On getting the heck outta dodge

Moving houses has sucked the life out of me these past few weeks. I am now coughing and achy, but starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, sentence three will contain no analogies or metaphors. Although I am an anemic version of myself these days, things are looking good for the Walker clan. The new Houston house suits us fine, except for the poor neglected pair of exiled [edited by my husband for tact, use your imagination based on knowledge of this fact -- there is SERIOUS canine noise polution very nearby to our bedroom] On the plus side, this house has an awesome master shower with great water pressure, is specially insulated so that our electricity bills will be that much cheaper, and a fab Wolf 6 burner range with griddle. So it's not slummin'! :)

I really enjoyed some DIY projects these past few days. First there was repainting Paige's minty-bright green walls a calmer shade -- Elephant's Breath by Farrow & Ball. Then I had several deft little hands help me sand a few pieces of furniture from Grace Hart. Then there's the Eiffel Tower for Ev's room. Graham and I spied it in a GAP store window, and when the display was taken down, we asked if we could have it. Yes! It is just a foamboard image, so I spruced it up with some twinkling lights from Target, star-shaped confetti, glitter glue, birds and roses. Evelyn helped with the spark-tacular decorating and we are very very pleased with the results. For more on what I did in her room, see my pics on Facebook.

Oh yeah, this post was going to be about the Del Monte house...When we bought it it had fabulous finish-out. Add to that the many little (and big) renovations we made, and I don't think there's anything that compares to the depth of detail in that place! I do not miss the cavernous spaces and formidable workload of the old house.

The whole place was a glowing gem when we left it. As my parting gift to the new owners (friends of ours) I got down on my hands and knees and waxed and buffed the wide-plank pecan floors. I imagined, as I buffed, that I should take a picture of the room, all clean and empty, and then flash to a video of Christmas morning. Would have been a good little project, except before I could do that, the floors were covered in craft paper to protect them while the new owners had work done upstairs. Oh well, one less You Tube upload by me. Got it down pretty well in my mind's eye anyway.

As a family, we walked around it to say goodbye one night last week, and I was surprisingly unemotional. We talked about all the great things that happened in each room as we said goodbye floor by floor, room by room. Even the staircase, steeped in bedtime and Christmas memories, was honored. Evelyn showed her typical flair and flung her arms wide, "Goodbye HOUSE! Goodbye room!" Al was very emotional, saying he'd always imagined our children growing into their teens there. Maybe me too, but since we moved so much as kids, maybe I am more resilient and I've already adjusted to a new future. A new future involving beaches, horses, fresh air...and our Houston friends and family, too.