Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Progress

Today I hit an unpacking wall and gave myself permission to slack off a bit and even to take an afternoon nap. Joe and I were wide awake at 4:00am and decided to get up and start our day.

I had a facial at Hidden Gem Spa which was a treat. If I hadn’t scheduled the appointment six weeks ago I would have cancelled to stay home and unpack. It was better for me to go. I needed the time away from all the boxes and chaos. Joe needed a break as well – from me. He is working incredibly hard today while I have put in about 50% effort.

Megan and Jeremy came by today so Jeremy could help Joe with heavy lifting chores. Megan helped to deliver boxes of items to each of the bathrooms in the house. She also put away the items and gave me recommendations on the bathrooms (i.e., two of the showers need shower organizers). She changed a lightbulb in one of the bathrooms for us. Both Jeremy and Megan were a significant help. Oh, and Jeremy found the laundry chute – it is in the guest bathroom above the laundry room.

I did not touch any boxes for the kitchen yet today. I am thinking I may feel a bit more energized this evening. If not, that’s okay as well. We will get this done!

Life is good in general. I love the house. It takes moving in to find all the nuances of items I would change. We have discovered that a pantry was important to us, and it was nowhere on our list of “wants” we had created. We have purchased a cabinet to put in the garage to store our backup inventory of food that Joe has always liked having on hand.

I am also discovering that while our sellers created a beautiful, elegant home, Joe and I are turning it into our own downhome eclectic home. The first photo below is what the open cabinet area looks like today and the second photo is a blow up of how it looked in the real estate listing.

Joe and Beth version
The Real Estate listing version


Now that I see those photos side-by-side, I am happy with our version. It seems authentically us. I didn’t take a photo of the counter areas though as it is a horrible mess and the clutter as we are putting items away makes me feel a bit crazy. I appreciate order and organization!

Megan reminded me today that it was only Monday that we got the rest of our boxes and furniture. I needed to hear a voice of reason to help me put our unpacking progress in perspective. Meanwhile, Joe has not stopped at all today. He is currently unpacking more kitchen items while I sit at the kitchen island writing. He looks exhausted and I keep asking him to stop and rest, or at least eat dinner, and his response is. “Let me finish this box.” Then he finds one more box to tear into. I know I have been doing the exact same thing since Joe started bringing boxes over to unpack, so I get the need to just keep going. At least until I could not go anymore today.

Writing, this evening, has been therapeutic and I am already thinking about opening two or three boxes tonight or at least putting away items that are stacking up because we have not worked out the “best” place for them to live. “One box at a time” is my motto. A week or two from now I will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about. I truly hope it is like childbirth, I will feel so grateful for the result that I will forget the “pain” of unpacking and putting away items.

I was going to take the day off from writing as I was feeling so drained. Instead, when I sat down to write that I was taking the day off, I found myself writing anyway. Now I feel energized. Maybe it was the coffee with dark hot chocolate I drank while writing? I believe though it was the act of writing itself that took me outside of my own head and gave me the “downtime” I needed to relax and find my bearings. We will go with that theory…

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