A very short update this week. We survived. We’re all moved in – or rather, all our boxes and belongings are here – and are slowly unpacking. The cats are naturally very stressed at the changes, but are exploring their new domain bit-by-bit. The internet is set up (I waited until day two, hah). As I’m sure you guessed, we didn’t manage to paint the whole house in four days. It was an extremely ambitious timeline. That said we did manage to repair all the dings and holes in every wall in the house, sand the dried mud, paint the bedroom, the hallway, the primary bathroom, the kitchen, the living room and the entry hallway.
We did also manage to put a single coat of paint on all the ceilings upstairs. The popcorn ceilings. Whoever invented popcorn ceilings should be consigned to a special level of hell where they’re cursed to paint popcorn ceilings until the end of days. I feel very strongly about popcorn ceilings, as you can tell. Not only are they ugly, I now know they’re also a nightmare to paint. Anyhow, we shall persevere and put a second coat on the ceilings at some point.
Remaining painting work includes half the downstairs office (half was painted in an accent colour – Sherwin Williams Smoky Blue), the downstairs hall, downstairs bathroom and living room. All the trim – sans air registers – and doors need to be repainted. There are also a few touch-ups needed upstairs, particularly in the main bath where I also have drywall repair to do around the shower. The plumber had to replace the entire valve on the shower, which required cutting into the wall. Speaking of plumbing, that was all replaced in a day. The joys of unfinished ceilings downstairs. Imagine trying to replace all the plumbing in a brick-and-mortared South African house?!
The day of the move itself went really smoothly thanks to the loan of a van by Cami (thank you!!) plus the assistance on the day of Josh and his son Spencer (you guys are the best) for some heavy lifting and trailering of stuff that wouldn’t fit in the van or the Mazda. We are honestly blessed by the community we’ve lucked into, and we couldn’t be more grateful for all the advice, kind words, and housewarming gifts (thank you Margaret and Bobby) we’ve received up to, during and after the move. Thank you to you all.
Tomorrow we’ll do some more unpacking, (re)installing of light fittings, installation of new blinds, and then finally some relaxing. I feel we’ve earned a little bit of quiet time. And we both need some time to appreciate how cool it is we have a new home in our new home.