15 Days…

…until C’s surgery. Here’s the update.

We moved over the weekend. Darned near all our stuff is at Dragonfly now. The only remaining things to keep from the Cottage on Stark will fit in a couple trips with the Honda Odyssey. This is very much ahead of my original plan.

All the appliances arrived. Dragonfly now has a new:

• High Efficiency washer
• High Efficiency dryer
• …on pedestals to make it easier for C to do the laundry, and to provide easy access to chemical storage.
• Gas range/stove. This is the 2009 version of the unit she loved so much she moved it to Stark Street with us. We opted to leave it this time ’round.
• Dishwasher (about one year old)
• Refrigerator (from friends, about two years old) to replace the 16 year old Amana.
• The microwave/fan unit, at two years old, is the old-timer of the house now!

We now have a 1995 GE gas stove and a 1994 Amana refrigerator for sale. Cheap. If you know anyone…

Our Marylhurst student moved in Friday afternoon (as scheduled), occupying the mother in law apartment.  The carpet guys took longer than expected to do the install, so that unsettled her a bit. But… we got it all done.

The carpet looks awesome! All the bedrooms and the hallway upstairs are freshly carpeted, as are the front office and both stairwells. The only remaining original carpet is in the daylight basement (family room, mother-in-law apartment), where it received very little use anyway. The carpet guys took the time to roll the carpet over the stair lip so as to create a real tread/riser detail. So much better than the simple treatment we had before that hides the tread. The simple treatment is fast and easy for the carpet guys to do, but looks like the stairwell equivalent of a comb-over hairstyle. They’re not fooling anyone, you know…but I digress.

The move on Sunday went extremely well. We started at 7am, and finished at 5pm. The movers couldn’t get everything into one trip, so we made a quick second trip. And, because we had two chances, stuff that I had expected to ferry over later, in the Odyssey (bikes, lawn furniture, fertilizers, etc.), went on the truck instead! This was a blessing. Except – I had planned to filter stuff into the house in a series of phases. Instead, I got it ALL, piled in the garage in a huge stack to keep it out of the rain. I just keep telling myself it’s a blessing; the time I spend crawling over boxes in the garage is time I was originally going to spend schlepping stuff across town late at night in the Odyssey. So, really, I win with this scenario.

In most cases, the furniture is in the room where it belongs. So are a bunch of boxes. I still have beds to assemble. First priority is to unpack the clothes into closets to get all those boxes out of the way. Because C planned ahead and had the closets ready to go before the move, unpacking into the closet should be a quick and efficient process.

The piano fits into the corner of the living room like it’s meant to be. That corner always was awkward; it is no longer awkward. The living room feels balanced and homey. The piano seems to have stayed in reasonable tune. It fills the house with sound without being overpowering anywhere. The cherry floor adds the right amount of resonance, while the furnishings absorb the echoes. The result is a nice, crisp warm piano sound. When Meredith plays with feeling, she sounds great!

Our friends, who are moving to Eugene, have chosen to “squat” (I’m using this as a technical term!) in the Cottage for a week or so. Rather than crowd our box-filled house, they’ve opted for the zen-like, minimalist, quiet serenity of the empty cottage. Probably a good choice, overall.

M’s room has a forest mural on all four walls. Her white furniture, purchased to fit into her room at the Cottage, will give her lots of space in her room at Dragonfly. Her ballet barre sets up permanently in her room.

R wins in his room because his long-serving bedroom set can be put back together bunk-bed style. We know everything fits. I think I’ve mentioned that his room is painted a gray with hints of purple. It complements his royal blue wood furniture nicely. The hidden secret is that his otherwise conservative and staid-looking walls have been secretly over-painted with a massive star field created from dots of glow-in-the-dark paint applied by C with a tiny brush. Flip off the light for bedtime, and the room erupts with stars. It’s a much more mature take on the same theme as before.

I’ve put very little thought into the master at this point. Our friends who are ‘squatting’ will use our king mattress/box springs for a week or so. That leaves us with a king bed frame but no bed to put on it. We’ll continue to use the queen air bed mattress for  a while. Not longer than November 10th, however. At least, I hope not….