Moving Day

I have not blogged recently, because this happened. . . .

It was a happy, happy day when our sea shipment arrived.  We were fortunate because despite a 1 week delay in customs, our things arrived within 7 weeks.  It can take up to 12 if there are complications.  The movers had packed our things into two trucks like the one above.  They pulled it into the narrow close as far as they could, and then got to work unpacking.  5 movers unloading everything as quick as could be.  They didn't use any ramps, even for the piano.  All 5 movers just hefted it out of the truck (carefully of course) and then worked together to get it into the house.    

Our 3 story house, with a narrow stairway, caused some complications.  Of course the movers got a workout up and down, up and down.  Several pieces of furniture were quite tight and it took multiple movers to coach and lift and guide it around the tight turns of the stairs.  Their communication was impressive. Our queen and twin box springs would not make it up the stairway.  Additionally, the largest portion of the girl's bunk bed would not make it up.  It sat in our living room until some proper handymen were able to come disassemble it and rebuild it.  

The kids liked having the bunk bed stairs in the living room to use as stadium seating for TV watching. 

 The movers were instructed to unpack whatever I asked them to unpack.  I took advantage of this so that they could haul away the excess of boxes and paper.  They unwrapped all the furniture, and then unpacked boxes with larger items like lamp shades, small shelves, storage boxes, and bedding.  They kept most of the boxes of books and dishes and decorative items packed since I needed to decide where everything would go.  By the time they left at 3:30, the house looked like this.

 And this . . .

And this . . .

At least I can't go to bed until I do a little unpacking . . .

Which is so exciting, and also so overwhelming and exhausting.  Because now comes the daunting task of finding a new home for every item.  There is an important balancing act between making things look nice, functionality, and realistic expectations.  I wanted everything in a place that made sense and would work for our family.  As I unpacked, I immediately found things I had overpacked. Like tupperware.  And water bottles.

I will never, ever, ever use all this tupperware . . 

Our new fridge could not even hold all that tupperware at one time if it was entirely empty. 

Really?  So many water bottles (in addition to the few we already had brought with us on the plane).  Silly thing is, this is after I thinned out the water bottles before we moved.  Still too many! 

 Unfortunately, I have a hard time imagining how furniture will look until I actually move it around.  Which means the entire process of getting settled always looks significantly worse before it gets better.

I couldn't decide if I wanted the desk or shelves to the right of the fireplace.

 After 2 weeks (including a few trips to IKEA and the dump and several really late nights) I am proud to say we are mostly moved in and settled.  It helped a great deal that my parents were coming to visit - there was a good timeline for hurrying to get things done.  I'll add finished photos and a home tour in another post soon.  Hooray for being settled in!