Unpacking continues as we finish out our second week in our new house. We were very excited to order a new couch and loveseat as our old couch was terrible. Last week, the loveseat arrived first and Nate and his friend Ryan worked hard to get it into the living room. As soon as it was in place, I was horrified- it was too bulky, too tall, not the right color- basically I hated everything about it. I was prepared to adjust if Nate loved it, but I could see on his face that he didn’t like it either. And so we called and opted into the 7 day return policy and last weekend, went back to the furniture store for 2.5 hours. We sat on every single couch, sectional, loveseat and chair at least twice. We wanted a reclining sofa, we wanted a sofa/loveseat combo that would fit in our living room. Apparently we were looking for a unicorn. I was hot, tired and sweaty by the time we found a set (couch, loveseat and chair we didn’t need) that was a much higher price than we’d set out to spend, but seemed ok. We weren’t sure about the color- in the store it seemed to have a bit of a yellowish tint, but we were cautiously optimistic.
The furniture was delivered and we were pleasantly shocked that the color was much different than we’d remembered. The 2 delivery guys were skeptical that they could actually get the couch inside (small doors in St. Paul) and I even called the store to ask about a second return, but with Nate’s assistance, they managed to get it inside. The chair would not fit down or up our stairs, which ended up working out in our favor, because the store refunded it, despite it being sold as a set. Win win!
On Tuesday Augustus woke up sick. He didn’t have a temperature, but he felt hot. He was whinny and not acting like himself. He seemed achy and miserable. In-conclusive what was wrong, but we kept him home from school on Tuesday and home from Grandma’s on Wednesday as a precaution.
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On Wednesday, Xander went to Grandma’s like usual, but this week they took a trip to Kohl’s (Xander keeps saying, “we went to Clothes, to buy clothes”) and bought a bunch of new outfits and Spiderman long underwear.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and we were planning to go to Danny’s house, but ultimately decided that with Augustus being sick and Covid, that it wasn’t a good idea. We watched the parade, relaxed, hung out.
We decorated a Thanksgiving centerpiece.
We ate a big meal and mini pies. It ended up being a super nice day, even though it was also just a regular day at home.
We’ve been working hard on our house, trying to get unpacked. Xander and Augustus’s playroom couch arrived this week and they were very excited!
Xander added a “no grown ups allowed” sign outside the door of the playroom. This does not include Grandma Debbie, she is allowed, but not Nate or I.
Today I officially finished un-packing. It took a little over 2 weeks. There are still piles of stuff to sort through and pictures to hang. I need a cabinet for here and there. I’d like to organize some rooms a little differently. And the porch is still a catch all for empty boxes, “get rid of stuff” and a few other things. BUT, overall, we’re unpacked. The last room I was working on was our spare room, which was FILLED with all of the “sentimental” boxes of framed photos, childhood mementos, boxes of stuff from my dad, etc. At one point, I had unpacked every box and had stuff spread from one end of the room to the other, piled, overflowing- it looked like a scene from Hoarders. I gradually re-organized some things into bins, got rid of some things, and managed to find places for some other things. I am a sentimental person, so I have keepsakes from childhood through today. I have scrapbooks. I tried to thin out some of the keepsakes and I made some progress. I still had the binder of all my dad’s health information from when he was sick. I had a hard time throwing that away, even though it is clearly unnecessary. My dad was a treasure hunter and I still have boxes of rocks, coins, and a box of empty boxes (my love of “good boxes” definitely came from him). I had several long moments of reasoning with myself as I looked at these small cardboard boxes and decided that while they are 100% unnecessary, I wasn’t ready to get rid of them yet.
There’s still more to do, but the major unpacking is complete! We are settling in and getting comfortable and very happy in our new house- not bad for a 2 week turnaround!
