7 Tips for Less Stressful Unpacking

Under the right circumstances, moving can be exciting.  It represents an opportunity to explore new places, to meet new people, to decorate our new surroundings to reflect our current tastes.  It can also be exhausting, expensive and emotionally overwhelming.  But it doesn't have to be.  Here are a few times on making the transition into your new home less stressful.

1. Take micro-steps.  It's true that the longest journey begins with a single step.  Sometimes it's simply to daunting to try to tackle all that "stuff" at one time.  Focus instead on emptying one box, or putting away three things.  Pick a goal that's easily attainable.  Who knows, you might find it so simple to put away three things, that you decided to put away three more, and three more after that.  But even if you don't, the fact that you've done anything, even just a little bit, will bring you that much closer to your goal of getting it all done.
2. Find a hidden staging area.  Being out of sight and out of mind isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Last week I had half-empty boxes open in every room in my house.  This weekend I decided to focus on just the living room and dining room.  I moved all of the boxes from these two rooms into the guest bedroom and shut the door.  Words can't describe how much better I feel already.  Sure, the things I moved still need to be dealt with, but not all at once.  And at least now I can enjoy the space that I've cleared.  I feel less overwhelmed and I'm reminded that I'm making progress.
   
3. Try to focus on one room at a time.  This ties in with #2.  Any task seems less daunting when it's divided up into smaller, more manageable pieces.
   
4. Create a place for everything and put everything in it's place.  Moving into a new home is the perfect time to design and build a new system for organizing your things.  Be creative and consider making your belongings work double-duty, i.e., rarely used suitcases can hold craft supplies or off-season clothing, moving boxes can be re-packed with seldom used items and placed out of the way, an empty bowl or ashtray can be the perfect landing spot for those house keys that always end up misplaced.
   
5. Remember that it's not too late to purge.  Just because you moved it doesn't mean you have to keep it.  If you have more stuff than you have space to store it, that's a pretty good sign that you have too much.  Consider re-gifting, selling or donating those items that you no longer need or want.  One man's trash might be another man's treasure.
   
6. Avoid the urge to buy everything at once.  It's natural to want to move into a new home and have everything look perfect right away.  Even if I had the money to purchase everything right away, I'm not sure I'd want to do that.  Sometimes it helps to sit on ideas for a while.  Sometimes better ideas come to mind, or you may change your mind altogether.  And sometimes, we need to allow our space to tell us what it wants.  When it's time to buy that rug, or the perfect piece of artwork, or that ideal reaching chair, you'll know it.  Until then, enjoy the journey.
   
7. Pace yourself.  Again, I can't stress this enough... even if you're moving under the best of circumstances, moving is still a stressful experience.  Don't feel the need to get everything done right away.  Avoid the temptation to push yourself hard to get it all done yesterday.  Even if it doesn't feel like it, chances are that you've accomplished a lot more than you think you have.  Give yourself a break.  You deserve it.
   

Expect the unexpected when updating the kitchen

From the first moment I saw my new kitchen, I knew the outdated white and black ceramic tiles on the backsplash were going to have to go.  I'm sure they were all the rage in their day, but considering that I hadn't even been born then, I don't feel the least bit guilty about letting them go.

After picking the most beautiful glass mosaic tiles for my new backsplash, I did my research online and then took a few classes on tiling and kitchen remodeling at Home Depot.  I found my hammer and I bought a new chisel.  I was ready to get started.  I knew there was a slight chance that I'd do some damage to the plaster, particularly when I first started removing the tiles.  That's okay.  I've spackled before, and I actually enjoy it.  So I was prepared.  Or so I thought.

Imagine my utter horror after my first hour or so of banging on my wall and removing some sort of homemade "patch" when I uncovered this:

My surprise at finding that metal boxey-thing there just above the backsplash wasn't too bad.  But what  was bad, was realizing that the reason the tiles weren't "popping off" as I'd been told they would, was because they had been adhered to the wall in 1-1/2 inches of concrete!  Yes, that's right, I did say concrete.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at this.

The original backsplash is gone now, concrete mortar and all.  It was time-consuming, but  "MG" (my guy) was kind enough to bang the sh** out of the walls for a few hours on Saturday night.  Not a very romantic date, I know, but it made my life so much easier.

My handyman (not to be confused with my man who's handy) then came in and removed the wire mesh that held the concrete in place between the studs, repaired the plaster around the edges, and installed Hardieboard on the backsplash.  Now I'm ready to install my beautiful new tiles.  Once I finish scraping and re-painting the cabinets, that is.  That's a post for another day.

Renovations take time

I wonder if I can sue DIY or HGTV for the misleading slant of their home improvement shows.  The good news is that they're very empowering, convincing home owners that they can take charge of their own home renovations and/or beautification projects.  The bad news is that they never give you a reasonable estimate of how long the project will take.  If only it was possible to renovate a kitchen over the course of a 30-minute TV episode.  It took me longer than that to figure out how to put a blade in my new utility knife.  And they make painting look so quick and easy.  Have you noticed that they always show one-coat coverage?  Outside of reality TV land, there's no such thing.  And of course you never see how much time, energy and effort goes into preparing the surfaces for paint.  I wonder how many 30-minute segments it would take to show scraping 3 layers of paint off of an entire set of kitchen cabinets BEFORE I can even prime them!

