The boxes are almost empty. The kids both have beds put together. The dogs have figured out which door to whine at to go out and which door to whine at for food. And even Doodle will tell you we are starting to get settled in our new house. As we have unwrapped our belongings and made this our home, I have been reminded of the darker side of moving. Those little things about new houses that drive you crazy. If you haven't moved often or recently, you may not understand these problems. If you have moved recently, I know you will understand completely!
I have two small children. And I will admit it, I like to peek on them when they are sleeping. This leads me to my first annoyance at new houses. Doorknobs!
Seems like a simple thing right. Turn it, and push open the door. Shouldn't be hard. But in a new to you house, you have to learn which way to turn the knob for the quietest entry. You have to figure out how loud the click is when you close the door. And, in my 70+ year old house, you have to learn which doors stick and make a huge noise when you open them. This is all problematic when trying to sneak into Doodle's room.
Speaking of sneaking in, my next annoyance is floor creeks.
We have hard wood floors covering almost the entirety of this old house. Every step you take has the potential to wake the dead. I am trying to learn the spots in the house where the floor creaks and groans, but it seems like there are more creaky spots than quiet ones. Not only is this knowledge important for my ability to sneak into my children's rooms, and to prevent the dogs from waking up with every step I take, but it is also necessary for knowing who is moving around in the house. I am easily creeped out and need to know where every sound is coming from.
My next complaints about settling into a new house have more to do with replacing out knowlege with new. What do I mean? Lets start with getting the water temperature just right for a shower!
I thought it was complicated to get the temperature right with a modern one handle facet gadget. This is impossible! And once I get just the right balance of hot and cold the temperature changes and I have to fiddle with both knobs again. It is really annoying.
Another task that functions much on auto pilot is loading the dishwasher.
It shoudl be easy! You shouldn't have to think about it and strategize for the job. But after you move, even loading the dishwasher takes brain power. They are all different. They all hold your dishes differently. It is a pain to figure out where the best places are for each item. Ugg!
Next up on the list is one that is proably more an issue for us southerns moving north. This my warm blooded friends is what I think is called a radiator.
I have no idea how to work the darn thing. I am creeped out by them. They are dust traps and spiders like them. I am sure someone will burn their hands on them. And let's face it, given my track record with hot objects, it will probably be me. I am really not looking forward to dealing with these demons in a few months. In my mind the worry of them being hot is a good reason not to allow SJ any tummy time which will delay her development and prevent her from crawling during radiator season! Neglectful? I call it over protective!
And my final annoyance at moving is one that everyone can relate to, but in this house it is compounded by the strange layout of the house. I have had to learn new naked zones! You know what I'm talking about. Admit it! Everyone knows how to get from their room or bathroom to the laundry room! Well, here is the problem in my house
The flower bucket to the right is hanging on my front door. The door at the top of the stairs is the bathroom that we use. Our bedroom door is right beside the bathroom. Making this even more problematic is that the front door has a storm door and in the mornings when he takes the pup-pups for a walk my Favoritest has a habit of not closing the door. I am often in the shower and when I leave the bathroom have to do a combo curse prayer. You know cursing him for leaving the door open and praying that no one is outside witnessing my quick dash to the bedroom.
Now I have shared my most annoying things about moving! I feel better! If I left any out feel free to share with me!
Posted with Blogsy
At our new place there is a gate that goes from the front garden to the back -- it banged shut so many times this morning in the wind that I decided that it really was okay to wake up at 4 am! We don't have two controls with one faucet, we have two dang faucets! A-NOY-ING!! We have broken our dishwasher twice already because no one told me that you had to reserve space for the special lid that descends once you close it! I can't believe that you don't have central heating! That's nuts but at least you have heating -- we have electric heaters that I have to worry about catching the house on fire at night AND AJ3 is learning to walk in his pack-n-play (totally overprotective!). No stairs here but a huge mirrored window into the front door that we can't see out but you can see in and you must take this route from shower to room (I take my clothes into the bath now :). We live in a house on stilts in the ring of fire and I now have this horrible fear of earthquakes when we all fall into the abyss of Avondale Spiders living under our house! Finally, the most annoying thing about living here, we have to move again by January because they are selling our house next week :) Misery does love company. All that being said, you should seriously check out a Steelers' game but leave Doodle home unless you want her to have a new vocab (I HATE the Steelers but in the north we take winter sports FOR REAL)!! Miss you!!
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