This was a good weekend.
No, we didn’t quickly sell our house on try #2. Hell, we’re not even showing it yet as we’re waiting on painters to wrap up. We did get it down to just needing one more trip to cart stuff out of there, though. That’s progress.
No, we didn’t get cable yet.(fn) After Thursday’s great leap forward of getting the line onto our property there’s been no further progress. But I have a good feeling this is the week it’s all going to get wrapped up. Why I am optimistic I have no idea…
This weekend was more about making some progress to get our new house livable. S met with our decorator, or design consultant, or whatever we should call her, and began the daunting process of buying furniture. All we have to show for it so far is one rug and some drapes we haven’t put up yet. However, orders have been placed, deposits laid, and workers in China or Mexico or somewhere will soon be putting together some sofas for us. A few tables should ship in the next week. Some more rugs are getting pulled from storage in a warehouse and should be available for pickup later this week. It was just the first few drops in a rather large bucket, but at least it’s beginning to fill up.
Another big step was getting C set up with her craft area in the basement. She had to swear to not destroy her new room the way she destroyed her old one with crayons, paints, glues, etc. and in return we gave her a corner of the unfinished side of the basement. We had to wait to get a folding table back that had been borrowed. I picked that up Sunday and we turned her loose in the evening. She was very pleased. Hopefully she follows the rules and we don’t find stains all over her bedroom carpet.
Another big accomplishment was filling up the back of my Tahoe with about a ton of cardboard we had collected over the past two weeks. When I say filled up I mean filled up. Thank goodness for backup cameras because I could not see out the back window the cardboard was stacked so high. I think we reclaimed a couple hundred square feet by getting all that crap out of the house. Now to clear out all the cardboard at the old house…
Sunday night felt like a turning point for us. We’re through phase one in the new house: we’re all moved in, have made those immediate, necessary purchases, are getting settled, and can now move on to making the house ours. If only we had cable/internet.(fn)
Coincidentally this past week was the official mid-point of the girls summer break. They’ve had six weeks of summer and have just under six weeks left. This is a busy week for two of them. M goes to a class to help her prepare for the high school entrance test all students who want to attend a local Catholic high school must take. When we signed her up, she was a little annoyed at us. But when we told her that she could earn scholarship money for getting a high enough score, she got onboard. I think she kind of thinks that she gets whatever money she earns, instead of it being subtracted from her tuition, because she came around quick. Regardless, for five mornings she’s going to learn test-taking strategies, run through some practice tests, and hopefully ace the thing when she takes it in the fall.
C is working at an art camp this week run by one of L’s friend’s moms. M worked there the past two years. She also begins cross country practice this week. The older kids run two nights a week in July. I think she’s excited to start running again. She knows this is a big year, being in the older half of her age group.