tooth fairy comes.  It’s where Santa visits.  It’s where Easter eggs hide.  The kids have really outgrown all that, but it wass tradition in this house, I don’t know if they’ll play along in the new one.

We remodeled every single room here, some more than once.  My dad and I pulled up shag carpet and refinished the hardwood floors.  Sandy and I put in a pond liner that resulted in one of our biggest fights.  Dad spilled a half gallon of paint on the living room carpet.  Chad and I built the shed together.  Athena loved catching crawdads in the irrigation ditch.  Sandy grew beautiful gardens.  Orion and I built trains all over the basement floor.  

With the fish pond out back, I became a decent aquatic gardner (though my talent was the water and fish, Sandy made it look like I understood plants too).  I feed the fish for the last time today, they came to the surface like they always do when I stand near by, mouthing for food, splashing around.  One of them is Lila; a gift from Athena’s 2nd grade teacher. Each child took a goldfish home and I’m sure all were dead within a few days or weeks.  Lila still swims in our pond 5 years later.  I know her by sight and every spring I’m relieved to see her come to the surface when the pond thaws out.

This evening we made the final markings in the back corner of Athena’s closet, noting each child’s height, age, and the date.  It was incredible to see their yearly growth marked out on that wall for 10 years.  There were so small once.

Everyone has been asleep for hours now.  I’m still unable to go.  It’s my last night in my home.  In a few months I’ll be feeling used to the new house and I won’t miss it so much but tonight it’s hard.  

This isn’t a building to me.  This is my life.  And I’m leaving a part of me behind when I go tomorrow.

Other than being the name of my favorite Manfred Mann album (ok, honestly, it’s the only album I know… and even more honestly, there’s just the one song… but what a song!) I guess I need to explain the lack of decent (or any) postings lately.  You see, I have gone and done something truly deranged… I’ve sold my house in the worst real estate market in decades.  

Of course our agent (a smart and talented woman) reminds us that we’ve also done something truly brilliant – bought a house during the worst real estate market in decades!

We’ve had our place on the market since September (2007 – yeah in this market that’s worth pointing out).  In fact we could have produced a child in less time than it’s taken to sell our house.  

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you already know what’s going on (hint hint).  I’ve found it far easier to journal this roller coaster ride in little 140 character bites than to write it all out in my blog.  First, let me explain.  No, wait.  There is too much.  Let me sum up.

• We’ve been trying to buy a really great house in “old town” Longmont
• In September we put our house on the market and put an offer on the great old house – contingent upon our sale.
• We failed to sell (surprise surprise surprise!)
• People would come close to making an offer but would never make the final commitment.
• We kept trying to sell, and the house we wanted to buy continued to be available
• Lather Rinse Repeat
• In mid-May we were ready to just give up… we’d been on the market for 8+ months, it was almost summer vacation for the kids, we’d frankly had it.
• We decided to make one last push – drop the price of our house dramatically and go all-out to make the sale, for 2 weeks.
• We had dozens of showings in the final 10 days but as had happened 7 or some times before, no one would commit.
• We pulled the house off the market on Tuesday, June 3rd.  
• We had 7 more showings in the week after that!  These were all repeats for folks who’d seen it before… we decided that was fine, but no new shoppers.
• Friday, June 13th we got an offer.  We spent half a day negotiating a price and once agreed, we went and put an offer on the same house we’d wanted all along.  It was still available and now on the market almost 18 months, sitting empty for the past 8!  We spent the next half of the day negotiating a price on that house.
• By 6:00 we were under contract on both places and sitting at Deli Ciosco trying to catch our breath (aided by frosty cold margaritas)

The buyers of our current house have already sold their place and need to close on ours by July 7th, just 24 days after signing the contract.  Since the house we want to buy is sitting empty, this seemed sane.  Of course that was before we really considered what it took to go from zero to packed and ready!  Doh!

We spent last week waiting on inspections of the house, roof, sewer lines, radon, etc.  The inspection turned up some significant radon levels at our place (and at our new place), so we negotiated the fixes for those and a few other minor bits and bites.  When all was said and done we’ll spend about $1000 to fix radon at our place and the sellers of our new home will do the same at theirs.  Ugh!   

All that was done, with contracts signed on Monday, June 24th, along with loans and titles.  All that is left is appraisals (happening tomorrow).  So now this is for real and we’ve begun the packing and throwing stuff away exercise.  

OMG!  We have 10 years of stuff accumulated in this little house (1800 Sqr Ft)!  We have to somehow get it into boxes and onto a truck by July 7 so we can move.  And of course there’s the hundreds of dollars of this-es and thats left to be done (all the utility transfer fees, paying movers, buying food for those who help us, renting trucks, buying paint and ceiling fans and cleaning supplies, renting dumpsters, re-keying locks, the list goes on.

So, it’s late, I’m tired and cranky and stressed, and oh by the way, this is the end of Sun’s fiscal year, so it’s also the busiest month of the year for me at work!  I’ve been writing reviews and reviewing budgets and budgeting reviews and reviewing writing and… huh?

Anyway, enough of that!  In a few more weeks we’ll be living in a beautiful new (to us) old home, with much more space than we have now, and all the goofy little problems that come with an old home, just like those that we leave behind us in our current home.  There is landscaping to address, trees to remove, wall paper to tear down, walls to paint, you know… stuff to keep me busy and off my computer.

Here’s a picture I snapped last winter with my little camera phone, it doesn’t do the place justice, but you get the idea.

So please forgive the lack of new and interesting content on my blog lately.  I’m sure you’ll understand, it’s not that I don’t want to say anything, it’s just that I’m insane!