Making a HOUSE into home

I am always amazed by those women that can have their entire house unpacked, window treatments done, furniture in place and pictures on the wall in less than 2 weeks. Having been in the Air Force for 22 years, I met many women like this. Most were SAHM, and I have no clue how they did it. I have a dog and a teen, and we are still living out of boxes in many ways.

"We" had the bedroom redone by a contractor, the previous owners did things that went with what they had, but did not work with our stuff. So, hired someone to do the hard work of removing stuff, repairing and refinishing walls (from removing stuff) priming and then repainting. It took a week for a professional, imagine if DH & I did it...

I am right now waiting for primer to dry in the powder room, a second coat and then I can repaint the entire room.

I have not yet begun to tackle the windows, other than for cleaning them. And as we remove boxes and move furniture into place, see that I MUST have the carpets cleaned soon!

It took over a year in our last house to "unpack" and then we spent the last two years there getting ready to sell. Having done what we wanted done from the start.

This house there is less "want to change" but enough that I am trying to come up with time lines and schedules of when to do things. Like change the cabinets in the kitchen, continue to repaint, finish a basement, and do different landscaping.

Again, I admire those women that by this time (3 weeks in the house) have already started on those things.

I play with the dog, work on my scrapbooks, read through books and magazines, as well as unpack, breakdown boxes, inventory for missing items, restock supplies, and hunt down replacements.

A book about loss and grief recommends that a person not make major changes the first year after a loss of a loved one. I am still grieving the lost of our/my "home" in California, and the routines and life that was built around it. Our daughter thinks she is the only one grieving the lost of her "place and space" and the life and friends she had there.

DH has his work, which is under much better conditions than he had before, less additional duties and headaches. He misses things about our old house, but loves what we have with the new one.

DD and I are sometimes having trouble with that, seeing beyond what we miss. The weather has been "California" like, warm to hot, with until a couple days ago, clear blue skies. Not at all the type of weather you associate with Fall.

So, I still have portions of our previous lives to finish scrapping, then maybe the grieving will be over and I can start on this new life here on the East coast.