long way to go

I will! I've been overly distracted with Twitter lately and been distracted with life, but now that we are moved in up in Seattle, I'll start posting again. This will be a short post tonight because it's late and I have a busy day tomorrow. So far, I love Seattle. Living in a city is so much fun and active. I feel like I was living in slow motion before. There's so much more to do, easier access to everything and being active is just part of my every day life. Yes, there are some downsides too...it's noisy in our apartment (hello earplugs), there are lots of homeless people, drunks and hookers near our apartment (I suppose some might see this as easy access...lol), and downsizing is really painful (but its also forced us to get rid of crap we don't need or use).

 

We're mostly unpacked, but down to the last few boxes where we don't know where to put stuff and it's odds and ends - it's the worst. It will be nice to be unpacked in the next week and have the whole, painful move behind us. My mother-in-law and brother-in-law are coming to visit this week - we're excited to see them, especially Chad's brother since he lives in Japan. We hope he likes it and wants to move here. :) We've had my parents and Jen and Scott already come to visit. Both visits were nice for different reasons and happy they've gotten to see the new place. The parents definitely prefered our house in PDX to the new place based on better accommodations for them, it's quieter and likley safer, but they seemed to appreciate the adventure we'll have this yaer and thankful I own a stungun. :D Jen and Scott were wild as usual - we went to see Solstice in Fremont which was an experience and created our own dance club in my apartment. Yeah, I know...you're jealous.

 

Zoe seemed a little culture shocked at first - less area to romp and no brids or neighbor cats to stalk through the window. But he's either forgotten about his old home or acclimated because he seems happier and looks less sad.

 

Final thought for the night - there have been so many people from my office who invite us out, over and around and it's just been really welcoming. It's made moving to a new city much less scary and helps me to feel confident that we'll make friends quickly, which is so important to me. I'm excited for what tomorrow has to offer.

 

photos to come...

I'm a little stressed we have so much left to do still, but I'm sure somehow it will all get done. Below is the list that Chad is tackling this week and then my list.

 

Chad's to dos: Put up a side fence, paint one side of the house, sort his shit and pack it, haul some stuff to the dump, haul some stuff to goodwill, and clean the carpets.

My to dos: Finish packing the kitchen, pack our bedroom, change our address with companies, keep chad on task. :)

 

Today we are finishing up a garage sale - I HATE garage sales. The price people offer to pay for things infuriates me. For example, I had this Jones of New York suit that cost $180. I wore it once (for a job interview at Waggener) - I was asking $20. The woman wanted it for $5. FIVE DOLLARS. That's just rude. Anyway, despite my pissy move, stuff is selling and we'll make a couple hundred. We sold a mattress set and that doesn't include the Tuarus which we sold yesterday too.

 

I got the keys to the apartment on Friday and I'm in HEAVEN. I feel so comfortable in the apartment - it already feels like home. I posted pictures and will do more once iwe've furnished and unpacked. And Seattle is AMAZING. I walked to nordstroms to buy foundation - it's only a half mile walk from my house. And one the way, I got sucked into Sephora, one of my favorite stores, and then stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond for a shower curtain (here's the one I bought), and then stopped at List for a prosecco with KK before heading back home. Chad's says it's dangerous that we live so close to shopping - muuaahhhh. It probably is. I am going to be super fit from walking everywhere - and I love it. Saturday morning I walked up a block and a half to this cute coffee shop for a muffin and great mocha.

 

This afternoon we are doing a casual get together at the house for friends who want to stop by so we can say goodbye for now. Chad's doing carne asada, I'm making clam dip, and we're doign some other easy munchies. Will be nice to see people before we go, although I know we'll be back often. And I hope we have lots of visitors.

 

 

Adorations:

Fascinations:

We found renters! We are really excited and can't believe this is all really happening. They move in June 1.

 

We've made some progress on the house. The office is close to being packed (although the house looks like a disaster now with boxes everywhere). The shed is insulated although that's a side story I'll share next. And we continue to make progress on the yard - we still have rock and bark dust to lay and one area to till. Honestly it's really hard for me to do this work to know I'm leaving it. And at the same time I am so happy that we won't have yard work any more. I feel like I'm getting my life back.

 

Ok, so the shed. When we bought this house, Chad was smitten with the shed. He had these grand, little boy dreams of insulating it and making it a poker area or an office, or a place to play his drums. So of course, life gets in the way and he never did it. So this has been one of those to-dos he would rather prioritize over packing. Yes, I know, it makes perfect sense. So he decides to insulate it with these styrofoam things - the stuff that protects like a dvd player in a box. He thinks that insulating the shed will help protect stuff we are going to store in there (nothing of value). So all day Saturday he's out there gluing the styrofoam blocks together. I decide I should help him to keep him focused and find more efficient ways of doing things (sometimes he's not the best with that). And as we're out there, I find that the roof of the shed doesn't sit tight against the walls of the shed. There's like a 2 inch gap all around the top of the walls. And I notice that he floor boards are put together tight. I had been there for hours with him...I was SO pissed. what a HUGE waste of time. We're insualting walls while a ton of air and openings are exposed - honestly people. At that point, I decided I would just suck it up and finish with him. It wasn't worth the fight. At the end of the day, after we were done, he was like "wow, this is so great. I'm so excited. I've wanted to do this for years." It was worth the lost day... :)

So since I last blogged, we've rented the uhaul, gotten movers in Seattle, and reserved storage space. We've also begun interviewing landscapers. Our yard is so big and hard to take care of that we don't think renters will take care of it and could end up costing a lot of money to replace stuff. So, it's going to be about $125 a month for them to weed, mow, etc. on a regular basis. It's less expensive than I anticipated. Although this last guy who came out said they don't hand weed - they just use roundup. I don't think that's going to work...the renters will be here with dead weeds everywhere.

 

I'm starting to get anxious about how much work needs to happen still - specifically with the packing. I don't know what to pack first. With a month left it seems silly to pack most of stuff, but I guess not. Sigh. I don't know.

 

Chad is in our bathroom cleaning the track of the shower doors - the shower doors are completely taken apart - because the calking never sealed right becuase of the crappy job the last homeowners did. Bless his heart. little cleaner. :)