Home Sweet Home v. 2.0

We are finally moved into the new house. There are boxes everywhere and all of us are dead-dog tired, but we are in.

I love it. It's fabulous. Not to toot my own horn, but this house kicks ass. It's pretty, it's functional, I like most of the choices that we've made, and am able to file the ones I don't like under Lessons Learned and move on. It's going to be a cool place to live.

It's weird actually moving in and moving through something that has taken shape slowly over 6 months' time. I think it's like meeting an Internet boyfriend for the first time (or what I imagine it would be like anyway). You have an image in your head of what it should look like and be like and feel like, but the reality is both better and worse than what you had imagined. It's a surreal place where elation and disappointment meet - kind of a funky feeling, but luckily more elation than disappointment in my case. The funkiness is taking a few days to wear off. I think once I stop getting de ja vu when I walk down the hall because I've done it so many times in my mind it will feel more normal.

We have So. Much. Shit. that it feels like it will be forever until we have the place in order. The Little Man is pushing for a Grand Opening Celebration (which more normal households call an Open House) though, so maybe we'll whip it into shape quickly just to get him off our butts. Nothing motivates like a persistant 5-year-old.

Five Today

My Little Man

On the Eve of Five

My Little Man turns 5 tomorrow. He is so excited - it's quite the thing to witness him being so stoked about his birthday. New Toys! Cake! A Party! With Friends! And Cousins! And he'll finally be 5, like ALL the other kids in the Red Room (his room at school). It makes him wiggle like a puppy in excitement - it's a wonder he hasn't piddled on the floor. In fact, when we got home this evening he wanted to shower and crawl into bed immediately so his birthday would come even FASTER. 

And me? Well, I'm astonished, but I'm having some mixed emotions. My eldest baby has no baby left in him. He continues to be tall - he comes up to about mid-sternum on me now. He weighs in at a flat 50 pounds, and some of his size 6 jeans have hit the highwater stage. And he has SUCH an imagination. The child loves to build, and tell jokes, and play tricks, and read books, and sing. And (note that this is IN WRITING) he really likes to play with his sister. And he's doing well in school -  knows how to read, write and sound out most letters, and he's been working hard to say his "L" sounds properly. Which will come in handy when he starts KINDERGARTEN this fall (Lord help me). This all adds up to him being a big boy now. Eeeek.

He did bestow a bit of consolation this morning. He crawled into bed with us when he woke up this morning and said "Mommy, one more sleep and I'll be FIVE!" I told him that was right, and he was getting to be a big boy. He said "Don't worry, mom, I'll still be your baby when I get to be 5. I Love you." 

Little Man, I love you too. Happy Birthday.

Hola!

Wow, I knew it had been a bit since I had dusted off the ol' blog, but September? Yikes.

Sadly, I think the timing corresponds with my daughter's decisions that a) she's a night owl and doesn't like to go to sleep before 10-10:30, and b) that she must go to sleep, and sleep all night, touching her mom. As this leaves me with precious little time to spend on stuff *I* want to do at night, the blog has been kicked to the curb in favor of the occasional tweet, paying bills and reading news. I know, my priorities are wack.


The short update to the house is that it's coming along nicely. After all the slow-pokiness in the beginning, once they broke ground the builders have really kicked it into gear. I guess that's what they do best - actually BUILD, vs. doing the building paperwork. Who knew.


I must say that the time we took in doing research on the bank and the builders up front is paying off. I've heard a couple of horror stories lately about builders absconding with people's money or using shoddy materials, and I'm confident we won't have anything like that with our guys. I've been really happy with the builder, all of the subcontractors they're using, and the bank's oversight of the budget. Except for Mr. Me's occasional propensity to have an opinion that's just plain wrong - wrong I say! - about finish choices, it's been a good experience.


Eventually I'll publish an entire series of photos of the house construction, but for now here it is in current form.


Voila! Its got walls! And a basement! And a great maw of a garage. And look - new roof!

And the inside is . . . drafty. But we're gaining on it. (shown here - the Little Man's bedroom, of which he is so proud)

In other shocking news, selling a house is a pain in the ass. It's only been on the market 3 weeks and I'm already tired of keeping a spotless house. Especially as the Little Miss likes to have a bit of chaos around her at all times, and she's currently into diapers and diapering things. Which leads to many a morning of picking this up off the floor.

Maybe it's mummification she's into, we're not quite sure.