We made it!

Jack has taken to cheering whenever we pull into Nana's driveway: "Yay! We made it!" I guess I must've said that a few times after particularly horrible traffic, and it stuck in his head. Now it's stuck in mine, because after two long weeks that seemed like they would never end, we've made it. Mostly. There are still little piles of things that need to find homes (we haven't quite figured out our storage situation yet; is it possible there was actually more closet space upstairs?) and the kitchen is a whole story unto itself that we will save for another day, but we are out of the upstairs and more or less settled into the downstairs bedrooms and living room. Everything has a fresh coat of paint in new vivid colors and the many many tons of things we've accumulated and squirreled away into every nook and cranny of space we had over the past three years has been moved out, carried down, and, for the most part, put away. That almost makes it sound easy. It wasn't. Every night for the past two weeks we've worked from the moment we put Jack to bed until 1 or 2 or even 3 in the morning, only to get up the next morning, go to work, and do it all again. Kind of like having two full time jobs. First four nights of painting the downstairs, then two full days (and nights) of moving, then a couple of nights of continuing to move, and several more nights of patching holes and repainting the upstairs, not to mention days of wrangling plumbers and electricians and PG&E and more plumbers because of the various things that our old tenants neglected to tell us was wrong with the downstairs unit (like a gas leak??!) and that we neglected to ever fix in the upstairs unit that our new tenants generously offered to pay for (best tenants ever!) if we could just please fix them already. Are we crazy to be taking this on days before a wailing newborn joins our family? Perhaps. But better before than after, right? Life's about to get a whole lot crazier, I only hope we have a couple of days of reprieve before it does.

I did not take enough photos during this crazy time, so there's very little record of what an amazing transformation was pulled off in such record time. But here is the living room, before and after.

And here are the bedrooms (Jack's on top, ours below), which I failed to capture before the painting, but they were both just boring old white paint.

We could not have done it without incredible friends and neighbors who have been like family, coming to our rescue, stepping in where help was needed, whether that meant watching Jack or helping pack or helping paint (or helping prep for the paint, which is extremely unrewarding but very much appreciated) or moving giant heavy things or dropping off treats to gnosh on. Rebeccah and Justin win best all-around most-helpful-in-every-way award. I can't believe how wonderful they are. Daniel and Noah win best father-and-son tag-team award, Noah keeping Jack distracted so the rest of us could get things done, Daniel on a mission and unwilling to even take a break with us he was in such a zone. Alex wins angelic deliverer of quick-bread award; who knew the best thing to bring people who are moving is something they can eat with no preparation and no utensils? Brilliant! Becky wins best packing award, she raised efficiency to a whole new level. Alyssa's family wins my new favorite neighbors award, for entertaining Jack with a new friend for him (a little boy just his age named Luca). And Pukas and Claire and her boyfriend Joe (who barely even knows us, but came anyway, bless his heart) win best last-minute-emergency-painting rescue award, for not only answering their phones on a Friday night, but for giving that night up for a spur of the moment random act of kindness that carried us through our final night of painting. I wish I'd taken more photos of all these wonderful people helping us. This is one of the only ones I got, and it's awful. But also kind of great.

(Did we actually make that sweet little boy carry stuff down the stairs for us? You bet we did!)

Exciting finds of the move include:

1) my bag of lost maternity clothes; I thought I must've lent them out and not gotten them back, but they were in the back of my closet all along. So now I have a whole new wardrobe for the last... however many days of pregnancy. Today is actually my due date. But don't worry, nothing's happening yet.

2) the bassinet for new baby, whenever she does make her arrival. Jack seems excited to see it again, and is getting it ready for her.

3) pregnancy books that I'd forgotten I even owned, but that I can now give away to friends that are still pregnant for a little bit longer than me.

So that's it. We're done. And now I'm going to go to bed before midnight for the first time in I can't remember how long. Yay! We made it!