So the Promised Report

I have blogged since I promised the update on everything us-related (ie how the move went, etc), but I didn't update anyone. So here you go:

My brother and Dad came out for a week and did everything, literally, while I stood around bouncing nervous babies and feeling completely helpless and useless. Had they not come, we wouldn't have moved. They even directed the volunteers from the ward who came to help. We didn't fit in the 24' moving truck, so we had to rent a Uhaul trailer to pull behind our van, and even then we left some things I wanted (a ladder; a lawnmower, all our bikes, my vacuum, at least 4 dressers, a window-mount air conditioner, and lots of miscellaneous STUFF).

Then everyone drove and drove and drove. My brother even went through Utah to pick up Mom so she could help. We arrived at 5:00 am on Friday, and at 9:00 am on Saturday, the new ward showed up to help unpack the truck.

Then my family took the truck back and went home, racing a storm.

And we sat around, stunned, for at least 24 hours before we started unpacking, which is ongoing and will probably be ongoing until we move again and then still until we buy a house we expect to stay in for some time.

The new house has the same number of square feet as the old (maybe a little more), but it has far greater volume (read: worse utilities bills expected) with high high ceilings. It also has long staircases, and all the bedrooms (plus 2/3 of bathrooms) upstairs. There is also a guest house out back, which is really a 14x14' room attached to the back of the garage that is inaccessible from the house and has its own heating and cooling system and bathroom.

Despite the fact that it's "bigger", the house is smaller than the old one because it has the spaces all laid out in a way that is beautiful and stylish but not practical for a stay-at-home mother. For example, the bigger kids' bedroom (and only one that fits the two bunkbeds the kids insist on having in one room) is closer to the master bedroom, so the nursery is farther away--so far, in fact, that if the baby cried I wouldn't hear him. And why the baby needs a walk-in closet I'm not sure. The master bathroom is bigger than the kitchen (no joke). The laundry room is smaller than the smallest bathroom, without even space for a clothes basket on the floor if you intend to open the dryer or walk through to the garage. The master bedroom suite is enormous--as big as the kitchen-family-dining room--and includes the master bathroom (which is bigger than the kitchen!) and a walk-in closet that I'm using as a baby room because it is at least as big as the baby's room in our old house, and is closer to me at night. This closet would be the perfect clothes room that I'm always looking for--if the laundry facilities weren't downstairs. The master bathroom/closet section is through a doorway from the bedroom, but there is no door on it, so if someone wants to get up earlier than the other, they can't dress or shower in there without waking sleeping spouse. The toilet is in its own closet, and the light in there also turns on a fan, so you can't use it at night either unless you want it dark or want the light to wake spouse--even if you close the door because of the noise of the fan.

Did I mention the kitchen is smaller than the bathroom?

The kitchen counters are higher than at the old house, so I can't hold my arms up to clean them off or cook--I'm chopping veggies on a cutting board that I set on top of two stacked boxes instead because it's a better height. The cupboards are correspondingly large and high (So they don't look stupid with the high ceilings), but that makes them almost impossible to use. I can't even open the ones over the fridge--can't reach them--and I've had to move all the shelves in the others DOWN to more reasonable heights. I couldn't even reach the second one without a chair when we got here. Plus there just aren't enough cupboards.

So we have ended up using the trick my Dad taught us years ago: we took all the old bookshelves and used them to make walls that separate the "dining room" from the rest of the family room/kitchen space. That is now my clothes room/pantry/ extra cupboard space. Ugly, but functional and next to the laundry, so now that's the dressing room.

We also only use the kids' bathroom for everything. It's brighter, easier to use at odd hours or when someone else is sleeping, easier to clean (whoever invented showers with glass walls that must be squeegied to avoid hard water marks didn't ever have babies). Keeps the laundry more under control, too.

Slowly but surely we are getting unpacked. I've found most of the clothes now and put them away. I have enough dishes to cook. We got the table and toys set up, mostly, and the school/mom's work space table set up, with two printers set up and ready to go. And I get through a box or two of other stuff every day. I still don't know where to put most of the stuff. But we're working on that.

It really is a lovely home, and is for sale to someone who values neighborhoods and popular housing designs. Most of our neighbors (and most of the ward) are these kinds of people. That's why they live here.

I have spent some time looking at the housing market in Vegas, just in case we stay longer than a year, and I've found a couple of properties that are more "like" me. One was a 4000 square foot house on an acre in an unincorporated area of town. It was foreclosed on. Despite the fact that it is zoned residential, the previous owner on record was a Thrift Store. It's not necessarily the kind of house I'd move into. I'd have to see it first. It is TOTALLY the kind of house I'm drawn to, though. A house with character. Character and a Master Bedroom that is 26 x 18', which we would use as a music/rehearsal studio, without a question.

So, we moved. We live in a house that's okay. School is going okay. Tim LOVES his job. If it weren't so darn cold here (27 degrees last night!), I'd be pretty well content.

Oh, and Tim's show is opening on January 25: Toxic Audio at the V Theater in the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on the strip. Shows nightly at 9:00 pm except Thursdays (a "dark" day, to use the industry lingo). Tim will be the tallest guy on stage, and probably the one who used to have a beard. Fun show, I hear: music, comedy, and wild crazy antics. And no, there are no topless women (every time I hear that, I think of the magician's saw trick--and the legs just hopping up and running away). PG rated show, I think. (I haven't seen it yet).