Those first couple weeks after we moved in were rough weeks. Looking back I realize that of course I'd be tripping over boxes if I was never home to unload them. Really, I was rather hard on myself, but at the time I was just discouraged, frustrated and plain sick of being surrounded by boxes, living in a mess, and feeling like we weren't living in a home. It probably didn't help that I continued to be sick for a good part of the first week after we moved in. I could function (because I had to) but needed a lot of rest and burned out quickly ... which just fueled my frustration.
On the Monday morning after we moved in we headed back to Hamilton to pack up the items that got left at the house and clean the place. Matthew came with us and was absolutely and thoroughly confused as to what had happened to his old home and walked around for the first 10 minutes repeatedly asking "what happened, what happened?" (On another note it was very neat to see how quickly and easily he settled into the new home, realizing that all our things were there and that this was "ours"). After he got over the shock of the mostly empty (and somewhat disasterous looking) house the next question he had was "Zaboomafoo?" This is Matthew's way of asking if he can watch TV. Here we could again see his extreme obsession with the TV. For the next 30 minutes nothing I said or did to show him that the room was empty and there is no TV in the house could convince him that he would not be able to watch TV. He cried and whines, and clinged and complained ... finally I managed to distract him for a bit and then he went off with Rob to the chiro ... only to arrive home to ask all over again "what happened? what happened?" Thankfully he got busy outside vacuuming up the leaves and we didn't have to go through the whole TV issue aga
in.I will never forget Matthew reaction when the leaves first started to fall. He was quite traumatize by this and at first I couldn't figure out why, until one day he said "leaves oweee". Of course he did not realize that this was a normal occurrence of nature and felt it was awful that the poor trees were losing all their leaves.
Our dear red van "died" on the way home that day ... kinda just added to my mood of grumpiness when you get this feeling that "nothings going right" at that time. I remember that the next day my dear wonderful boy took a beautiful long 4 hour nap ... and his mama did the same thing. I wasn't planning on it since I really didn't expect him to sleep that long, but I went to sleep when he did with the intent to get some good rest and sleep until he woke ... I did just that, I just didn't realize it would be so long. I think that was a good boost to start mending finally.
For the first month after we moved I was in Hamilton three times a week for appointments. By the end of October my physiotherapist pointed out what I already realized ... physio wasn't helping. She suggested combining physio with acupuncture and massage therapy to see if these would be beneficial in loosening things up, easing the muscles and allowing some relief. And so I began acupuncture treatment twice a week and massage once a week, plus physio every other week ... as well the girls were still finishing up their gymnastic lessons. The trips to Hamilton did not bother me as I realize (hoped) it was temporary ... but there were times where I just wished I could stay home a bit more and actually get something done there.
Of course I didn't help the situation as I also decided to throw myself into the activities going on at church and school. The first Wednesday I found myself at the church helping make apple pies for the morning and the next day at the school for their Open House (was so great that this happened just after we moved, neat to see the kids settling in). The following week I went with Marietta's class on an all-day school trip (more on that later). Yup, one has to be home and awake to get the boxes unpacked ... but with all that was going on by the end of the second week the house did look like a home again ... still boxes floating around, but it was getting there.
While I was trying to keep up with getting the house settled, Rob was also extremely busy. When you move to an older home that isn't really large you have to do some creative work to make things all fit.
As I mentioned Rob is determined and determined he was that first day. While I vegged around being sick he set to work on taking apart our dryer.
He had a very cute little helper also :)
We had two options on where the washer and dryer could go in this new home. There was a laundry room/mud room/entrance way that it could go in. That would be the logical place for it to go ... and it being on the main floor, the most ideal place. I must say I sure liked the thought of having the laundry on the main floor. The second option would be the basement (where it had been in previous years).
Now why would someone want to put the laundry area in a dungeon basement if it was set up for the main floor?? Because Rob had envisioned the laundry/mud room to be his office ... and he was determined to have it that way because if he couldn't have that room he had to use our bedroom.
The challenge came in the fact that the stairway going down to the basement was only 25" wide ... and natural gas dryers are 27" wide. Now one can buy a electric dryer under 25", but not a natural gas dryer. Our dilemma ... we weren't going to pay for electricity when we have a natural gas well on the property providing us with free heat and drying. After much shopping and looking it was determined that we had several choices: 1) we either rip apart the dryer and attempted to fit the drum down the stairs (... 2) we spend a few too many bucks and buy stackables for the upstairs laundry room so Rob wouldn't lose to much office space ... 3) put the dryer in the office and the washing machine in the kitchen.
Did I mention Rob is determined?? Option #1 he went with and he tackled that item first thing after his nap on the Saturday we moved in. He could not rest until he knew whether he could get that dryer down the stairs and then put it back together in working condition.
Let's just say it took some good pushing, shoving and pulling but I now do lots of running up and down a narrow, rickety stairway to do my laundry in the dungeon basement (okay it's not that bad)... but my dear hubby has his own space, his own office, with his own window and his own door ... he's so happy about this, and I'm happy for him.
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