Starting Over

It's strange, this whole starting over business, because for one thing you totally underestimate the sheer amount of stuff that it takes to begin running a home from scratch.

When we first started planning the move to our own place, my husband offered to drive out here and bring the kids and I our stuff from the apartment we had in California. John said he didn't need it because he's staying with his mom right now, so he said he'd drive out in our truck with a trailer and then fly back to California. It seemed like a perfect solution because the kids would get to see their dad for a few days, it would keep me from having to buy a ton of stuff all over again, and I would have a car (he's got his own car back in California).

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it out here, so he's planning on selling the truck and sending me the money for it to help us get set up.

In the meantime I've used up the money I had set aside to get Alex a bed, a card table for us to eat at (my parents lent us two chairs), a papasan chair for the living room, and some cheap area rugs so the kids don't totally destroy the carpet. My parents, God bless them, practically had an entire kitchen set up in the attic from one of their boats. So that took care of silverware, dishes, a few pots and pans, and some kitchen utensils.

It was really nice to not have to buy anything for the kitchen.

For the time being I'm sleeping on an air mattress that my parent's are letting me borrow. They had a spare metal bedframe up in the attic, we laid a piece of plywood on it, and put the air mattress on top.

Voila! Instant bed.

Sarah already had a crib and a changing table that we had gotten at the consignment store a few months ago, so she's taken care of bedwise too.

Our landlady is really sweet, and when we moved in she told me that she had a whole basement of furniture that prior tenants had left behind. Angela said she thought that there was a couch in there and we were welcome to it if it was in good condition. She and her husband, Tom, moved it into the living room for me last week.

It's tan, circa 1970's with an odd textural pattern, but hey, I'm not going to complain about a free couch. It's also got a fold-out bed in it which is really cool in the totally unlikely event that I ever have guests over.

So, it's kinda bare-bones, but we're set up. My grandma said that she would be willing to sell me her washer and dryer when she moves in a few months, so that's taken care of, and we have all the essentials that we need. I'm really, really grateful for all of the things that we've been able to get for the house, we've got all of our 'needs' taken care of. I'll just have to take care of the 'wants' when I can.