We have window coverings in our double-story family room! This is the point in the move when I do a big exhale that I didn't realize I was holding in. Window coverings make a big difference for me in how I feel in my home. There is a walking path behind our house that looks right into our main living areas. It feels nice to be able to close that out, especially when it gets dark outside and I don't know who might be looking in on us. Probably no one, but I still like the cozy feeling of closing the curtains in the evening.
Getting the curtains up was an UNDERTAKING with a capital every-letter-in-that-word. Definitely the most dangerous home project we've done so far. We should have rented scaffolding or hired someone to install the curtain rod, but that's a hindsight thing. In the moment, 3 ladders, 2 brothers and 2 sisters-in-law, and my parents felt like overkill "just" to install some curtains.
We have always used copper pipes as curtain rods in our homes. In our first home in Wyoming this was a budget decision since copper was pretty cheap at the time. We really came to love the color, sturdiness, and ability to cut them down to an exact size so we don't have to deal with curtains getting snagged on extendable rods. So. This was a really tall room and would be holding 18 feet worth of curtains. I knew we would need a long, thick piece of copper. I'm grateful to my brother Peter in the plumbing industry who was able to help me secure this 20-foot-long, 1.25" thick pipe and have it delivered to our house. The curtains were the first thing I purchased for this home, just after our offer on the house was accepted three months ago. So once we had the pipe and hardware, we just needed the manpower. I bribed my family over with pizza and put them to work. It seemed like a good idea to put the curtains on the rod first and lift the whole thing into place, but that ended up being too heavy. But they did it anyway somehow. I am shocked no one ended up at the hospital. But wow, now we all have some memories and sweat equity in our home and we LOVE the drapes more than we even thought we would. They make our house feel fully like a home, and it's nice to have this warm linen tone against all our white walls to warm up the space.
And now for the pictures!
It's been a good week! Jared took the kids to visit his cousin in St. George over the weekend while I spent a good chunk of time putting some desperately needed organizational systems in place and a few pictures on the walls. When the kids are home, it's pretty much survival mode 100% of the time, so it was very appreciated to be able to make some house progress. I will say, even if I unpack and organize 10 boxes (which is about what I did, since most of them were miscellaneous boxes, yikes), it feels discouraging to look around and still see a sea of boxes. It's going to take a few months before it feels like we're really winding down on the unpacking, and that's ok. Last time around it took a full 6 months (it's a task that is TOUGH with kids). Jared and the kids had a great time in St. George too. Jared's cousin has a 6 year old son whose energy matches Jack's impeccably. They played and played and played.
We are also making headway on our backyard plans. This is the year of exciting things that are giving me a logistical headache. Feels like each backyard decision holds a lot of weight when it's our forever house. It's also tricky because the whole backyard is on a steep slope, so leveling and retaining walls will be involved, and expensive. This year we're hoping to level and add retaining walls, plus a patio and a bit of grass. We'll see if there's room for a fence in the budget after that. If not, we will be adding the fence next year.
I ran out of cloud storage for my pictures, so today we get Jared's camera roll until I get to that!
We've had some cold days this week. Jack is going to be able to tell his kids he had to walk home from school in freezing hail, uphill both ways. Really it's just uphill on the way home and not too far, but it's a pretty steep hill. We're building character.
Sometimes it feels like we've got a really long ways to go until we're unpacked and settled, but Tim and Abby came over to help us bring in more boxes and unpack one evening this week, and just that one evening has me feeling way further along. I love living near family. Our kids all played great together during the witching hour, so it was a win-win-win for everyone.
Speaking of family, my brother Peter got us a plumber discount on a 20-foot copper pipe to use as our curtain rod in our great room. Now we just need the bell hangers to arrive and we'll have window coverings on all the crucial windows.
Most of my "free" time this week was spent (a) hyperventilating because I am surrounded by a thousand little projects I'm dying to get to but can't because kids. Specifically, kids in the peak of the toddler stage. And (b) becoming a landscape designer. Jared is starting to get bids to have our backyard done this summer. I figure if we're starting from scratch, now is going to be the most cost effective time to get it right. We will have to do the backyard in chunks over the next several years because it is sloped and therefore expensive, but knowing what we want it to look like down the road will influence what we need to do this first year. It's fun work to dream it all up, but it's taken several late nights to pour into several landscape design books and figure out the logistics. Hoping to get the ground leveled/terraced, some grass and patio put in, and fence up this year. Fingers crossed. And now for some pictures from our week:
Another week come and gone, and I suppose another year come and gone too. This has been one of our busiest holiday seasons yet, between the move and family activities. We have had a wonderful time, and it feels good to be starting fresh in a new year--one that will not have a big move crammed into it. Last year I set several resolutions about unpacking and other such things. This year I'm going to try not to put too much pressure on settling in, and just accept that it will take time. Instead of resolutions I'm trying the thing where you choose a word for the year. My word is "unwind." We'll see how I do. I have become quite wound up after many, many years of big life events one after the other. This year I am taking several deep breaths, maybe unpacking here and there, hopefully getting the first bits of a backyard put in, and then taking some more deep breaths. Maybe I'll take up weaving again. Wild stuff.
Jordan and Amanda's family came to visit this last week. The kids were in heaven. It's always sad but sweet when we drive away after saying our goodbyes at the end of the week, and hearing Jack fall into tears in the back seat. This is extra sweet since he's our tough guy and doesn't do a lot of crying usually, but the bond he has with his cousin Asher is special. He always cries after an Asher goodbye.
I was grateful to have family over to our house for a playdate this week. We had initially planned to host New Years Eve, but frankly I chickened out because our house feels pretty chaotic to me at the moment, and my parents hosted instead. But lots of family came over the next day, and helped us put away our giant tree and get our bigger furniture pieces put into place, and Amanda helped me pack the Christmas decor away and shared some organizing tips while our kids got absolutely filthy in the muddy backyard. It feels like a weight has been lifted going fresh into the New Year this way. We still have a long way to go settling into our house, but I'm taking a *deep breath.* One step at a time. And now for some pictures from our week:
