Settling in

We closed and moved into our new house on August 26th, 2016. It was your typical North Carolina summer day – hot and humid. Thankfully, the movers who got everything out of our house in Charlotte were also responsible for moving everything into our new house in Chapel Hill. No heavy lifting for this gal.

It took them about 4 hours to get everything into the house and put back together. Unfortunately, we were left with stacks and stacks of boxes to unpack which is by far the worst part of moving. At least when you pack you can just toss stuff in boxes but when you unpack, you have to find the right place for every.little.thing.

While the movers were getting all of our furniture in the house, our new appliances (washer, dryer and refrigerator) were delivered and installed and the internet was all set up. You’re not going to believe this but every single person was EARLY that day with their delivery or service. Unheard of, right?

Even though we didn’t physically move a lot that day, we were exhausted after everyone left. We made a quick trip to the store for some items we knew we’d need at the new house, we grabbed dinner and then headed back to LW’s parents to spend the night. We didn’t want to bring the dogs into the new house until we had things settled a bit. They’d been so stressed at the old house with everything being boxed up that we thought it might cause them more anxiety – at least they’re comfortable at my in-laws.

We did as much as we could over the weekend with unpacking but ultimately the only rooms we got completely done were the guest room, LW’s office and the kitchen. Since he had to travel for work the following week, I decided to stay at his parent’s house that week and work on the house in the evenings. His parents were a HUGE help in this time. Not only did they let me and the dogs crash there all week, they came each evening to help unpack, they took one of the dogs to the vet that week when he got sick and they made sure I was well-fed. Grateful doesn’t begin to cover it.

By Labor Day, we were finally ready to spend a night at our house and let the dogs join us. While we’re still working on it – and still have a ways to go, we’ve settled in now and are loving our new neighborhood. We have the fence installation scheduled for October, built-in shelves in the living room scheduled for November, and are working on getting plantation shutters installed now.

Landon has worked hard each evening on putting up blinds upstairs, building nursery and office furniture, hanging a fan in the living room with his Dad, and doing yard work. Definitely couldn’t do this without him.

We’ve been doing long walks with the dogs. We’re able to take a new route everyday so that no one gets bored (and we can avoid all other dogs this way!). We also have multiple dog parks in our neighborhood and take the boys each morning to get some energy out. Our neighborhood has 14 miles of trails which we’ve started to explore but I can only handle so much at a time since I have a tiny human pressing against my lungs. One day we’ll get through them all. We’ve met some of our neighbors – lots of kids around here – and folks our age which is nice.

Our goal is to have everything in place by Thanksgiving and then give ourselves a few months to relax and smell the roses before our bundle of joy arrives.