The new house

I'm sitting on the same purple couch that I always sit on with my laptop after I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. But I had to make my way carefully down the stairs in the dark to get here, and navigate around the still-unpacked boxes.

I think we'll be happy here. Despite my worries about a home downgrade, after living here for two days I can see how much nicer it is than our old house. True, it doesn't have the new kitchen and we all have to share a bathroom. But in contrast to our old place, which except for our renovations seemed like it was slapped together as a weekend project, this house is solid. It's an Arts and Crafts style home built in 1917. When I poke into the nooks and crannies to clean, instead of finding crumbling plaster or nails sticking out, I find little unexpected details like the small mirrors lining the top of the built-in dining room hutch. The old house didn't have a built-in anything. (The opposite, in fact -- the original kitchen looked like it had cabinets, but when you opened them up there was basically a giant box with a couple of shelves somebody had nailed in.)

K is adjusting nicely. I set up his room first while he was at school, to make sure that when he arrived he would have a familiar-looking and comfortable place of his own, with his Little Dude on the bed, his ukelele on the shelf, a personalized room sign on his door, a few new books to read ("Look, the new house has Mr. Bump!" he exclaimed) and a special new house present, Automoblox. (Incidentally, he LOVES the Automoblox, little wooden cars that you can take apart, mix up, and reassemble. Ordinarily I'd be way too cheap to buy a toy like that -- his "new" toys that aren't gifts generally come from yard sales. But I have to admit these are awesome.) After reading Bread and Jam for Frances the night before, he had asked for spaghetti and meatballs at breakfast, so that's what we had for dinner. Frozen meatballs, jarred sauce, but we had a family meal in our very own dining room cooked on our very own stove on our first night.

The next morning, K asked, "So when are we going to sell the new house?" "We're not going to sell the new house," I said. (God forbid. Attempting to sell one house is already giving me palpitations.) "We're going to live here forever." "Forever?" "Well, I hope so. At least for a long time. This is our home now." He nodded and repeated, "We live at the new house now." "How do you feel about that?" I asked. He thought for a minute. "Pretty good!"

Getting settled and unpacked is going to be a lot of work, but I feel pretty good about the new house too.