It hasn’t even been two years, you say? Yeah, we know. And yet here we are, moving into a new house. Again. We don’t enjoy this, we promise, and this move was less enjoyable than most.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2017 challenge. Click on the photos for a closer look!

While we were buying this house, the sellers’ behavior was… odd. It seemed like they just weren’t interested in selling. We made them a deal that was easy to accept, and they waited until the 11th hour to accept it. They didn’t move their stuff around in the garage, so our inspector couldn’t get to the electrical panel. Even though they hadn’t lived here in months, it seemed like every time we stopped by there was more of their stuff.

We finally reached an agreement to buy the place, signed closing papers, and had our crew all set to help us move things over. We were set to get the keys at 9pm on a Friday, so we stopped by on Thursday afternoon to do a final walkthrough, and there they were. They asked for a few extra days, because the dad had been knocked out with the flu. Also, they asked if they could take the shed.

You know those awkward situations in parenting, when you have to seem like a jerk? When your kid asks you for something small, and it would be totally reasonable to help them out if it were just that thing? But you have to say “no, you can use the stool to reach that thing on the top shelf,” because they’ve been asking for little things all day long? This was one of those moments. We had our crew lined up, didn’t have a ton of time to be out of our other house, and they had just been pushing on us too much. And outbuildings are always sold with the property.

So 9pm on closing day came and went, and they were still loading their truck. We came by at 9am the next day, technically having owned the house and everything in it for 12 hours, and they were just arriving to take out their last load. I felt for them, but (a) they had accepted our offer 10 weeks ago, so their time management was their own problem, and (b) there were like eight people working, so one person getting the flu shouldn’t have stopped them. We ended up schlepping our stuff into the house at the same time they were hurking their stuff out of the garage.

But then it was finally ours! We began the long process of fixing the things that needed fixed, building IKEA furniture, laying rugs down over the 11-year-old gross carpet, calling in the drainage company to fix the standing water under the house, deftly maneuvering appliances into place, and finding the things we need right now in the sea of cardboard boxes in the garage.

We’ve started the long process of making it ours. Our nickname for this house while we were looking at houses was “Beige Manor,” because it’s light tan inside and out (even the ceilings!). Becky has a great sense of color, and chose her favorite shade of gray for the walls. Her dad offered to help us out with painting, and the progress he’s made in the few days he’s had to work on it has had a huge impact.

We’ve got a long road ahead, and we’re nowhere near comfortable yet, but we’re getting there.