Do I sound like I'm complaining?  I guess I am, a little.  Don't get me wrong, things are going well... just not as quickly as I'd hoped.. After all, it's been 2 weeks and nothing's finished yet!  (OK, so I'm being a little sarcastic here).  I'm tired, and achy, and bruised from tripping over boxes.  I'm sick of eating fast food because I don't have a refrigerator.  As if that wasn't enough, I think I'm having an allergic reaction to all the dust I've unearthed.  So, I took a break last night, and another one tonight.  Now that I'm feeling better, I'll be back in the work boots tomorrow.  I'll post some pictures soon.

A funny thing about dirt

I enjoy gardening.  Digging around in the dirt doesn't bother me at all.  As long as I have gloves on.  The dirt is okay, it's the bugs that make my skin crawl.  But today was the day to start deep cleaning the kitchen.  I swear the kitchen has got to be the dirtiest room in a house, and you never know how filthy it is until it's completely empty.

The pantry was disgusting. The walls and shelves had lots of dirt, but also some dark brown drippy stuff that looked like watered down molassas.  I was armed with industrial cleaning gloves, 409, plastic goggles and one of those white face masks that covers your mouth and nose (no kidding!), but I still felt like I needed a HAZMAT suit.  For some reason that I don't quite understand, dirt in a kitchen seems much dirtier than dirt in the back  yard.  Glad that job is done!

Every girl needs a handyman

I met my new handyman today and he is a keeper.  He spent most of the day with me, discussing the things I need and/or want to have done around the house, providing very helpful suggestions, telling me which things I can do myself (to save money) and providing estimates on an item by item basis.  I felt no pressure, and he assured me that we could do the work at my own pace (in other words, when I could afford it).

He realized that it's important to me to do as much of the work as I can and interestingly, rather than feeling like I'd "sold out" by reaching out to a handyman, I actually felt empowered.  He was very honest about the things that I could do myself, he offered to teach me how to do the things that I really want to do that I'm not so sure about, and he confirmed that if I ever found myself in over my head on a project (like the 2" concrete mortar behind my backsplash tiles), that he was always just a phone call away.

My biggest worry, after realizing that I will indeed get the concrete off the wall, was what to do about the existing countertop.  It never occurred to me that the company that installed the new countertop wouldn't remove and discard the existing one.  Well, that's not entirely true, they will take care of it, for a nominal fee of $7.00 per linear foot.  I think not.  In less than 15 minutes, Jim had the entire countertop off and out in the back yard, ready to be disposed of... and for much less than the installers would have charged.  And, as an added bonus, he gave me some tips on getting the rest of the backsplash tiles off.

So... no matter how much of a DIY Diva you are, it always helps to have a handyman handy, waiting in the wings, just in case you need him.

An uninvited squatter

There's a very large, very old garage/workshop in the back yard that needs to come down as soon as I can afford to have it demolished.  I've already started planning for a beautiful outdoor room in that space.  However,  yesterday I realized  that someone (or something) has other plans for that space.

The groundhog in the movie, "Groundhog Day" was kind of cute.  The groundhog living in my garage is not.  I haven't gotten a good look at him yet, but I've seen enough to know that I don't want to ever see him again.  Call me mean and insensitive, but he has got to go.  Where are those PETA people when you need them?

Closing day

I thought I'd be anxious, or worried, or second-guessing whether this was the right decision.  After all, it's a major investment, I'm doing this alone, and there's no such thing as "job security" anymore.  But I haven't doubted this decision once, and today is not the day to start.  From the beginning this decision has been confirmed time and time again, I've had one "divine appointment" after another, and there isn't a single doubt in my mind that this is my time to buy this particular house. 

Now, my focus is on transforming this house into the home it's meant to be, not for me personally, but so it can be a place of peace, comfort, strength and inspiration to allow me to finally commit fully to the life work that God has planned for me.  I know that I will be hosting knitting ministries and other women's group meetings there.  I know that I will write there.  I know that I will share love, faith and fellowship there.  I'm ready to start this new journey. 

Check your Settlement Statement closely (Part 2)

I feel vindicated.  As I posted last night, I spent quite a bit of time reviewing the Settlement Statement for closing tomorrow.  I had several questions that I was very concerned about.  It took some "pushing", but I was able to get the settlement agent to investigate my concern, and the bottom line was that I was right, reducing my cost by more than $300.  I was also correct in noting that the 2-10 Homeowner's Warranty that the seller had agreed to pay was not included in the Settlement Statement.  That was added today, a value of nearly $400.

Considering that the experts had reviewed the documents several times, and the same documents were also reviewed by the seller's attorney, I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I was able to find two discrepancies that everyone else missed.  I'll be the first to admit that the documents are daunting and the dollar amounts are intimidating, but please, do yourself a favor and take the time to make sure you understand what you're signing.  And remember, making sure that the math is correct is the easy part.  Anybody who knows how to use a calculator can do that.  But, it's possible for the math to be correct even though the logic is faulty.  And if the logic is faulty, the numbers aren't right.  If you believe in your gut that something's not right, there's a really good chance that it isn't.  Don't give up until you feel your questions have been answered.