4 More Sleeps

 Here I am. Packed! Oh the horror that awaits me as I try to unpack in a new location. 

What happened to me in the last 12 years? I used to love packing and moving and unpacking. I used to see it as a new adventure. A new opportunity. A clean slate. 

I realize I'm older now (and lazier) and that impacts the spirit a little. But man, this packing thing has sucked. I have so much stuff it seems, and yet  I know that I have what I need. When did I "need" all this stuff? 

The other thing is I never really loved where I was living. Nor was I attached to it. So moving was easier. I loved this place and I'm very attached to it. Twelve years in one spot! Definitely a new record for me. This place had everything I wanted 12 years ago and still want today; good light throughout the house, gas stove, room to groove, great location. It really has been a wonderful home for me. 

So that has been my attitude for the last week. Just meh about moving. I think it's the exhaustion and the month of unrest with boxes everywhere and total chaos in the house. 

But Thursday that all changed. I got the keys. THAT is what got me excited!

SIL Janet met me and we did the walk through with the property manager. Seeing the place, clean versus the disaster it was when I originally looked at it, really got my excitement up again.

This new place has everything I want NOW; good light, hard wood floors, a garage; and an open concept which will be good for entertaining. The only bad thing about it is it doesn't have a gas stove. It has a flat top, and I'll need to learn how to cook on that again. (And seeing it during the walk through disappointed me a bit; it's not really in good condition, but it is what it is). 

Having the opportunity to walk through by ourselves once the property manager left, I could really look to see if my plan of where I was going to put what would work. Turns out, we may have some problems. In most rooms, the heater blower thingy on the wall is in the middle of the wall! How are you supposed to put something against that wall with the heater blower thingy on it? Ugh. So we'll just have to see what happens. 

The other big difference about this move and all the others is that I got to buy some new stuff! I can't wait to get it all set up and learning to live in a new house. 

The cats however are going to be freaked out. My old cat Pookie moved with so many times he didn't even bother worrying when the boxes came out. These two have known no other house but this one. Lucy has followed me everywhere. She makes sure she can see me at all times. Their view of the world is going to drastically change. They won't as as much Kitty TV as they have now (way fewer windows). But they'll get on just fine. As soon as they see that their food and poop box made the move, they'll be fine. 

And lastly, the other thing that has, oddly, bothered me is Mom.  I had a small, and I'm aware irrational, break down the other day. I suddenly realized, or thought, what if Mom can't find me. Mom only knows this place! She'll never see the new place! This place has the memories of her, not the new place. So yah, I had to get through that. Again, I know it's irrational and makes no sense...MOM is with me, not anywhere else. I mean Jesus, I'm mostly her anyhow.

So yah. The move is upon me. Today I'm meeting the Niece and Blueberry up at the new place to do a little Wraspir cleaning. The property management company "cleaned" it, but it needs a Wraspir scrubbing. 

Assuming I can sleep, there are only 4 more of them before the big move! 

You've Got to Move it, move it!

 Almost 11 years ago, I packed up my 2 bedroom apartment in Lynnwood, Washington and moved to Redmond to rent a townhouse from friends. I planned on being here for about 2-3 years. I mean I was so used to moving, it seemed that in 3 years I'd be ready to pack it up. 

Now almost 11 years later...I'm moving again. The landlords want to sell by end of the year so I had to start looking for a new place to live. I knew I didn't want to live in apartments and figured if I didn't find a townhouse or condo by end of year, I'd settle for an apartment. 

But the housing Gods smiled upon me and I found this fantastic townhouse in my old stomping grounds of Lynnwood. 

Its smaller, but it hit EVERY single priority for me:

1. Hard wood floors
2. Useful/nice kitchen
3. Garage
4. Parking for guests

The kitchen had me drooling immediately when I saw it. It's perfect for all the entertaining I do. I get to be in the kitchen AND chat with people in the living room. 

It has a nice big deck off the back and I can have a BBQ, so there's that. The living room is smaller than what I have here and my current couch/love seat combo won't fit in it. The couch will, but not the two together. I'll be getting rid of the love seat. I went to Lazy Boy on Friday with Blueberry and bought two new chairs to have one on each side of the couch. 

I've never had a chair that had a pattern on it. There was a couch near by that had pillows in this pattern so I took the pillow to the couch set on the floor that is exactly like mind to make sure it  matched! And it did. These are recliners, but not like the recliner I currently have. I'm super excited. 

That's the living room. Hard to see the size of it, but you get the picture. I also bought a new coffee table. I'd been wanting one but knew I wanted to wait to see where I moved to in order to figure out the size of it. 

Now the current house is in total chaos. I forgotten how much work it was to move. I've only just started packing and I'm already exhausted! 

The demons are a bit out of sort because they aren't sure what's going on. Pookie was the master of moving. If boxes came out he knew we were moving. These two have never moved and seem a bit out of sorts. Lucy keeps hopping on my lap as if to remind me to bring her with me. 

Move in day is Sept 30th. I'll do the walk through and get the keys on the 24th. They're giving me a free week to paint if I want, which is nice. 

It's bittersweet to be moving from here. I've enjoyed living in this townhouse for so many reasons. I'll miss Redmond and my favorite grocery store across the street. All my favorite restaurants will miss my business I'm sure! 

But Lynnwood has really grown up in the last 10 years. I'm looking forward to getting to know it again. A fresh start. New house. New furniture.