This week we finally feel that we are beginning to have time to live in our new home rather than just to create it. It is good to remind ourselves that Johannes has only been here three weeks, and I only a couple weeks longer. Having arrived with just the suitcases included in the price of our airline tickets, and meeting six boxes that were shipped from Spain by FedEx, we obviously had a lot of shopping to do. Yes, I have had several boxes stored in the bedroom closet of one of my sisters (who has graciously shepherded them through two moves of her own in the past decade), and a few pieces of furniture have been on loan in her household. I thought we would only have to buy the obvious major pieces of furniture (beds, a sofa, bookcases). I was wrong.
For one thing, you need linens and pillows for the beds. Then you need lamps so you can read in bed, and some bedside tables. You also need towels and soap and soap holders and shower curtains and bathmats for the bathroom, as well as night lights and organizers, and--since who would waste valuable packing space on such things?--a whole new set of toiletries and and personal care products to replace the half-used ones you left behind.
Kitchens come furnished, but stocking the refrigerator and getting a few supplies into the pantry so that there is some choice of what to eat at the end of a long day of running around takes time and money. And then there is the interesting experience of planning a nice dinner based around a simple family favorite that you have made hundreds of times over the years, and suddenly remembering that you don't have a potato peeler to peel the carrots, or a soup ladle to dish it up with, or even an appropriate container in which to store the leftovers.
Then there are the decisions to be made and technical matters to attend to. Living in an apartment community takes much of the choice out of selecting a television and Internet provider; that's a good thing, but you still need to learn--and remember--how to access the new network and get the interfaces to work. New mobile phones were also required, and we each had home offices to set up, with computers and painting supplies, and more furniture and more lamps and more bookcases.
We made four or five--I've lost count--trips to Ikea the first ten days we were here. This week we managed to keep it to one. On the other hand, this week we have been to Verizon, Target, Staples, Sears, PetsMart, Meijer, Kroger, Goodwill, the Dollar Tree, the Apple store, and Aldi, at least, and sometimes not just once. Today, a day that we had planned to "take off" and go to an outdoor art festival in a neighboring community, we were greeted with the forecast of scattered thunderstorms, and by mid-morning, two occurrences of thunderstorms. So we decided not to risk the drive to the art show and instead did what a lot of people do on Sunday in the U.S. We went shopping. We geared up for what we keep saying is the "last big purchase." This time it was a large-screen computer monitor for me, a printer to share, and a vacuum cleaner to deal with normal cleaning and the precious cat hairs of our little Guapita. We were successful at one store--Best Buy--and managed to get all three of the purchases inside the house before the rains came again. Now, a few hours later, two of the three are fully assembled and functional.
Tomorrow afternoon we meet Two Men and a Truck at my sister's house. The two men will load the dining room furniture and an easy chair and ottoman--items that I thought we would have moved long ago--and then they'll drive the truck fifteen minutes up the street to our new home, where they will carry the furniture up three half flights of stairs and immediately take care of any reassembling that is necessary. And then we will declare the move "done." There are, of course, several smaller items we want to purchase--I'm still missing a cooking fork and a butter knife, and we want a different waste and recycling solution than we've been using on a temporary basis--but we really think the big stuff is finished. And good thing. Did I also mention that we made trips to one bank and our investment offices this week, too?
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