Our House, per request

Here's our new house (picture taken during a rain storm when we had our inspection). We're thinking of changing the color of the shutters once we have some money burning a hole in our pockets.

From Dresden

And here's the back yard as viewed from the deck

From Dresden

We've got a lot of ideas for the yard, but probably won't start making any progress until late fall or next spring.

The interior is not yet ready for its photo shoot, as it seems a cardboard box factory exploded all over the place. The dog doesn't seem to mind, though. Once we can get some furniture, we'll have some places to put all this stuff. It's funny to try to put away some of the things, because they're from our "single" lives and our separate apartments from 2007, so for example I have a dozen or so fancy martini glasses, and Paul has lots of beer glasses, but now we have dozens of wine glasses (I'm not exaggerating), so we could probably fill half of our kitchen cabinets with glassware alone! So I'm saving our bubble wrap for storing the excess once we get a better handle on our inventory. That said, do let us know if you need bubble wrap! We've got TONS! (It was really handy working for an industrial supply company at the time)

We'll sure be able to have one heck of a party once we have some seating for guests!

The Drive to Bloomington

I tried to capture all of the state welcome signs as we drove from MA to IN, though I didn't get the RI sign. We left from my grandmother's house in Rhode Island, stopped overnight in Pittsburgh and drove the next day to Bloomington. It went smoothly, apart from having to replace the windshield wipers. And now that unpacking is done and the internet connection is back, I can post the pictures!

Entering Connecticut in the rain with malfunctioning windshield wipers...

From Move to Bloomington

Entering New York...


Pennsylvania and better weather...


Something called the Cheese House in Pennsylvania. Note the bugs on the windshield - YUCK!


We had an awesome time seeing Julina and Michael in Pittsburgh. They brought us to a tasty Belgian restaurant for mussels, which may have been even better than the ones we had in Brussels! It's always bittersweet seeing friends all over the place - so much fun to visit, but sad to leave. Well, we'll be in Bloomington for a while and we like visitors!

Day 2: West Virginia


Ohio


Can you see the rainbow? (note the cleaner windshield)


INDIANA!


And, Bloomington!

We've arrived in Bloomington!

We got into our temporary apartment in Bloomington last evening around 5. It took 2 days to drive the 980 miles from Massachusetts through lots and lots of hills. Right now we're making progress through all our boxed stuff that's been sitting for nearly two years, plus our wedding presents, which have only been sitting for one year. So far the highlight was finding our mugs, which include Paul's cowboy mug and my frog mug. We can't fully unpack because we're moving again in 3 months. Luckily there is storage space at the apartment complex so we don't have to drive somewhere else to store the extra stuff (it seems we're going to have quite the library judging by the number of book boxes sitting in the truck).

Well, I'd like to be able to walk through the room without tripping over and into boxes, so it's back to unpacking. Pictures from the drive to come later...it's probably going to be a while before we can share pictures of the apartment, at least on the inside!

The move is starting... slowly

Today we picked up our 16' moving truck. What's great about a truck that size is that it comes with a built-in ramp, which makes loading and unloading a LOT easier! My only complaint is that the cab reeks of cigarette smoke, and I'm not looking forward to smelling that stench for the 20 hours we'll be on the road. I tried spraying some disinfectant/deodorizing spray into the cab and closed the doors, so I'm hoping some magic will happen tonight and the smoke stench won't be so bad tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Paul and my dad managed to get pretty much everything into the truck this afternoon. I'm sure lucky to have strong men around to do the heavy lifting! We'll see what happens when we get to Bloomington and unload... but luckily we have the truck for a couple days on that end in case we need the extra time.

Tomorrow we're going to my grandmother's house to load some things she's giving us, and then we leave from there on Saturday morning.

Both of us are pretty stressed out about the move, but so far it's gone pretty smoothly!

Packing and moving stinks!

Move number 19 is quickly approaching. We leave Massachusetts on May 9 and arrive in Indiana on May 10, with a stopover and visit to my friend Julina and her husband Michael (who I still haven't met!) in Pittsburgh (thank you once again for putting us up!). I don't remember going to Pittsburgh, so I'm looking forward to seeing a bit of the city that was voted one of the best places to live.

I'm also looking forward to the drive itself (ok, well Paul will actually do the driving), the open road and seeing lots of different places along the way, however fleetingly. Plus, there's a law of nature that calories don't count on road trips, so it's burgers, milkshakes, hot dogs, beef jerky and other tasty all-American goodies along the way. And the idea of having our own place once again (even if it does have someone else's furniture) is exciting, as is the possibility of getting a puppy once we settle in - I peruse the petfinder.com listings daily.

But for now, we're finishing up the packing and stacking of boxes. Sure, most of it has been packed for nearly 2 years now, but it's all those small odds and ends that are left, particularly those treasured trinkets from when I was 5. Do I need that slightly dented tin ring from a 25c machine? How about that box full of ticket stubs from events like Sesame Street Live? Or my collection of shaped soaps that I'd forgotten about 10 years ago? Or those computer disks from college - yeah, the square ones. I don't even have a computer that reads those! It really feels like it never ends!

I guess we all go through this cleaning out process eventually, especially those of us who grew up in the same house throughout our childhood. I'm trying to pack only those things that are actually useful or valuable and throw out the rest. I've moved so much and thrown out so much that I do feel guilty for trashing so much perfectly useful stuff, but there's no sense in keeping things that you're not going to use.

We've probably got enough boxes to fill half to 2/3 of the truck. Our only piece of furniture is a desk chair from the Marshall Field's outlet in Chicago. So that leaves us a good deal of wiggle room and space for those things Grandma said I'd have "one day", because "one day" is here!

Well, time for more packing and less typing. Let's hope move #20 in August is easier!