My barn is here!

My little storage barn arrived yesterday, so now we can move out a lot of boxes, and hopefully get ourselves organized. We registered Claire last night, so she is all set with a very packed schedule for the semester, and has a job in the cafeteria. She starts this afternoon - yea! I think she is going to enjoy it, and her supervisor, Mrs. Watkins is a wonderful lady. Claire will even get to log in some hours this weekend. Every little bit helps toward her tuition. What a relief. My job is getting off to a slow start - there is definitely a lot of work to be done, but so far, no time to train me in.

Here is a picture of my barn. The neighbors have a bigger barn just on the other side of the fence from this one, and it's red with white trim. I hope this thing can stay as bug-free as possible!

Load #2

Well, we didn't have great luck with load #1. When we arrived, the house wasn't ready. We parked the truck and spent the night in a hotel, after finding friends who were willing to keep the dog for us. On Thursday we drove up into Indiana to pick up Mia from her week at her brother's house. We drove up and they drove down from Chicago and we met in the middle.

We drove back to Highland with high hopes of unpacking that truck, but alas, the house was still not ready. Some very gracious faculty who live 2 doors down invited us to spend the night, and didn't even fuss when our dog peed in their house. Only one worker had shown up the previous day, and he worked late into the night, but the house was still not ready the next day. We booked the truck through this Wednesday, and returned home to finish packing. UGH!

My back is hurting and one knee is about blown out. Claire's back hurts and Larry's shoulder. Hopefully we can get the 2nd truck loaded today and unload everything over there tomorrow. I'm going to unplug this computer now, and be off for a couple of days, until we can get set up over there.

Truck #1 is loaded!

They said the house will be ready tomorrow, so we have our first load ready to head out in the morning. It still doesn't seem real to me. This house surely seems a lot more empty, echo-y and dusty, though!

More house pictures

Last Thursday Larry and I drove Mia up to Louisville, KY to meet up with her bio. brother, David and his mom, Diane. They are now up at his house for a week. We drove on down to Portland while we were over that way, and took a look at the house. It was supposed to be ready by July 1, but they said the contractor was about a week behind. Well, it looks like they are farther behind than that. We were hoping to move last Wednesday, but now we just don't know.

Our house here is a wreck, with boxes stacked everywhere. We were lucky to find a family moving into a nice house nearby, who wanted to give away their boxes. We've been hauling them away as fast as they can unload them. They had a company move them, so these are really nice boxes. They are stacked on our front porch, covering the windows so we can't even see out. But it's wonderful to need a box, step outside and select one that is the right size! And packing paper --- we have tons!

A few weeks ago Claire and I went to Lowe's and picked out paint colors. We planned to go over at some point and paint, but the school said painting was included in the contract for the renovations. So I sent over our choices. Well, it turns out the contractor only wanted to paint one color. I had chosen "Glacier Mist" for our room, the living room and our bathroom (thinking it was a nice spa-like blue), so I said to just use that color all over. The more I looked at the paint chip, the more gray it looked, and I was really worried that we'd have a dreary gray house. I was relieved when we walked in, to see that it is beautiful! I love it! Of course, the girls still want their rooms purple...

Here are a few pictures of the house as it looked last Friday. They were sanding the floors at the time, so they are not crisp, clear pictures. We had to keep going outside to breathe.

We thought the countertops were going to be gray, but they are beige. Not my favorite, but it looks okay with the blue walls. Still a ways to go to finish in here...

 Our bathroom vanity. Small, but that can be replaced easily enough. At least it's white.

 We've never had a bathroom window before!

 Claire's room. So tiny. 10 X 9. I wonder why they had this commercial-type tile in there. I'm not sure what they will be putting in. Claire hopes it will be carpet. This makes me think of George Costanza's little bedroom that his parents turned into a pool room and the pool stick bashed through the window when they took a shot.

 The family room, that used to be a carport. I can't see this being finished anytime soon! Maybe a big crew will sweep through and work a miracle!

 Looking into the kitchen from the family room.

 I think I'll put my grandma's old desk in this space, for my computer.

 The front looks better - they took out those white boards that looked like they were propping up the roof. Wouldn't this be a perfect place for a bay window?? The front of this house (sides and back, too!)  cries out for hydrangeas!

 This was the half bath that is now a full bath - it will be the girls' bathroom.

 These lights are better than the typical boob lights (although still a little boob-shaped).

 Linen closet - whoa! We better throw out some towels and sheets!

 Living room. You can see where they had sanded part of the floor.

 Mia's room.

 I'm not sure if this is our room or Mia's.

 Our closet. Hmm. I never thought I'd have a 10 X 11 bedroom!

 I'm hoping to make a little island sort of like this, for extra storage and a place to sit and chat in the kitchen.

Better get back to packing! Hopefully I'll be posting again very soon from the other house.

Keeping an open mind...

Claire and I took a little road trip on Thursday afternoon, and went over to take a look at the school and check out the house they have available for us to rent on campus. Claire was there with me for an alumni weekend when she was 6, but doesn't remember it. Amy Cirigliano, who is the recruitment and marketing director, showed us around, and introduced us to some of the staff and students. I think it eased Claire's mind a little about switching schools.

Sorry about the blurry spots on these pictures. It was raining.

 The Administration Building and gazebo. The fronts of the buildings have changed, and that gazebo has been built since I was in school there.

 

 The girls' dorm, where I spent two years.

 The church down the hill, on the drive in from the main road. All three of these pictures were taken from the parking lot. It's a pretty compact campus.

We also got to take a look at the house. What can I say about it --- it's small. We will definitely need to throw out or store some stuff big time. I think the living room may actually be bigger than what we currently have, but the bedrooms are teeny, and there is no master bathroom. Just a regular and a half bath, both in the hall. They are in the tearing apart stages of renovating the house, so it is a MESS. We're going to ask them to please at least change the door of the half bath to open into the bedroom that is next to it, and that can be our room. Ugh - I'm trying really hard to keep an open mind and a positive attitude.

On the positive side, there is a part time job on campus that is perfect for my skill set, and I'm going to send in my resume! It would be so nice to not have to drive to work, be able to walk home for lunch, and not have to worry about getting to work in snowy or icy weather!

Here are a few pictures. Keep an open mind, now...

The outside. The addition on the left used to be a carport, and someone converted it into a family room. No garage. Hmm. Larry's got tons of bikes and tools. Where will he put them??

Here! 

I've also got a ton of sewing and knitting stuff. Maybe I can get myself one of those cute little barns from Lowe's, seal it up good, and make it my little craft house.

 The living room. Long and skinny.

 The family room. Also long and skinny.

The kitchen. Short and skinny. I told the maintenance man who was showing us everything, how everything in my house is blue, white and yellow, so hopefully they will choose very light and neutral colors! Please, no grainy brown countertops!

The front yard. I like the trees! The drive behind the biggest tree goes up to the elementary school where Mia will attend. She can walk. Just think how much we will save on gasoline! I would say at least $200 per month.

We're thinking we will store our excess junk, and try to sell our current house. Once it sells, we can look at our leisure for a place nearby. Or, who knows? Maybe we'll enjoy our downsized way of living, and decide to stay awhile!