One Down...Three to Go

There you have it. Phase One of four moves is over and all went well. The day was warm and not too humid. Mr. Amazing supervised and seven wonderful friends and family volunteered to give up a day of their holiday weekend to help us pack the U-Haul and move our "stuff" to storage. I can't thank them enough! Yesterday was a day of REST and today we've tried to finalize the "cottage in the woods" house plan.

Mr. Amazing is off to Canada for his annual fishing trip and, when he returns, we will begin Phase two of the Great Move of 2010. Stay tuned.

The Dilemma

I've got a pretty good idea of what the INSIDE of my cottage in the woods will look like, but I'm struggling with what the outside should look like....hence the Dilemma. Mr. Amazing says craftsman. I'm OK with that but it doesn't quite fit the "cottage in the woods" feeling I'm going for. SO, in between packing and working and packing, I've been googling exterior house photos, driving up and down the streets of our fine city looking at small ranch houses, checking out books on house styles from the library and spending time at Barnes & Noble in search of the right "look." I initially knew exactly what I wanted--a cottage in the woods covered in cedar shakes. Mr. Amazing wants NO MAINTENANCE and informs me that cedar shakes are HIGH maintenance. Nothing like throwing a girl a curve ball. Back to square one.

Yesterday, as we were heading for groceries, I suggested we drive very slowly through a small subdivision close to our house. Nothing inspiring......until we came to a house clad with what looked like weathered cedar shingles. And, I still LOVED the look....Mr. Amazing studied it carefully and decided it might be vinyl and, if that was the case, he thought it looked pretty nice too. So, after lunch I drove over to this darling little house, knocked on the door and was greeted by the nicest fellow EVER! His name is Dennis and he most graciously spent an entire hour talking to me about his exterior siding and....wait...there's more....his kitchen! He invited me in while he looked up the siding manufacturer and when I looked into his kitchen! Well, Heaven! His house is modest in size, as ours will be, and his kitchen is a mix of commercial range and hood (with a warmer I might add), stainless appliances, no upper cabinets (he used shelving instead.....just like I want to) and painted lower cupboards. To top it off...he'd just finished making huge muffins! I had to tear myself away from his house to attend a high school graduation party, but I can not thank Dennis enough for all the information he shared in that short hour visit. Stay tuned!

Boxes and more boxes....

Just a sampling of what used to be the dining room.....now filled with boxes. Each room in our house looks pretty much like this. I find myself wondering WHY we've accumulate so much. If I think back to the beginning of "us" it was two people (in love of course), a small VW beetle, a few boxes of clothing, books, dishes and a dog. Now, some 40 years later it's still two people (still in love....most days anyway!) no dog and hundreds and hundreds of boxes filled with stuff we apparently just can't part with! We've been culling as we pack, yet the garage sale pile pales in comparison to the things we think are absolutely necessary for survival! Less is more is our mantra yet....well.....look for yourself!

Oh The Places You Will Go.....

JUST LIKE A BOOK, our lives have many chapters. Today we ended one chapter and tomorrow we'll begin another. You see, our LAST child has packed up his worldly possessions and headed off, sweaty and tired...but happy, with his friends to begin a fun filled summer living next to State Street in our lovely university town. Mr. Amazing is fine, I'm a little sad. I really, really do like knowing my entire family is under one roof! However, I also know it was time for him to go; he was anxious to begin his own life, make his own mistakes, realize his own dreams. After all, that's what we prepared him for. He's a nice young man. Sniff...

Photo illustration Dr. Seuss

The Great Move of 2010

Mr. Amazing has put a name to our adventure....The Great Move of 2010. Our heads have stopped spinning and we 're beginning to formulate a plan. Boxes are brought home daily and filled almost as quickly as they are unloaded. A storage facility has been secured close to our soon to be cottage in the woods. We've consulted with the builder and it looks like it's possible we will be homeless until November. The words "November" and "travel trailer" don't fit well in the same sentence when you live in the north, so I'm pretty sure that idea has been thrown out. Where to live is the new big dilema! Five weekends left before the Great Move of 2010. We're feeling pretty confident we can pull this off. But then.....Mr. Amazing will be fishing for three of those five weekends. It could get interesting....very interesting!