Friday, January 29, 2010

Getting Started (Baby Steps)


I finally got started on some moving stuff yesterday! A friend loaned me a really great little book called "Dress Your House for Success" by Martha Webb.


It's about staging your house to sell it. It really put me in the right mindset to get started (and hopefully I'll be a better client for our realtor, my sister-in-law Julia). I think I was a little like a deer in the headlights - I could see the move coming but didn't know what to do, I was frozen. In the back of my mind I knew if I didn't do something then it was going to hit me, but I just didn't know where to start!! But she breaks the process down in to bite size pieces. In the book Martha first discusses how emotional it can be to detach yourself from your house and to see it as a product or commodity and that was really helpful for me. That is such a hard thing for me to do. I think of it as our home. It's not just 4 walls and a roof, it's the place where my family LIVES, where we relax, where we sleep, where we laugh, where we hang out with our friends. It's toasty inside when it's snowing, it's a cool oasis when the summer sun is beating down. We live on Woodhaven Drive and I've always thought that was such a good name because our house is just that: a haven in the woods. We've lived in this house longer than any of our other homes and it is definitely hard to find the balance between packing up our not only our things, but also our memories, our lives (it makes me cry just writing about it and this is just the STUFF, just wait until I have to say goodbye actual PEOPLE!). So anyway, yesterday was a good step.

The first step is to "unclutter". This is gonna take me a while. I did 1/2 of the kitchen yesterday. I'm gonna try to finish it today and maybe I'll take some pictures while I'm at it (the junk drawer alone will probably take all afternoon!). The thing that I'm really enjoying about it is that it will make the packing and moving part alot easier. All our stuff will already have been sorted through and all the drawers and stuff will already be clean. I took everything out of the drawers and cupboards I went through yesterday, vacuumed them, wiped them down and replaced the drawer liners. Then I sorted through whatever was in them and got rid of stuff I didn't want or need anymore, packed the stuff I can live without until June and then put the rest back in - they look SO great! I also scrubbed the outside of the drawers and the inside and outside of the cupboard doors. I tried to pull out the oven to clean behind and underneath it but it was too heavy for me to move alone. I'll have Dave help me do it today, but I was hoping to do it without him here because I don't want him to see how gross it's gonna be back there. I've never pulled it out to clean before! I only clean as far under there as the vacuum attachment will reach! Yuck! (I won't take pictures of that one!)

Our living room is not really that big and we have a regular TV in there that sits on top of a wooden trunk. In order to make the room look more spacious I had the idea to replace the existing TV with a flat screen that we could hang on the wall (thus getting rid of the wooden trunk and creating more floor space). We had actually said we were not gonna take the TV with us and just get a flat screen when we arrive anyway. So when I called Dave at the fire station yesterday to tell him my idea of getting the flat screen now, instead of in Hawaii he pretended it was a horrible idea and there was NO WAY he would let me do it. But of course, what husband would actually say no to a flat screen? So I think we're gonna do a little shopping today as well.

So anyway, there's a little update on the progress I've made. If I take any pictures I'll edit this post and add them on tonight. See ya later!

erin


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

No News

Well, not much to say. Dave is still waiting for an official "start date". I don't really understand how all the DoD stuff works but I guess the delay has something to do with the base waiting for money from their new 2010 budget to be released and until it is there is a "hiring freeze". A friend of Dave's told him last week that all the DoD fire depts and police depts are in the same situation and that they are trying to get the "emergency services" exempt from the hiring freeze.

I feel pretty frustrated because I feel like there's alot of big stuff that I need to plan for that I just can't go ahead with until we have that time frame. So anyway, maybe this is my intro into getting used to "hawaiian time", but I just thought I'd let everyone know where we're at.

Believe me, I'll let you know more as soon as I do!

erin

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A Hanging Bed

I first saw one of these hanging beds on a porch in Charleston, SC when we were there 2 years ago and I just loved the idea! In Hawaii most homes have a large covered porch called a lanai. So when we get there, I want Dave to build one of these on the lanai. Some are kind of like a day bed and some are just a flat mattress on a wooden platform. I like both but I think the day bed style is better for reading and for visiting with people. Some of these pictures are actually in a regular bedroom, not just a lanai, but I don't think I'd like one for my regular bed - I wouldn't like my bed to swing everytime I move. But they sure do look relaxing and fun!





So make your plans now to come visit us and we can sit out on the lanai and sip Mai-Tai's on the hanging bed!

erin



Friday, January 8, 2010

My dream car!!


My dream car. Maybe I'll get one of these in Hawaii.

Monday, January 4, 2010

thoughts on why people live where they live


This morning I've been thinking about why people live where they live. People seem so surprised and excited when we tell them we are moving to Hawaii. And I was contrasting what I woke up to here (in CO) this morning with what I'll wake up to when we live in Hawaii - snow on the ground, pine trees frosty white, cold house until the fireplace gets going...vs...warm all the time, surrounded by green, green, green.

I was thinking about how most places in the continental US are cold in the winter and that's where everybody lives. And we all save our money for a vacation to go someplace warm every few years or so. And even then, there are two kinds of trips people take: they either choose a beautiful, warm, relaxing getaway....or they go visit family. Dave calls this the difference between a "trip" and a "vacation". So if you only get to fly away somewhere once a year or even once every few years that means that some of those trips aren't gonna be "vacations", some will be "trips" - making "vacations" even more few and far between.

So if we can all choose to live where we want, why do so many of us live somewhere cold and only vacation to the warm places we dream about every few years? Why don't more people LIVE where it's nice all the time and go VISIT the cold places on vacation? Maybe it's because the majority of the country is cold in the winter and if EVERYONE decided to live somewhere warm there would be no room for everyone. And I know alot of people will say that they like having 4-seasons (which I do think I will miss). But I still think it's funny how many people tell us that they have always dreamed of living in Hawaii and yet they live here - where it's barely been above freezing for the last month.

This is a big change for us. One that requires alot of work and planning. Alot of excitement and alot of sad good-byes. But I am SO glad to be married to a man who sees life as an adventure to be lived. Who sees wonder in everything God created and is not afraid to live the life he dreams about. I saw a quote on shirt this weekend, it said, "Dream like you'll live forever. Live like you'll die today." I think whoever said that must know Dave. I get more excited about our move everyday and I can't wait for the new adventure that lies ahead!!