Keep Smiling: Move-In Day + Settling In

July 21 was move-in day! [Remember, we moved to Hawaii on June 7...] I didn't even care that it was a very early morning and Dan had to work. I was so excited for the arrival of our household goods. Prior to moving in, I had heard horror stories of other military move-in experiences - the unloading process itself, plus the fact that goods are often damaged and/or missing. I have to say, that God is good! Our move-in day went smoothly. The local moving company was great and the crew worked extremely efficiently. All of our household goods arrived safely, and nothing was broken beyond repair. [Almost every piece of furniture was somehow slightly damaged - with a gouge or dent or scratch - but everything can be fixed]. Overall, our first PCS (gotta love the military acronyms. PCS stands for permanent change of station) was a success.

Pictured above is the first truck, housing 6 wooden crates filled with boxes. Our total shipment, however, consisted of 11 wooden crates plus a couch box. It required two full truckloads to deliver the shipment.

I was feeling great after the first truck was unloaded. As the movers unloaded the truck and called out the numbers, I kept track of the boxes on the inventory sheet. Taking inventory is an important part of the military move. After everything was off the truck, we quickly sorted what boxes went inside and which ones could stay in the garage. Again, the movers were so efficient and this process seemed to move very quickly. As I said, I was feeling great after the first truck was unloaded. Boxes were in their designated rooms in the house, and I even started to unpack a few while the movers were still working. I thought the amount of stuff we had was completely manageable.

...then the second truck pulled up. At that point, I was completely overwhelmed and quickly realized we had way too much stuff. There's just two of us. How did we accumulate so much stuff in less than 3 years of marriage? Prior to moving from Erie, I thought we had done a thorough job getting rid of stuff and condensing everything. Plus, my parents stored a lot at their house.

Well, I think part of the problem was how the Erie movers had packed us. They were extremely thorough, which meant there may have been just 5 items in a huge box, but tons of moving paper! So, all of our stuff was "spread out" among all of the boxes. Plus, although our new home has one more bedroom than we had in Erie, the square footage is smaller. So initially, the boxes completely filled and overwhelmed the space.

At first, we left a lot of furniture in the garage, figuring we could always bring it up later, after I got the boxes unpacked/out of the way. In addition, as we unpacked, we added things to to the huge "donate" box that we set up in the middle of the house. There was no sense unpacking and putting away things that we didn't need/want.

After the movers left, I wanted to start in the kitchen, but the boxes were huge and stacked much higher than I could reach. Somehow I got through them, though, and by the end of the move-in day, every kitchen box was emptied (not unpacked/put away, just emptied). My friend Jackie came over that evening to assess the situation and keep me company. I felt bad putting her to work, and truly just appreciated the visit.

To say that Sydney was excited to be reunited with her couch + armrests was an understatement. She quickly made herself comfortable while I unpacked the sea of boxes around her. Do you notice her in the picture below?

Since our master bedroom is significantly smaller than our room in Erie, my large vanity dresser didn't fit in the room. I was sad at first, but I realized I didn't need the drawer space (since our closet has built-in shelving) and it's perfect for the guest room when we have visitors stay.

I was so happy to unpack my Snow & Graham calendar and hung it up as soon as I took it out of the box! It was the first official thing on the walls.

As I mentioned before, when the movers came to pack us up in Erie, we had an entire boxed labeled "paper towels" in our garage. Knowing the movers would pack up everything and also knowing the cost of everyday household goods was significantly cheaper in Erie than in Hawaii, we stocked up on a few essentials. We definitely felt like mini-hoarders at the time, but when we opened the box, we had to laugh. We were thankful to have a piece of Wegmans with us. Oh, how we miss grocery shopping there!

Making progress...

After a couple days, just about every box was unpacked. I was on a "nesting" roll. I don't think I left the house much, and just continued to push through. And one evening, while Dan was at work, I hung all of our pictures on the wall. It's amazing how something so simple makes such a difference. The place was definitely starting to feel like home.

On Dan's first day off after moving in, he got to work and assembled the grill my parents had given him as an early birthday gift. They had it sent to us in Erie so the movers would pack it with the rest of our stuff, but we didn't open the box there. This was the first time we not only had space for a grill, but we also have a decent fenced in yard for Sydney. Exciting!

The assembly was a success and that evening, we enjoyed our first home-cooked meal in Hawaii! Since then, we try to grill as much as possible. After all, it's summer, BBQ weather year round.