Hi guys!

Well, the packing, hauling, carrying and backaches are over -- we are ALL MOVED IN!! And now that I'm looking at all our boxes of STUFF littered around the house, I keep wondering: "How on earth did we ever fit into our tiny apartment?" I swear someone stuffed our moving boxes en route -- we are just two people plus two dogs...

But anyway, now starts the fun part: UNPACKING! It's going to be a little slow for us as we paint rooms and then populate them. Plus, while we do have a lot of stuff (bikes, kayaks, skis, do you see a pattern here? ok, so maybe there are some shoes in there too...) we don't actually have much furniture. I guess you could make a bench out of the skis and scoot the kayak in the middle of a room for a table.... But I think that's part of the fun of creating your own home, right? YOU pay the bills, so YOU get to design your digs. I'm getting used to this idea....

I also wanted to share a couple of tips/lessons learned from our move into the new house. Some of them may seem obvious, but trust me; you will likely be so excited that you may forget the obvious (at least I did, ha!):

1. If at all possible, move boxes and furniture into the rooms you intend those things to eventually go. This will save you hours and bottles of Aleve, especially if you're like me and often find yourself unpacking and arranging things on your own. (Note: The Huz is a HUGE help, but he's been busy finishing the fence and organizing the garage, so I'm happy to take on the organizing and decorating.)

2. Create one room that is "done." Most of us won't be moving into a home that has nothing to fix or change -- you will want a place you can go to get away from all the paint cans, random ladders, missing light fixtures, etc. I made our bedroom the "done room," but yours may be somewhere else.

3. Understand that you will find additional issues/things to fix, and don't freak out; your to-do priority list will change as you settle in, and not everything can get done in the first month, or even year, that you are there. Example: I gave one of our dogs a bath in the guest room shower last night, only to realize that what I thought was a decent shower head was actually a piece of junk. A little duct tape took care of that for the time being, and a new, extendable showerhead is on the Home Depot list for this weekend; off goes the cute soap dispenser I've been eyeing.

4. Take a deep breath, realize that this is YOUR home. It's all yours, every inch of it. (Well, actually, the bank technically owns most of it, but whatever.) AND NOW ENJOY IT!

I've received some great questions from you guys, but while I work on answering them (and then posting them here), check out some recent pics of the move and the house:

Our living room on Moving Day #2

The backyard is coming together -- however as you can see, a hammock is more of a priority for me than filler bushes :) LOVE THAT NEW FENCE!

The sitting room (just off the kitchen).

Tucker hanging out -- note the giant air compressor that goes with our indoor lawnchairs....

Drowning in cardboard boxes,

Shanti