Moving day 2

Yesterday we started moving some of the kids' stuff over to our new house.

The top floor has three bedrooms, the girls will share the large room (that has 2 large closets), Tom and Matthew will share the medium sized room, and Charlie will get the small room, which will double as the guest room, since it will have a king bed in there (eventually whenever Jeremy and I finally get a new bed).

Today we started moving stuff over with more earnest. The new house is a block from our rental, so I just load the minivan with boxes, go over unload and unpack and then bring back the empty boxes.

Thankfully Jeremy's parents came to help and while Jeremy's dad was busy being plumber and handyman, Grandma Honey was busy filling boxes. She got the entire kitchen boxed up, and I successfully got it all put away in my beautiful new kitchen.

Grandma was able to get the girls to pack up their room, which they did all on their own. Becca helped me carry the boxes from the car and get it all put away in their lovely, huge closets. It's nice that they have large closets because allllll of their stuff fits (with ample room left over) in the closets, so I am mightily hoping that their room stands a better chance of being more clean because the only thing out in the bedroom will be their beds--no toys or shelves or anything.

The boys weren't as diligent and have yet to finish putting their stuff in boxes, but about half their stuff is at the new house.

We were able to banish a little more pink from the awful pink bathroom that is the kids bathroom. Originally the tub, sinks (it has a double vanity) walls AND ceiling were all pink. The painter remedied the walls and ceiling and today grandpa changed out the sinks to white sinks so the only remaining pink is the bathtub which will mostly be able to be hidden behind a shower curtain.

Our master closet is mostly Installed, except I still need to buy the rods so we can hang stuff up. The house didn't originally have a master bedroom and bathroom, but we were able to close in a hallway and turn a separate bedroom and bath into an on suite. It is all very small, but it is a nice little bathroom and a walkin closet, just not of the por portion that new houses have.

After having lived in our rental for the last six months that just has one shared bath I will definitely take a small master bed and bath rather than have no master.

Tomorrow
the carpet will be restretched downstairs,
the painter will finish touch ups on the baseboards of the main floor,
the counter guy will drill a hole in the kitchen counter for the faucet and he will install the master bath counter,

Most of that should hopefully happen in the morning time so that in the afternoon we move stuff into the master bedroom and the family room.

Besides moving we still have our list of things we need to finish, like grouting, the kitchen backsplash and electrical. Although it would be nice to get it all done before moving, those are things we can do after moving in.

The children have been such troopers over the last couple months. They are ready for normal life to return and for "the house" to not be our only focus.

I think this process is definitely one of those things that has been difficult, time consuming and money draining, but was sooooo worth it. The end result is beautiful. I've always wanted to do a renovation and have my own before and after.

We've taken a fair number of pictures along the way and I'm going to make a before, along, and after photo book.

The photos are the original pink bathroom (I don't have an after yet) and a before and after of the hall that is the half bath and laundry area with a door to the backyard. We changed out all the doors in the house and that back door with the full glass inset is my favorite. It lets in so much light and it frames in the beautiful tree in the backyard. We tiled the floor with a gray tile in a brick pattern which I love the way it looks.

The other photo is me doing the tile, but if you look behind me you might be able to see the tree. I need to take a better photo showing the tree framed in the door.