Packing Again

So here I am, repacking everything so we can move again. I hate moving. A move out of state almost demands a double move though because you really have to be there to know where you want to settle down.

Thus, packing again.

I was watching Craigslist obsessively, and I still stared at the house announcement off and on for an hour before I decided to call on it. There was nothing unique about that particular announcement except that is was dead in the center of the area I was looking in for a house. I couldn't let it go, though, so I called and we like the house and the manager and the owner, and I guess they liked us because we sign the papers tomorrow. With taxes coming due, it's a lousy time to come up with a deposit, that's for sure, but the house is totally worth it to us.

It is a 1976 house, 1920 square feet on one level, with a security fence in the back yard, big driveway, four bedrooms, three living rooms, two bathrooms, and a porch covered with grape vines that produce table grapes. There's also an enormous mulberry tree that shades the house and driveway, and a fig tree in the back yard, and a shed for storage, and floor plan I like (walk into the parlor, but can't see the kitchen or toy room from there!). So we're moving again, this time to Spring Valley (an "unincorporated" part of Las Vegas--lots of this city is not incorporated and instead falls into townships, including the area that The Strip is on--technically, and ironically, it is in a township called Paradise).

The new house is just around the corner from the church, just like we love.

Some people have asked why we're moving again. It was needed. I can tell you, I won't miss having the landscapers throw away the kids toys (I know the ball looked a little flat, but it was Ben's favorite because he could pick it up, and it was Anda's friend--it even had a face). I won't miss the stairs, or Daniel making me walk him past every smoke alarm in the house because it might turn on. I won't miss the smoke alarm going on whenever we bake. I won't miss the oven melting my plastics because it vents improperly. I won't miss the neighbor's tall houses looking over into our yard constantly. I won't miss having to drive to church. I won't miss the light-colored laminate floor that shows all the dirt. I won't miss the stairs. I won't miss having only one bathroom on the "living" floor. I won't miss the floor plan, or the master bathroom that's bigger than the kitchen, or the kitchen that has too high of cupboards and counters and no floor space, or the the dishwasher that leaves a nearly irremovable residue on the dishes or else leaves a white powder coating them, or the high ceilings and correspondingly high utilities costs, or the rooms that are too big so that 2000 square feet acts like about 800 in terms of usefulness, or the lack of place to put the clothes, or having no place for visitors to go that isn't toy space.

The clincher was the day I discovered my temple dress got wet during the first move, and I hadn't noticed, so it was mildewed. Online it said sunshine cures mildew, so I washed my dress and carefully laid it out on a blanket in the evening so that it would get the benefit of the bright Las Vegas sunshine in the back yard all morning. In the morning, I found my Temple Dress wadded up in a ball and tossed into the house. I was offended on so many levels it was unbelievable. Not only had someone touched my Temple Dress, they had wadded it up. AND they had entered my house without my permission. I thought having landscapers care for the yard would be heavenly. Turns out it has been just one more layer of privacy stripped away.

Plus they didn't tell us the day they fertilized, so my kids played barefoot on the lawn all that day (and Benj put lots of stuff in his mouth). I found out a week later from the neighbors across the street!

I realize there will be things I hate at the next house. I suppose I'll miss having a guest house. Hopefully that's all.

So I'm packing again, excited to go to a place that has more potentially livable space than this, but sad to put my current landlords in dire straights the day their baby is due.