Packing and the like

Somebody please explain to me how in two and half short years we seem to have doubled our possessions???!!!!

Seriously we have so much stuff! Nonetheless packing continues. Margot is having mixed reactions. Mostly she seems fine with the growing chaos but occasionally she seems a little upset. This morning I had a handle bag of some of her toys ready to go with her to my Mom's house for the interim and she was not too happy that her toys appeared to be going somewhere. And she keeps going to her almost empty bookshelf and jabbering about her books as if to say, "hey you where did most of my books go????" But overall she is a big fan of boxes. And her and Chris have been playing choo choo train and going on rides throughout the house in said boxes.

Our packing/moving schedule is finally solidified as we have a closing date for our new house. This truly will be the summer of moving and packing!!!

• June 24-Jul 5       pack and move things (except essentials such as dishes and beds) into storage
• July 7                  move ourselves and clothes/toys/books for 3 weeks-month to my Mom's 
• July 8-12             move remaining stuff out of our house and into storage
• July 12-16           clean and spackle holes, touch up paint etc in old house
• July 16                move from my Mom's house to my Dad's house
• July 17                close on old house
• July 17-22           take a break!!!!
• July 22                CLOSE ON new house and drink champagne!!!!
• July 23-26          complete immediate repairs on new house and paint Margot's room
• July 27-28          move into new house

The immediate repairs we have to complete on the new house include getting kitchen appliances working, having a plaster professional repair and patch plaster throughout house, tear up all the lower level carpeting, clean out clogged dryer vent in laundry room and paint Margot's room. I don't want to try and paint Margot's room after we've moved because of fumes and because I want her to be able to get settled right away in her new room. The appliances are the biggest thing on this list and they may not get done before we move. Currently neither the stove or oven are working and there is no refrigerator. I think the stove will be an easy fix and we'll just go get a used refrigerator from st. Vincent De Paul's for the interim but the oven which is original to the house and from 1950 may need to be entirely rebuilt so it's possible that we will just be going without an oven for a little while.

We will be undertaking many more projects in the months after we move but mostly the house is livable as is so long as you don't run the clothes dryer and hair dryer at the same time....but that is a topic for another day.