Moving and maintaining two households: an exercise in crazy-making
*This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase or sign up for a service/subscription, Double Wide Cottage may earn a percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you.
My father in law passed away back in October. Since then we've been paying the bills on our house as well as his, with the intention of moving into his house when it's livable. We call it the "Lake House." It really is out on the lake, but don't we sound pretentious? My twenty year old daughter is staying in our current house and commuting to Ole Miss for her final two years of college. She is more than ready for us to move out. :-)
I must have had selective amnesia about what a pain it is to move, especially when you've been living somewhere for a while, because I forgot how awful it was until we started doing the work, and we're still several months out.
We started working on it in earnest during early spring. We've cleaned, thrown away, and donated more stuff than I thought could possibly fit in one house. As of this weekend, we have finished painting enough that the flooring guy can come in and lay down the vinyl plank we picked out.
Flooring for the living/dining and master bedroom: Shaw Matrix LVP in Resort Teak
Flooring for the bathrooms: Shaw Matrix LVP in Asheville Pine
Because the bathrooms are done in much lighter and cooler colors, I thought gray would be better than a warm golden tone.
The worst part was washing and priming everything that needed paint. Twenty years of nicotine and tar did a number on the walls, ceilings, and fixtures. That also means all the window treatments had to be tossed. I've ordered the living room curtains, which I ADORE and think will look amazing with the dark green walls. Most of the color pops in the room will come from accents and decor. The walls are dark, and we're going with a charcoal gray on the seating (mostly).
The kitchen and two bedrooms still need to be painted, but the kitchen is really the only thing that needs to be done before we move in. It's going to be a pain in the ass before we move, and I don't even want to think about doing it after.
I was actually really sad to move when we first discussed it. I've spent years landscaping my yard and have so many plants, shrubs, and trees that I love. The more we do to the house, the more excited I get! With all the furniture out, it seems like a blank slate, even though it really isn't. When I moved into my house thirteen years ago, I was broke and on the verge of divorce, so I couldn't really furnish the house the way I wanted. I have the opportunity to essentially start over and edit my belongings thoughtfully. I won't, but the opportunity is there.
There's also a shitload of furniture at the Lake House that we had to prune, but we've wound up with most everything we need. Almost. I still have to get a new couch and two recliners. I'm also excited about this because my current couch is second hand and not really my favorite.
I think my favorite thing in the entire house is the powder room/guest bathroom. Well, the lighting anyway.
Honestly, we still have too much stuff. There's a whole shop that will take two years to organize and clean. The master closet is huge but needs a system installed. It absolutely will not work as it is now. I'm excited about the yard even if it means starting over, because I can transplant a lot of what's growing at my house now, and move around a few things that are growing there. The soil needs amending, and we have to cut down some very old trees that are threatening to fall on the house. Our largest expense to date has been replacing the outdated an inefficient HVAC system (hold me!). That one hurt a bit.
Of course, there's always the challenge of finding fixtures that fit in the remodeling and repair of a manufactured home. It will take time, and I hope we can hire out a lot of the more labor intensive work.
*Whenever I shop online, I make sure to use Rakuten/Ebates to get cash back at hundreds of sites. If you sign up via this link, we both get a rebate! Please see link for additional information.
My father in law passed away back in October. Since then we've been paying the bills on our house as well as his, with the intention of moving into his house when it's livable. We call it the "Lake House." It really is out on the lake, but don't we sound pretentious? My twenty year old daughter is staying in our current house and commuting to Ole Miss for her final two years of college. She is more than ready for us to move out. :-)
I must have had selective amnesia about what a pain it is to move, especially when you've been living somewhere for a while, because I forgot how awful it was until we started doing the work, and we're still several months out.
We started working on it in earnest during early spring. We've cleaned, thrown away, and donated more stuff than I thought could possibly fit in one house. As of this weekend, we have finished painting enough that the flooring guy can come in and lay down the vinyl plank we picked out.
Flooring for the living/dining and master bedroom: Shaw Matrix LVP in Resort Teak
Flooring for the bathrooms: Shaw Matrix LVP in Asheville Pine
Because the bathrooms are done in much lighter and cooler colors, I thought gray would be better than a warm golden tone.
The worst part was washing and priming everything that needed paint. Twenty years of nicotine and tar did a number on the walls, ceilings, and fixtures. That also means all the window treatments had to be tossed. I've ordered the living room curtains, which I ADORE and think will look amazing with the dark green walls. Most of the color pops in the room will come from accents and decor. The walls are dark, and we're going with a charcoal gray on the seating (mostly).
The kitchen and two bedrooms still need to be painted, but the kitchen is really the only thing that needs to be done before we move in. It's going to be a pain in the ass before we move, and I don't even want to think about doing it after.
I was actually really sad to move when we first discussed it. I've spent years landscaping my yard and have so many plants, shrubs, and trees that I love. The more we do to the house, the more excited I get! With all the furniture out, it seems like a blank slate, even though it really isn't. When I moved into my house thirteen years ago, I was broke and on the verge of divorce, so I couldn't really furnish the house the way I wanted. I have the opportunity to essentially start over and edit my belongings thoughtfully. I won't, but the opportunity is there.
There's also a shitload of furniture at the Lake House that we had to prune, but we've wound up with most everything we need. Almost. I still have to get a new couch and two recliners. I'm also excited about this because my current couch is second hand and not really my favorite.
I think my favorite thing in the entire house is the powder room/guest bathroom. Well, the lighting anyway.
Honestly, we still have too much stuff. There's a whole shop that will take two years to organize and clean. The master closet is huge but needs a system installed. It absolutely will not work as it is now. I'm excited about the yard even if it means starting over, because I can transplant a lot of what's growing at my house now, and move around a few things that are growing there. The soil needs amending, and we have to cut down some very old trees that are threatening to fall on the house. Our largest expense to date has been replacing the outdated an inefficient HVAC system (hold me!). That one hurt a bit.
Of course, there's always the challenge of finding fixtures that fit in the remodeling and repair of a manufactured home. It will take time, and I hope we can hire out a lot of the more labor intensive work.
*Whenever I shop online, I make sure to use Rakuten/Ebates to get cash back at hundreds of sites. If you sign up via this link, we both get a rebate! Please see link for additional information.
Comments
Post a Comment