A few things crept up on me once we made this move, some good, and well, some that will take a bit of getting used to.
I am really enjoying looking out the window and being able to identify the flowers that are blooming around the perimeter of our house. If I weren’t so tired (see below), I’d go outside and photograph them. The yard is so peaceful, the trees strong and mature, and the landscaping, well, that may take a while to figure out. By my current calculations, we are going to need several hundred bags of mulch very soon.
That said, night scares the bejesus out of me. Our beautiful, benign, serene yard, once the sun goes down, eerily transforms into a pitch-black haunt for howling, flesh-starved coyotes, animals that seem to enjoy dragging other animals through the woods, and a fourteen-foot Sasquatch who eats raccoons in a single bite. We have a few flood lights, but, rest assured, we’re picking up a few more.
And speaking of night…
Did you know how easy it is to change a lock to a deadbolt that opens with a key? Quite simple, really. We’ll be picking up a few more of those as well. Thanks, neck-tattooed, ex-con movers who reminded me why I stopped working with the incarcerated in the first place. Thanks a lot.
A house of forty-someodd windows isn’t a good thing, neither from a window covering perspective, nor a being-awake-all-night-with-your-children-whilst-your-husband-works-overnight perspective. I walk through the house in the middle of the night, repeating to myself, “Do not look at the windows…Do not look at the windows…Do not look at the windows,” inevitably peering helplessly out every single one, trying to catch a glimpse of some would-be burglar holding up a sign that says, “I”m gonna get you now!”
And besides the window/outdoors/murderous wildlife thing, here are a few other tidbits:
My husband and I were actually able to fix (with the help of Google. Full disclosure) our garage door. That’s a good thing.
I grossly overestimated the level of dedication and commitment of the employees of big box home improvement stores. Those commercials are really misleading.
If you have a fireplace, best believe your toddlers will find a way into it, and will also find a way to remove the grate at the bottom and drop Wii accessories inside.
Hardwood floors successfully hide a lot more dirt than I remembered.
Once I unpacked some of my collectibles, I realized just how much I resemble a twelve-year-old girl.
It will take no fewer than three trips to acquire and install the correct safety gates for your house, making you the unofficial staircase goalie until the issue is solved.
And, speaking of safety, every time you think you’ve covered all the outlets, you will spot one you missed.
You may also spend what you believe to be an exorbitant amount of money on high quality paint-primer combo, only to get into the house and realize the color that’s there looks just fine (or it doesn’t, but you’re far too tired to change it).
And, lastly, no matter what remains to be done or how important, the one thing you will fixate on will be putting up pictures. Or I will fixate on putting up pictures. Whatever.
By the way, why aren’t those pictures up yet?
