It’s been an exciting and productive week!
Tuesday at noon, we closed on our house. After signing our names and initialing approximately three million documents, we were handed the keys. What an immensely gratifying moment that was! It felt like I had overcome so much to arrive at that point: a short sale, years of cramped apartment living, a cross-country move filled with hope but uncertainty. This was the payoff, at long last! The main reason we pulled up roots and took a gamble.
Lucky 7s, I guess.
We immediately drove over to the house. Our house. Could only stay a few minutes since we were on our lunch breaks, but after work, we loaded up our cars and made the first of what will be many trips to move things from Point A.1 (apartment) and Point A.2 (storage unit) to Point B (home, sweet home). I picked up Chinese food, we cracked open a couple of beers, and sat on the back patio, relishing the moment. After smudging the house with sage. One can never be too cautious, you know, especially when the prior owner lived there for 46 years and died there.
We have also met a whole bunch of neighbors. All I can say is, we live in May-effin’-berry, USA. They have all been so welcoming. They talk about what a great lady Doris was, how all the neighborhood kids grew up together, and how excited they are to have us there. Last night, Kelly from across the street exchanged numbers with Tara. She told us the neighborhood is so tightly-knit if somebody accidentally leaves a garage door open they’ll go close it. And she offered up assistance if we need a hand moving anything heavy, cutting the grass, etc. I can’t believe how damned friendly they all are. Once again, it’s that Midwestern hospitality. It’s a real thing, folks.
Wednesday Tara had to do make cookies and brownies for a bake sale and Thursday my company sponsored an awards celebration for five local nurses of excellence, so we were tied up with other commitments. Last night we were finally able to get back to the house and stayed until 10:00. I cleaned the refrigerator inside out by hand while Tara tackled the basement walls. I also stripped most of the wallpaper – it’s so old, I was able to get it done by hand. Found some interesting things underneath. Like, this cat! A picture emerged of Doris’s young family working on this project together long ago. It made me feel more connected to the house and its lengthy past.
We’ll be over there most of this weekend; the grass is a jungle once again, and we need to keep cleaning, get started on painting, etc. It’s hard work, but very satisfying, because we are turning somebody else’s house into our home.
Best feeling in the world.
You might recall that our apartment complex in Vancouver did not allow grills, so we haven’t been able to grill out for four long years. Considering we cooked out on average once or twice a week prior to that, it felt like an eternity. So I broke down and bought this nice drum-style grill. It’s charcoal, even – something else I wanted to try my hand at. We wasted no time either, grilling up ribeye steaks and corn on the cob last night. It took a little while to figure out the intricacies of getting the coals just right, but after a bit of trial and error we figured it out and ended up enjoying a delicious meal on the patio, complete with wine and beer. Sitting there as the sun dipped low and a few lazy clouds drifted by, I felt utterly at peace for the first time in weeks. The whole moving process sapped all our strength, and taxed us both physically and mentally. It was good to finally be able to relax.
