Spend the whole day in our new house, scrubbing walls, clearing cobwebs and generally imagining what the next several years of our life will look like.

We are excited to report the well-pump is working. We don’t know yet about the quality of the water (will need to have it tested), and since we haven’t yet purchased a hot water heater we also don’t have hot water yet.

But since we bought the place not even knowing if the well worked, well, we were pretty excited when that water came wooshing out.

That last paragraph as got to have the most Ws I’ve used in a long time. Especially noticeable since my keyboard’s not cooperating.

My kitchen cupboards are disapointing, but I’m praying for inspiration to make them a little less ugly, and I have a couple ideas not completely asked for.

The trick will be whether I can find what I’m looking for at a store– without too much wasted time looking.

The rest of the kitchen will be more fun; I picked a pinkish burgundy for the walls (a first for me) and we expect to buy a full fridge and just use our chest freezer for any frozen stuff.

The kids were thrilled at the chance to pick out the colors for their room (each contributed a shade and each will get to help paint his or her wall) and we plan to recycle the colors elsewhere in the house: sunshine yellow, sky blue, and lavender.

We just finished reading The Hobbit.

Melody’s first words on realizing this– she hasn’t been paying consistent attention, though she always begs for another chapter, even when it’s not bedtime– were, “Now! Let’s read it again!“

Jay and I took four kids out to the new house yesterday to take notes on measurements and the amount of work to do before we can move in.

Our timeline is pretty tight: Jay goes back to work with the new year, and we have just under a month to meet our goal of having the Princess house back on the market by January 25th.

Wondering now if we’ll modify that goal.

For starters I plan to make the walls in th new place a priority: washing, patching and painting, so I can hang stuff up as it comes out of the boxes.

The flooring needs to be redone in the kitchen, bathroom and library/pantry cabin, but at this point I expect to wait on that until the house is ready for market.

We’ll clean what we can and do a sort of fast-swap, where we bring over what we currently are using and set up house with that before we even start to mess with the stored boxes.

Once we’re out of this house we’ll change our cleaning energies back here, patch and pain the walls then have Lowes come through and replace the carpet.  We expect to leave this house partially staged, using the furniture that won’t come to the new house, and to put it up at a price lower than it is assessed at, with the goal of course to be done with the whole business as quick as possible.

The kitchen is as small as I thought, 2½ feet of counter space on either side of the sink, but we have a 4-ft set of shelves that we hope to set up there if possible.

Right now the house has a front porch that is rather charming to me.  Jay pointed out it would be perfect to enclose as an unheated arctic entry, and I can’t disagree with the logic of his observation, but I feel a little sad about it, since as old and weather-beaten as the exterior looks, the porch made it look nicer.

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Last minute (because of course, the clock stops for Christmas) e-mails flying back and forth to prepare for the closing Monday.

We have an appointment to close (write the check) Monday the 27th.

The question, that doesn’t make sense to me, is when we will be given the keys.

(Seems to me that coincides with the payment, but somehow that’s in question?)

Latest news:

The title search revealed two IRS liens on the property (against the previous owner, who was foreclosed on).  As things stand the IRS’s “option to redeem” expires about Christmas. At that point the land will be free and clear with no possibility of the rug being pulled from under us.

So naturally we’re back in waiting mode.

Three possiblities are now before us.

1. The seller could pay the liens, facilitating a quick closing
2. We could all wait until the liens expire, less than a month away.
3. The seller may withdraw from the contract

Considering the communication record with these sellers we have literally no idea when we’ll know which option is chosen for us.

They’re listed in the order we’d prefer.

On the upside, the kids and I drove by the place yesterday and the big berm left by the snow plow (that I was afraid would now be an ice-wall b/c of the freezing rain we had) has been plowed down.  The driveway/parking area still needs cleared of snow, but I like having a means of seeing how much attention the structures have been receiving.

None since the last big dump more than a week ago, and I prefer this.

Quick story:

Two women were out for coffee one day, and Sally was trying to get Mary to commit to a particular project two days away.  Mary hemmed and hawed, before finally admitting she was having emotional and health issues that left her with little energy for more than the basics.

“And sometimes I barely make the basics,” Mary confided.  “It was hard to even to get here today.”

Sally gripped her cup a bit tighter and asked Mary what she’d rather be doing.

Mary blushed, and asked Sally if she was done with her spoon.  Holding Sally’s spoon, and her own, Mary snagged a handful of spoons from an unbussed table nearby.

“Let me show you something.” Mary laid out the spoons in a row. Seven of them.

“This spoon is getting three children fed and out the door in time for school.  This spoon is getting to a meeting on time. And some days, like today I only have four spoons. And one of those was used up showering and getting ready for the day.”

“This is your way of saying you have a finite amount of energy,” said Sally, now understanding.

“And that I value you a great deal,” said Mary, “even if I couldn’t be here.”

I am currently very low on spoons.  I welcome your prayers.