It’s still weird to think that we now have a home. I mean, officially it’s not ours yet, but we’re living here, we’re changing things and we’re settling in. I went out and propped my feet up on the picnic table on the patio out back today and just looked over my backyard. My own backyard. It’s amazing to think that I own a geographical place on the Earth now.
So, Amanda and I woke up at 9:00 today to head to the 10:30 service at church. We both slept very soundly the first night in our new home, with the exception of one time around 1:00 or 2:00 when Bruce got a little upset about some people walking and talking on the road outside.
Anyway, we went to church then went to the other house, loaded it up with our coats and a bunch of random things we hadn’t bothered getting from the house yet and came back. We tried to bring the cat, but he’s pretty freaked out by the empty house right now. He knows something’s up. We tried getting him in the car, but he squirmed and wriggled his way out of my arms then Amanda’s. We’re just going to have to take Bruce’s cage and throw him in that. Mr. Cobblepott will not be happy.
After unloading the car I ran up to the Food Lion and picked up a gift card for Adam with some money Mom and Dad had left for Adam. They wanted to make sure he’s feeding himself. Amanda and I started a second coat on the tan trim upstairs when Renee Sikes, Adam’s girlfriend, came over to help us paint. She also taped up the inside of the bookshelves in the bedroom, which had been painted tan the day before, although Amanda and I had decided to paint the backs of them the same teal-blue as the rest of the room. I worked on window trim while Amanda and Renee worked on the cabinets. Adam showed up after guard duty not long after and put the covers back on the sockets and light switches.
We all sat outside on the front patio eating cold pizza. We gave Bruce some guarded autonomy. I’d like to be able to trust letting him out in the front yard when we’re out, but it’s going to take some time I think. He stuck near us this time, but it was only because we had pizza.
We all watched some TV. Well, Adam and I watched Justice League on the DVR and an episode of Conquest about Roman soldiers while Renee suffered through it and Amanda organized the kitchen some. Realizing how many spatulas and ladles and such that we have, Amanda gave Renee a bunch of them.
Adam and Renee headed out not too much later. Amanda wasn’t feeling well (paint fumes?) and has to get up early tomorrow anyway so she went to bed early. I just finished the initial processing on the pictures for Jon and Denise’s weddings and need to go ahead and get some of those to them for the newspaper.
I realized earlier today that I’m not going to have any freetime for at least the rest of the year. We need to get some more paint to finish the office, then we’ll probably start on the living room. Two weekends from now Phil, Amanda’s dad, is coming back to help us put up the board in the kitchen that we’re using. Then we’ve got the two other bedrooms (Amanda’s mom is calling the front-facing bedroom, the one we’re planning on letting Michael stay in if he comes to stay with us) the Grandma room because the bed and furniture in it were her grandmother’s. After all that (or sometime in between) we get to pull down all the wallpaper in the two bathrooms and paint those. It’s peeling a little in some places already, which is a hopeful sign about how difficult it will be to remove.
It finally rained some today. It was supposed to rain all weekend, or there were supposed to at least be some scattered storms. It rained Thursday night I think, drizzled Friday night (I may have that backwards) but it didn’t rain yesterday on our key moving day. Tired of holding all that moisture for us, the clouds finally let loose a little today and really poured tonight. It was our first thunderstorm in our own house.
It’ll get obnoxious I’m sure, but I’ll probably be listing firsts “in our own house” for a while.