Movers And Shakers

As I write this, Curt has gone to his dad's to dry clothes. Our oldest daughter spent the whole day yesterday at his dad's washing and drying clothes. This family sure does go through a lot of laundry! Why can't we do our laundry at home? You might be thinking. Oh well, there's a good answer for that.

We had moved in and accumulated enough laundry to wash our first load with the washer and dryer the previous owner had left with the house. I washed the clothes with no problem, then threw them in the dryer, as always. When the load finished drying, I went in to pull it out-- only to find the clothes still soaking wet. "Oh well," I reasoned, "I must have put it on the wrong setting or something." I changed the setting and started it again. You guessed it: the clothes were still soaking wet at the end of that cycle, too. Curt came home and he changed the cycle again and tried his hand at it. Still wet.

I started to complain about how the owner had insisted on giving us this washer and dryer and we gave away a perfectly good washer and dryer so we could take this one because it was gas and our other one wasn't gas and how now we were going to have to spend good money to buy a dryer and how could the owner do that to us? (I said all of this without pausing to breathe.) And Curt stopped me. "Gas dryer, gas dryer, gas dryer," he said. He looked at me. "We never called the gas company and hooked up the gas!" So we were trying to dry clothes without the power necessary to get the job done! Yes, I know. But in our defense we have always had electric power and not gas-- and the only thing in this house that is gas is the dryer and the logs in the fireplace. So, we had power for everything else. And in 100 degree temps it's not likely we are going to fire up the gas logs. So, that just left the dryer.

The next morning first thing I called the gas company-- only to find they can't come out til July 10th!! So, we have to wait what seems like many days to be back in laundry business. This is just one of the many little blips we have dealt with as we have moved. These little inconveniences are not the end of the world-- but they are enough to make me say repeatedly to my family, "I hope y'all like this house-- because we are never moving again!!"

All in all, the house is coming along nicely. All the boxes that have made it into the house are unpacked-- but there are many, many more boxes still waiting inside the pod storage unit that is parked in our driveway. Yesterday I finally got all my clothes and shoes back-- that was a good feeling. I am hoping today we will go pick up some used bookshelves that I found so we can start organizing and sorting our books. I am going to pick up a small bookshelf I found for my room as well. One thing I loved about our old house is it had lots of built-in bookshelves-- perfect for bibliophiles like us! This house doesn't have any-- so we are having to buy shelves. I have found several nice ones on Craig's List, so we haven't had to spend a fortune, which is good. But driving all over creation to pick them up takes up a lot of time!!

Just a plug for Craig's List. I have been able to furnish our new house just by going to Craig's List for a fraction of the cost of what it would be to buy this stuff new! We have gotten a very nice couch, oversized chair and ottoman for our den, a kitchen table with a bench and four chairs that I love, and are possibly going to get my son a set of furniture for his room that I found. I highly recommend shopping on Craig's List if you have furniture to buy-- it is amazing the stuff that people get rid of due to moving, divorce, or just redecorating. It takes a bit of patience and searching-- but I have found that it pays off if you are willing and motivated.

And so, I figure in a couple of weeks we will have it all figured out and sorted out. Just last night, I said to Curt, "It's starting to feel like home already!" And he agreed that it is. That's great progress in less than a week. I am thankful that God provided this house in a price range that is great for our budget that has just what we needed. Yesterday I made a list of all the things we want to do to the house-- twenty things in all! We will do this over time-- updating, redecorating and making it feel like ours a little bit more every day.