This might be the last post about the move, moving process, and new house. Or perhaps not. A completely new place to call home (which is actually a pretty OLD place with sneaky surprises, quirky noises, odd smells, and quaint uniqueness) impacts about every part of our lives at this point.
We’ve lived in our new house for 12 days. Our stuff has been here for 19 days but our bodies and a few suitcases, left after 4 days of living here, for a much needed, and previously planned and paid for vacation to Park City, Utah.
My mom invited her four children, and their families, to celebrate her 60th birthday by gathering in a place we’ve never been before with opportunities for connection and fun. Park City in late April was perfect. Surrounded by mountains on every side, bathed in 73 degree sunshine, spread out in an awesome condo, and playing, hot tubbing, and conversing with siblings we don’t see nearly enough, Park City was wonderful. We got to tour the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics sites and the Tabernacle. We shopped and wandered. My kids were loved on by aunts and uncles. Most of all, we celebrated my mom for her 60 years of life lived with love, deliberation, hospitality, conviction, hard work, strong traditions, deep faith, and so much service.
I loved being away from the new house chaos for a few days. Right before we left, things got a little exciting.
Literally, and I mean literally, right after I hit send on the previous post about how awesome our new house was two weeks ago, I heard a drip of water drop on the kitchen table next to my computer. I looked up and saw a giant yellowed stain on the ceiling. Best I could guess, there was water coming from the master bathroom somehow. We called the plumber who did some repairs for the seller in the inspection negotiations, and he came out by 7pm. He cut the kitchen ceiling drywall which drained a ceiling full of water onto the floor. He determined the problem to be a faulty faucet in the tub upstairs. He was able to fix it quite easily and left us very apologetically for the mess and hole. We were relieved the issue was resolved.
Tuesday, April 29th was Andi’s 6th birthday; we had some family over for Andi’s birthday dinner. I cooked in my kitchen for the first time! I was overjoyed to host 9 people around my kitchen table!
After dinner, Christine went up to check out Andi’s new Barbie dream house in it’s nook between her two closets. On her way to Andi’s room, she stopped and said, “Um, Lindsey or Drew, can you come up here?” We went up to discover a hole in wall at the top of the stairs. The story came out: Andi had tripped while running down the hall, spun, and fell which somehow sent her little elbow right through the wall! Drew and I shook our heads slowly and took a deep breath. Then, we crossed our fingers, got on airplanes, and really enjoyed Park City.
Arriving back, we focused in on some unpacking, projects, and people. It feels good to have some familiar things in place:
-my fridge is covered with pictures of people we love
-the family room floor is covered in balls, cars, books, and toys
-we have 4 squares of ice cream in our freezer
-Laura and I planted flower pots Friday afternoon
-we had a family dance party, complete with disco ball, Friday night.
We’re also experiencing all things new:
-I pulled out the tree-sized weeds from the garden on Tuesday (thanks to a surprise visit from Lauren Meystedt- a very appropriate blessing since I’ve now moved 1 block from her childhood house!), and planted seeds and small starter plants Saturday afternoon. I’ve never attempted to grow so much before. Now, it’s wait and see and hope and hopefully eat!
-the lawn mower has worked twice for Drew to mow the lawn! but elected not to work the other 3 times Drew has tried.
-we’ve met some new neighbors. The family to our left has two really sweet kids. The daughter, 13, came over to play Barbies with Andi and the son, 11, has 2 bike/scooter ramps. Eli’s heaven lives right next door- an older kid with an adventure apparatus! There were 5 kids in our front yard having a water fight yesterday afternoon. Good, clean, wet, fun.
-I do not have to stack 5 small plates on top of 8 big plates, in front of 3 bowls, when I unload the dishwasher. The cabinet space is so spacious. I’m loving it!
-Oaks can run in a circle around the first level of our house- being chased and giggling, he motors from the kitchen, through the dining room, to the living room, and wheels around through the entry way for lap 2.
-We have a play area in the basement where lots of toys and fun can live. The basement did NOT thrill me when we moved in here, but I’m enjoying and appreciating it more and more each day.
With so many great new blessings, and a few set backs, we are very grateful for our new house and excited to have people over soon!
Thankfully, no one was here Saturday night when we experienced just one more first: using a fire extinguisher to stop a kitchen fire.
Drew put nachos in the oven and then went outside to meet a couple new neighbors. I was in the kitchen working on salsa when I saw smoke in the oven. Holding Oakley, I peeked in and saw flames! I screamed, Oaks cried, and we ran to the front door. I yelled, “FIRE! DREW, FIRE!” He came running and I handed him the extinguisher we keep under our sink (something Drew got intentional about a year ago). One short shot and the flames were out. Smoke poured out of the oven and all over our house. The neighbor Drew left mid-conversation, was at the front door, making sure we didn’t need help. Eli was asking, “But do we still get to eat nachos?” We cleaned up white foamy mess and hustled to get dinner going again. We ate outside on the deck just before dark.
Adventures, woes, “Oh nos”, wins, “Yays!“, holes, floods, and fires…its all part of a little Osborne family homestead.
And its only been 19 days.
