Moving day...or, as it has become to be known, it-of-which-we-must-never-speak-again

A daggoned MONSOON greeted us this morning. Of course--it's moving day! Who wouldn't love to move in torrential downpour rains and 20-40 MPH wind gusts? Heck, it's just like putting fun in a bottle!

We have very kind and generous friends and family. Friends and family who were willing to come help us move in spite of the fact that the U-Haul was practically floating away. They trudged through the mud and slop, back and forth, back and forth, until finally one house was empty and another was full.

The bright spot of the day was trying to move our behemoth of a refrigerator. We bought it two houses ago, special ordered it in fact so we could get our must-have features, and when we moved to the 'hood we discovered that it wouldn't fit into the kitchen. So we put it into the dungeon basement. Or I should say the moving crew put it down there. Now that we've had the pleasure of lugging it back up, I can tell you I have no clue how they got it down there without breaking themselves or the fridge. That thing is an absolute MONSTER! It took several of us grunting and straining with everything we had just to get it halfway up the stairs. Getting it out the door and onto the truck (with its nice, slippery-when-wet metal ramp) was another story entirely. It was our own little September miracle that it didn't fall on anyone.

Now, moving day is finished. We're exhausted. Our friends and family are exhausted. And the best part of all? We're too tired to put our bed together, so we'll be sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor. Oooooh, comfy.

Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck

Is there anyone out there who enjoys moving? Liars! I can't imagine that this is fun for anyone! I will say that I enjoy the unpacking--it's nice to get a fresh start in a new place. But the organizing, packing, and actual moving stinks! YUCK.

We're selling one house and moving into another. For better or worse, we decided not to put our current house on the market until we've moved into the new one. Since the current house is kind of in the 'hood, V will stay there and babysit it and I will live at the new house. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully it'll be very, very temporary and we'll once again be our own (small) family who owns just one home!

I've got much more pressing things to do than post right now, but I can't seem to force myself to go back into our dungeon basement and pack. But the show must go on. Can't post anything new if we don't actually get moved, can I? Back to it!

What on EARTH have we gotten ourselves into?

I wrote in my previous post that we intended to fully document the house in the state in which we bought it. Now I can write that we were, apparently, completely oblivious to what that meant.

Case in point: we began with the dining room, which housed a lovely early American cupboard. I should mention that this lovely cupboard was absolutely chock-full of stuff. Old stuff, new stuff, beautiful stuff, kitschy stuff...it was all there, it was all ours, and it was all in need of cataloging and archiving. Somehow.

Here's a picture to give you some tiny idea of what we will be dealing with. I'm not complaining--not by a LONG shot--but it is a little overwhelming.

Uhhhhh, yeah. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg. There is also a huuuuge cedar chest in the bedroom that is full of linens and blankets. And every room in the house is full. The problem for us will be that it's full of someone else's stuff, and we've got to make room for our stuff. Definitely gonna be a tight fit for a while!

There is such a great sense of history here. You can practically see the timeline of the people who have lived in and loved this house. It's obvious that they loved it--they certainly took good care of it!

Next step: moving day! Wish us luck. :)