On the first weekend in April, we gathered friends from church to help us move to our new temporary home in preparation for our Service Adventure Term. We couldn’t stay in our apartment, thanks to things like increased monthly rent for shorter lease length. Thankfully we have friends who live on the same side of town as the Unit House and have an upstairs we can rent for the next 3.5 months.
We downsized from a 2 bed/2 bath 1 car garage to a 1 bed/1 bath no garage and a shared entry space. Thankfully, we have a village, a community surrounding us in this time so we are not doing this alone. Much of the furniture we can’t take to our temporary house or the unit house is going to stay at a friend’s house. They have enough extra space to store the things we can’t use right now and I am so grateful.
Our boxes and my husband’s vinyl collection are going to a storage unit for the next 2 years, the minimum commitment for our Service Adventure term.
Since moving into our new home, Asher has made himself quite at home with our friends. He loves playing with the little girls downstairs and following the husband around as he works on their property. In fact, the girls love to inquire if Asher can spend the night down in their room. He slept in their room when we traveled back to Texas in March and they seem to have grown fond of him being with them. We’ve also set up some boundaries so they girls know when Asher can come down and when he just needs to be upstairs. To see my generally anxious dog, feel right at home with our friends is comforting.
The kitties, on the other hand, have not ventured downstairs as much I thought they would. It helps that the gate we bought for the top of the stairs doesn’t allow them to slip through the slats. But on the rare occasion I do see them downstairs, it is when it is most quiet & the gate has been left open. Shade has taken a liking to the oldest daughter and will even let her hold him. Huey will roam but quickly returns to the sanctuary of the upstairs where it is quiet and he doesn’t have to worry about noises or people.
When moving, I unpack the kitchen first. I’ve moved so many times in our (almost) 15 year marriage that I have learned to feeling settled in a space you need a kitchen unpacked and set up for the most basic of meals. Or in my case, I just need to be able to make coffee. The next room is always the bathroom, besides a place to sleep which if we are honest can be messy for a little while, we need to function in the bathroom; i.e., know where the towels are, be able to get ready for the day, and so on. As well as be able to come home, find our food and prepare it so we can wind down.
Our kitchen in this new temporary place is actually larger than our last kitchen, it feels like a whole room and not a small sliver of space. We’ve had an open floor plan for so long, I have to admit I like having the kitchen be its own separate space. I can listen to music while I cook and clean and Travis can be in the living room watching the news and neither one of us is bothered by the noise of the other.
Our bathroom is joined with the laundry room, for everyone in the house. And because it too is larger than our last bathroom and since we don’t have a better place, it is where the litter box is and where the pets water bucket stays. The cats crate fits behind the door and we keep their food bowls on top of that, we are trying to be as creative as we can with the space given to us.
And because this upstairs is not cornered off to only one direction, we get various amounts of light throughout the day. Which means I can have plants in nearly all the rooms, because of the amazing ambient light we get. There are south windows in the living room, west windows in the kitchen & bathroom, north windows in the bathroom, and an east window in our bedroom.
The living room might be my favorite room to hang out in during the middle of the day; the bright ambient sunlight, the view of the mountains, and the new to us loveseat which is the perfect size for me to sit and work from. We are using our trunk as a footstool/ottoman and I really love the simplicity of the space. It helps that I got 90% of the boxes flat and put in the closet so we aren’t feeling like transients.
You may have noticed by now, I haven’t mentioned our bedroom much. That is true. It is small. Enough for our bed and a dresser, not much else. But it is enough for us to rest at the end of each day. It has an east window like I said, and a generous closet. We are grateful for the space we have and to spend time with our friends.
Almost every move we’ve done has been a sizing up, expanding because the amount of stuff we own keeps growing. Sizing down is scary. And incredibly rewarding. I love that we get to live with friends. The other day I worked from home and was able to have lunch with my friend and her girls. Asher played outside while we sat in the sunshine. I didn’t have to go far looking for someone to talk to or to hang out with a friend. She also let me borrow a cooking sheet a few nights ago when I decided I wanted to make mini pizzas but didn’t pack mine to bring to this house. I am looking forward to more impromptu time with my friend and her family, through this living arrangement.
Stylishly Shelby 