Moving Weekend!

We were thrilled to hear our shipping container arrived at the London port and cleared customs mid-week.  The big question had been, "When will your stuff arrive?".  We were told it could take up to 40 days.  It worked well to spend the first 10 days in St. Louis celebrating the holidays.  That took our minds off of the wait.  After spending a week and a half in the bed and breakfast, we were anxious to get settled in our new house.

Back in South Carolina, we had a moving company pack everything for us.  We actually had two moving companies and two trucks.  There was a shipping container for England and a moving truck with items to store in St. Louis.  I did my best to go through each room in the house and pull out things that were not necessary to bring to England.  Thankfully, my Grandmother in St. Louis has a large basement and is willing to let us use it for free storage!  I figured we could survive two years without things like china, appetizer plates, a card table and chairs, certain decorations, 12 purses and all of the kids' outgrown clothes.  Then it made me wonder, do I really NEED to keep these things since I won't use them for the next two years?  I did make several trips to Goodwill with donations before we moved, but there are some things I wanted to keep.  We also had to store most items that plug in since their outlets here are different.  A few things will work with an adapter.  We will have to purchase a new vacuum, toaster, blender, mixer, lamps, hair dryer and television just to mention a few. 

The shipping container at our house in South Carolina

We considered renting a house here that was furnished, but we didn't find one that fit our needs in the right location.  So we brought most of our furniture, all of the kids' toys and of course several of Eric's tools and things for the garage.  I truly thought we had cut back and brought just the minimum.  Ha!  When the shipping container arrived, it hardly fit on the street (which is not a big surprise here).  When the three men started unloading, they began making comments like, "You must have had a big house before this."  All was going well until they attempted to bring the box springs for the queen and full-size beds upstairs.  Our staircase turns after two steps, and there was no way those two box springs were going to make the turn and fit up the stairs.  The mattresses made it because they could squeeze and bend.  We were just laughing that we may have to set up our bedroom in the family room instead.  Eric considered cutting the box springs to make them fold in half.  He even went into work to borrow two saws.  It turns out, ours really will not bend even if we cut the wood due to the metal pieces.  No big deal.  We searched online and found that box springs are rare around here.  So we ordered new beds for Amelia and us.  It works out well because these will have 4 drawers for storage under them and no headboards.  The other nice thing is that our mattresses will fit in them!

There were 3 men unloading.  Boy did they work hard!

Totally blocked the neighbors driveway...nice way to meet, apologizing.  She was very nice.

We are No. 6!  I'm hoping I won't hit this sign as I back out since it's right at the edge of the driveway.

Eric "ticked" (checked) off each box as they unpacked.  Amelia and I stayed in the warm, cozy house.

Amelia was SO good all day.  She helped me unpack in the kitchen, and then she played with whatever we opened.  Dylan was at school until 3:00.  He was thrilled when he got home!

Who needs a kitchen table when you have boxes?

Lesson learned: we have too much stuff!  Our kids have entirely too many toys.  We own way too many mixing and serving bowls in the kitchen.  And, yes, I have too many coats and pairs of shoes.  Will it all fit in the new house?  It should all work out once we get a few wardrobes and some shelves delivered.  The one hall closet upstairs and one downstairs just isn't enough space for the vacuum, coats, extra linens, suitcases, etc. so we'll be storing quite a few things in the garage.  Eric also took down 4 doors in the house to make more space in the rooms.  There were doors into the kitchen, utility room, family room and office.  He stored those in the top rafters of the garage.  So we are getting there, but we still have a lot of boxes sitting around.  The packing paper has taken over at times. 

The playroom getting unpacked

I am slowly getting organized.  It is going to take us a little while to rid the house of boxes and packing paper, but I am trying not to overdo it.  We also do not have Internet at the new house yet, so I'll try to update the blog when I can.  Thanks again for all of your well wishes!