The New House: Our Limbo Is Finally Over!

We have been in our new home for just over a month now.  If you stopped seeing me at regular events as well as not see a peep out of me on A Mom's Musings... this is why!  We started packing up our belongings in our apartment in March on top of taking care of 3 kids who feel like 5 kids, so this brings me to the rest of the story...

The morning of April 8th, we had our final walk-through.  During the walk-through, the builder representative asked us when we planned to move in, my reply was, “Do you see that moving truck out there?”

A 28-foot Uhaul truck we stuffed with unfortunately just most of what was in our not-missed 3-bedroom apartment was sitting there glaringly in our new neighborhood.  At that time we had moved out of our apartment into a basic motel for 5 days.  The rest of our stuff sat in a friend-family’s garage.
“Yes," was the representative's reply.
“That’s ours.”

The sales representative (who we were in constant touch with), builder, design center consultant were knowledgeable and pleasant to work with.  If you need to have your home built, check out Standard Pacific Homes and they’ll take good care of you. I don’t work for them but I can vouch for them based on our experience with them.

Our realtor, Sarah Suftin, was efficient, too.  As expected and to our satisfaction, we had an inventory of houses to visit throughout Austin and some out west in Dripping Springs (A.K.A. "To the west of Weird").  

With Sarah's guidance back in September, we zeroed in on the floor plan of our new home because it had two bedrooms on the main floor- the master bedroom and an extra bedroom.  We felt the floor plan was appropriate for Orion since he has mild osteopetrosis, a.k.a. marble bones (thick brittle bones). His being Deafblind makes him prone to accidents, thus broken bones, once he’s more mobile... --->I can go on; this is mom worrying!  We didn’t want him needing to use the stairs.  Sure, he can go upstairs to his siblings’ bedroom and other areas, but everything he will need is on one level.  I totally can relate to those of you who moved or want to move to a new home to accommodate for your children's needs.  (We have been extremely fortunate enough to do this on top of moving halfway across the country to access appropriate education and resources for all three of our kids.) For now he still co-sleeps with us or sleeps in the crib in our bedroom.  His room is simply his FUN playroom with a guest bed for grandparents and visiting friends. (Of course, not all at once!)

My parents also flew in to spend time with us, the kids and helped us pack and clean the apartment, provided logistical support when it came to picking up Orion and helped out at the new house.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

The plan for Orion's room is to have everything set up in their "forever" spaces so when Orion seeks, he shall find.  Note the wind chime on the doorknob,  jumper hanging in the closet doorway and Falkor supervising.

There's so much more space here than the apartment. Orion seems to be relishing in it along with the rest of us!  He continues to make progress especially in scooting around on his back in his new play room, finding things to touch and explore further.  Lately, when we pull him up into a seated position, we're seeing him tucking his chin into his chest.  An itty-bitty milestone for any kid but a HUGE one for Orion!

The difficult part of this was that it felt like forever waiting for the home to be built. Just like any other customer, I'm sure! We frequently drove 12 minutes south from our apartment to check out and delight in the progress.  Our home was ready on April 8th.  We were finally going to be able to let our guts out a little by a few belt notches after the apartment.  The apartment management found creative ways to charge us way beyond our $500 refundable deposit.  The comfort and space of our new home takes some of the sting out of the move-out checklist fiasco. (Always take pictures at move-in and move-out! For your own defense and/or remind you of how things were before move-in.)  I'm not going to give them the pleasure of 'negative publicity is still publicity'.

A month into our new home, we’re still dealing with unpacking the consequences of our materialism. Packing will remind you of how much you don’t need!  I have to say we did have two yard sales as well as listed items on Craigslist and FreeCycle before we moved.  Clearly, we have to consider doing some more here in Austin!  If you took a peek in our clogged garage/unpacking area, you'd think Santa Claus lived here when it's not Christmas.  We usually go all out with holiday lights every year.  We look forward to doing that on our new home.  The City of Austin (utility) will be so happy with the extra revenues flowing in from our address. 

Now for the biggest, overwhelming item on our family agenda: Our backyard.  It's an empty dirt canvas with weeds sprouting up into an organic Jackson Pollock.  A river runs through it diagonally when it rains like heck. The ideas are childrens’ (and adults’) dreams yet to be realized, funds yet to be depleted, priorities yet to be tested, swings yet to be hung, accessible playhouse yet to be built, kiddie pool yet to be inflated and splashed in, kitchen (and sensory) garden yet to be planted....  Yet to be enjoyed fully by family and friends.

A special shout out from us to realtor Glen Sutcliffe, for his help in selling our old home in Glenn Dale, Maryland back in July 2012.  We got the "right offer" in under a week's time on the market!  

I'll be back very soon with yet another A Mom's Musings post.

The day is finally here.  This is while all 3 kids were in school.  I kid you not when I say the truck was fully loaded, front to back, bottom to top with two extra boxes on the passenger seat.  Orion's resonance board (flat, 4' x 4' wood square) barely fit in on top of all the stuff back there!