Moving Day Gratitude

We were so very lucky on moving day.  But I've been saying that during every step of our house buying adventure.  For example, I just stumbled across the listing for the house on Zillow, even though the owner was no longer thinking of the house as being for sale.  With each step of the way, it's felt like it was meant to be.

I know, I know:  I'm a rational person.  I know there could be 20 houses out there that would inspire similar feelings.  Actually, I know that I'm supposed to think that.  With this house and the last one, we looked at so many houses, but only one jumped out at me.

Anyway, back to moving day.  We went to the U-Haul place, and we were first in line.  And the truck was ready.  And the guy who was in charge was kind and encouraging, and he said as long as we had the truck back by Sunday morning, there would be no extra charge.

I'm lucky that I have a spouse who can drive a truck.  Once it seemed that every guy I knew, regardless of class or background, had spent some time on the job driving some kind of big truck.  I wonder if it's the same now.  I doubt it.

We loaded up the truck fairly quickly.  We had friends who came to help us; we are rich in friends these days, and in so many ways, it's the best wealth to have.  My spouse's back didn't explode.  We are rich in restored health, and I am grateful.

The weather was good.  We had a brief rain shower on the way between the old house and the new, but it was the kind of rain shower with the sun shining, so we knew we weren't in for another day of tropical downpours.  We've had a very wet summer here.

We made 3 trips.  My goal was to move everything that was big enough to need a truck:  bookcases, mattresses, the dining room set, the huge sofa, the gas grill.  We accomplished that and more.

On Sunday, more friends showed up to help.  We are now rich in refrigerators, so we moved the old one out to the back of the house and put the brand new one in place.  We don't have a stove yet, but we have two refrigerators and 2 wine chillers of different sizes.  We moved bookcases into place inside the house.  We thought about the best way for the dining room set to be arranged.  We ate our first real meal there:  hamburgers from the grill!

And then we spent Sunday afternoon sorting books.  Sure, some people would have gone out to buy a stove, but I wanted to get my books on my shelves, and only partly to get the boxes out of the way.  I've always unpacked books first.  I feel better with those old friends on the shelves.

You may be saying, "Weren't you getting rid of books?"  Yes, I was, but not every book.  It's good to cull occasionally.  Lots of books find their way to my house, but they don't all need to stay.

Now we have to make decisions about the rest of the possessions which are still at the old house.  There are the items that won't be coming:  to have a yard sale or just donate to a worthy cause?  There are the items for which we may not have room.  Try harder to find room or say, "If we only use a sewing machine 3 times in 10 years, it's clearly not important"?  The sewing machine may be an easy decision compared to some of the other items.

I want to move quickly because I want to get the old house clean and on the market.  Again, we're lucky that we could afford to do this house buying differently than most people.  We could buy the new house and then focus on selling the house we were living in when we found the new house.

I still don't know how most people have their current house on the market as they move towards a close date.  How do you get ready to close and ready to completely vacate?  Again, we've been lucky.  It's been stressful enough, taking smaller steps.

Of course, if we'd been traditional, we'd have it all done by now.  That would be one advantage.  I just want to settle in to the new space.  I don't want to have to deal with the old space.

But let me frame it another way.  I am extraordinarily lucky that in a time and in a location where many people can barely afford one space, I have two.

I think I will like my writing space.  It's the guest bedroom, but not in the way those words conjure a space.  I don't mind having the bed there, because it has the favorite quilt of mine that I've made.  There are 7 bookcases in the room with my books about creativity, writing, spirituality, and a smattering of other interests, plus the books I've carried with me since childhood (Laura Ingalls Wilder!  Trixie Belden!).

I've always loved my writing spaces.  Again, I know I'm lucky to have them.  So many people can't claim the corner of a table, let alone a whole room.

I hope our good fortune continues to hold in this process.  I'm ready to sell the old house. It's a great deal for a lucky person/family.  I'm ready for our paths to cross.