It’s done, we’re all moved into the new house, thanks to 11 hours of hard work by the movers. Yes, 11 hours. I can’t believe we even considered doing it ourselves. I will never move again without hiring movers. They put the furniture in the right rooms but we arranged it all, put beds together, and worst of all, carried boxes from the living room to all the other rooms in the house. It was really quite horrible. But exciting too, of course.

Before the movers got there, my SIL and I were ripping out carpet. The previous owner had clearly had pets, and the smell was terrible. We knew we’d want to take out the carpet eventually but I was scared of what was under them. She egged me on, though, and before I knew it we were pulling up nasty blue carpet from my sitting room. You can’t even imagine how bad it felt and smelled. Or if you can, you have my sympathy, because it was truly disgusting. There was one corner that was still kind of moist. So here’s the before: During:  And finally, After:There’s a big section of water damage, probably from a radiator leak, and there are some stains, but we knew we’d have to refinish it so that’s no big deal. But it’s still strong and sturdy and the smell was gone almost immediately. It pleased me so much we had to do the dining room next! Before: After: Again, stained but a good base that will be gorgeous once it’s refinished.

I’d never pulled up carpet before and never want to again. Once we heaved the heavy carpet out, we had to pull up the stained padding, then pull up dozens of staples. My SIL was kind enough to go around and pull up the tacking boards around the edge. I was tired before the movers even got there! Between that and moving boxes around all afternoon/evening, I gave myself a sore back, aching feet, tight muscles and a bit of tendinitis in one elbow, but it got done. Now, three days after the move, we’re maybe halfway unpacked? Hard to tell. We’ve emptied a lot of boxes but there are still a lot hanging around. The worst is the kitchen: the new one is smaller than the old one. So I have a LOT of dishes and pans and mugs that need to go in cupboards I don’t have! Time to do another round of purging, I guess.

We love the house as much as we thought we would. It’s big and airy and roomy even with all our furniture. We have had two AC repair calls already, the second thanks to a leak that sent water down into our office, but I think that’s squared away now. They did say the system was top of the line, just not installed perfectly. The puppies are adjusting to being chained in the backyard, but we’ve gotten a couple of bids for a privacy fence that they can’t jump over. They’ll be so happy once they can run freely around the yard! I bought Grace a new Martingale collar so she couldn’t slip out of it. She outsmarted me, though. The one I bought was a little too loose and instead of exchanging it, I thought it would work. Nope. It might not surprise you that the room with the most progress made is my craft room. My yarn isn’t unpacked yet, but I’m getting close to that point. It will be my reward for getting the kitchen done.  Can’t wait until it’s all done and I have nothing preventing me from sitting and knitting. But for now, this post is long enough and I have unpacking calling my name. I *might* even get to do laundry today, if the husband succeeds in hooking up the washer and dryer. You know you’re in a bad way when you’re excited about doing laundry!