The new house

I'm sitting on the same purple couch that I always sit on with my laptop after I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. But I had to make my way carefully down the stairs in the dark to get here, and navigate around the still-unpacked boxes.

I think we'll be happy here. Despite my worries about a home downgrade, after living here for two days I can see how much nicer it is than our old house. True, it doesn't have the new kitchen and we all have to share a bathroom. But in contrast to our old place, which except for our renovations seemed like it was slapped together as a weekend project, this house is solid. It's an Arts and Crafts style home built in 1917. When I poke into the nooks and crannies to clean, instead of finding crumbling plaster or nails sticking out, I find little unexpected details like the small mirrors lining the top of the built-in dining room hutch. The old house didn't have a built-in anything. (The opposite, in fact -- the original kitchen looked like it had cabinets, but when you opened them up there was basically a giant box with a couple of shelves somebody had nailed in.)

K is adjusting nicely. I set up his room first while he was at school, to make sure that when he arrived he would have a familiar-looking and comfortable place of his own, with his Little Dude on the bed, his ukelele on the shelf, a personalized room sign on his door, a few new books to read ("Look, the new house has Mr. Bump!" he exclaimed) and a special new house present, Automoblox. (Incidentally, he LOVES the Automoblox, little wooden cars that you can take apart, mix up, and reassemble. Ordinarily I'd be way too cheap to buy a toy like that -- his "new" toys that aren't gifts generally come from yard sales. But I have to admit these are awesome.) After reading Bread and Jam for Frances the night before, he had asked for spaghetti and meatballs at breakfast, so that's what we had for dinner. Frozen meatballs, jarred sauce, but we had a family meal in our very own dining room cooked on our very own stove on our first night.

The next morning, K asked, "So when are we going to sell the new house?" "We're not going to sell the new house," I said. (God forbid. Attempting to sell one house is already giving me palpitations.) "We're going to live here forever." "Forever?" "Well, I hope so. At least for a long time. This is our home now." He nodded and repeated, "We live at the new house now." "How do you feel about that?" I asked. He thought for a minute. "Pretty good!"

Getting settled and unpacked is going to be a lot of work, but I feel pretty good about the new house too.

New house resolutions

Since we put our house on the market, our life here has felt so temporary. We haven't been working on the house on the weekends, or organizing the closets, or planting anything, or doing any of the home projects we'd normally be thinking about at this time of year. Maybe I need an outlet for my Martha Stewart impulses, and that's why I keep thinking of the new house as this magical place where I will transform into a magazine-perfect homemaker. I keep saying to JW, "In the new house, I'll..."

...plan out our weekly menu in advance, and prep in advance.
...prepare a healthy lunch for each of us every weekday, instead of scrounging in the fridge in the morning to see what I can pack for K.
...bake bread regularly.
...have an open house party and invite all the neighbors.
...keep an inventory of everything we buy, and use it to keep running shopping lists.
...make an album from all our family photos.
...spend a little time cleaning every night so the mess doesn't build up.
...organize K's old clothes into boxes by age.
...do yoga every night before bed.
...other things that I can't think of at the moment, but that pop into my head when I imagine our perfect new-house life. (Also, while doing all of the above, I'll be wearing an apron.)

At first, JW looked skeptical, but then he started to go along with it and reply, "Yes, and in the new house, I'll learn how to do my own plumbing."

(Update: He DID learn how to do the plumbing! Today he unclogged the shower drain. We now own an auger. I don't even know what that is. Does this mean I need to actually do all the things on my list?)

Seven days of underpants

This was his reward.

Closed

Done! We handed over the big check, signed a stack of papers, and walked out with the keys. It went smoothly, especially in comparison to our closing on the old house. (At one point, I turned to JW and said, "This is so much easier than last time." "Yes," he replied, "there's not as much yelling.") I had met other members of the seller's family, but hadn't actually met the seller before today. She told us how glad they were that a family was moving in, and mentioned that her brother, who is now sixty, was born four days after her parents moved into the house.

Next week is the big move. Since the new house is so close by, we'll probably spend the weekend shuttling things over. It's hard to believe that soon, we'll leave the house we've lived in for most of our marriage and that K has lived in all his life, and we'll start over somewhere new.

