Slow But Steady...

When the deal on our condo finally went through, I had hopes of being moved in by Christmas. I thought we’d be hosting a holiday party in our new space, and that I’d be baking my Cookie Bonanza treats in my new oven. I thought wrong.

This entire process is taking way longer than I anticipated, like some sort of tired home renovation cliché, but my sense of urgency, and my eagerness to be done with the process is mounting all the time. Last night, we hurried back from a somber day trip to Springfield for the memorial service of Justin’s granny, who passed away while I was in Italy in October, so that we could be at our new place bright and early to take advantage of Mom’s last day to help us before she has another surgery to reposition her insides after last year’s pelvic organ prolapsed correction failed.

Mom and Justin are still focusing on patching and priming the walls to be painted. I can only hope that whenever this process is complete, we can get the paint up relatively quickly, and be done with it. Mom is still working on painting the window wells in the kitchen/dining/living room, so that room isn’t done yet, though it’s still the room with the most progress made.

For my part, I worked on a number of small projects today. I put some artwork into frames, in the hope of finishing at least one task in a timely manner so I could obtain some small sense of accomplishment, but the mats didn’t fit into their designated frames, and required trimming. In a way, the task was emblematic of this whole moving process – everything looked okay at first appearance, I thought it would go quickly, and then it rapidly became more complicated and required far more time and frustration to complete than I would have expected.

I also worked on unpacking some boxes that had arrived in the mail this week, including a vase from Crate and Barrel, and some light fixtures. Finally, I managed to finish cleaning and sanitizing the interior of the freezer, which will hopefully bring an end to my weekends spent elbow-deep in bleach, at least until we’re done painting the bathrooms and I get to do some deep cleaning in there.

Overall, we’re chipping away at it. The slow progress is demoralizing to me, though Justin seems largely unaffected, and his positive outlook is helping to keep me sane. If I had to go through this process with anyone, I am so, so thankful that it is him. He brings balance to my life, when my impulse would be to freak out. It’s times like this that he truly is my better half.