The big check

Today we go the bank and drain our account.

Tomorrow hopefully we sign a bunch of stuff and then we own our new house. Tomorrow we also start the refinancing process, because dealing with two mortgage lenders isn't enough for us.

Wednesday the electrician starts taking out the ancient wiring and completely replacing it.

This weekend we pack.

Next week we move.

This whole process would be a little stressful but mostly exciting if we could just sell our current house. It's been on the market for three months, many dozens of people have come to see it, and we haven't received a single offer. We've reduced the price multiple times and it's currently at the lowest price I'm comfortable with (but talk to me in two months when the anxiety turns into panic). Lots of potential buyers have complained about the neighborhood, and I can't blame them. The next door neighbors have an overgrown yard and a driveway full of trash, there's an active construction site across the street, there are cars parked all over the sidewalk, and the street is so narrow that you have to pull over if a car is coming in the opposite direction. Frankly, we would probably just make do in our current house if the neighborhood were nicer. The second most common complaint is from older people looking to downsize. They don't like the stairs. Why are they looking at a split level, anyway? Then there are all the people with unique complaints -- driveway too slanty, not enough privacy on the deck, worried that the basement window will be blocked by snow (?). The common thread is that there's nothing we can do about it.

We're trying to focus on what's ahead, but it's hard when we can't quite leave the past behind.

Anyway, unless something goes horribly wrong on closing day, I promise to make this my last complaining-about-real-estate post for at least a few weeks. At least, unlike the two-hour long phone calls with that friend who's always whining about how her boyfriend won't commit, you can just skip over these repetitive worry posts.

Meanwhile, maybe I'll take K's marketing suggestion: write in chalk all over the sidewalk "BUY OUR HOUSE, PLEASE."

Gratuitous K picture

At a playground on Nantucket in July. (Pre-haircut.)

Moving

As we walked to school this morning, K pointed and said, "There's the new house! I'm excited to move to our new house." "You are?" I asked. "Yes," he said. "It will be an adventure. And maybe I'll have lots of friends in our new neighborhood." (He constantly asks me to tell him stories, and I had just finished telling him a story about how he was lonely at first in the new neighborhood but then found other kids to play with.)

Bless that boy. I felt so much better after hearing that. Not because I was worried that he'd be unhappy, but more because I had been feeling so pessimistic about the whole buying/selling/moving process. I've been trying to just make the best of it and not worry so much, but lately I haven't been succeeding. Hearing K get excited about moving made me start to feel a little excited too. He's right, it certainly will be an adventure.

On the way to school, we also talked about how birds fly south for the winter because they don't like the snow. He said, "I know, we can give them little bird shovels. Then they can stay here." I think our bird-shovel business will have to wait until after the move.

Weekend cooking: Granola bars and hazelnut chocolate spread

This morning I made granola bars, partly to use up pantry ingredients in preparation for our move, and partly because K loves them. Well, he loves the kind that comes in a box. He ate one little piece and pushed his plate away. I asked him why he didn't like them and he replied that they had "too much stuff." JW and I liked them. But I don't know what we'll do with all of them. I just sent a birthday package to my father with cookies and brownies that was a big hit. Maybe I'll send a sequel package full of granola bars.

I also made this hazelnut chocolate spread to use up the leftover hazelnuts from my birthday cake. I used a little olive oil because it was the only oil we had on hand, but it worked well. Next time I wouldn't use so much confectioner's sugar. It was cheaper and healthier than Nutella, and I only made half a cup instead of having a giant jar tempting me. It was so quick and easy that I'm sure I'll make it again.

The kitchen in the new house is pretty awful, as I've mentioned before, but at least after we move, I'll be able to cook without worrying about immediately cleaning up and disposing of all the evidence.

(P.S. - I was going to write a separate house/moving post, but then I looked back at my old posts and realized it would be repetitive. Nothing's really changed, except that we got a bad deal on our mortgage and didn't do anything about it until it was too late to change. This whole moving thing is still seeming like a little bit of a financial disaster and a home downgrade, and I'm still hoping that one day it will all seem like a good idea. That day has not yet arrived.)