Pack It Away

Oh, chaos. And mess.

Chris packing (in his University of Virginia shirt as he prepares to move to Maryland--we're such traitors!) The most valuable way that Charlotte can contribute is sleeping so we can pack.

Packing is in full swing at the Hofmann household! It’s totally chaotic and messy and (breathe in, breathe out) disorganized, but I’m trying to just accept it. After all, we close on the house tomorrow and MOVE on Wednesday! This is a happy time for us! To make moving into our house even more special, my in-laws arrive in DC tonight, and I can’t wait to introduce them to their newest little granddaughter. Chris’s folks will watch Charlotte tomorrow (thank goodness) while we take care of the very final walk-through at the house, followed by settlement at 11:00. Then we’ll rush home, load up both vehicles with the more fragile items we don’t want the movers to handle (namely Chris’s knives and my crystal and china) and some baby necessities, and then we’ll head to the house. My goal on Tuesday is to paint the walls against which big, heavy furniture will go BEFORE the movers haul it in on Wednesday (not the entirety of each room, just the necessary walls that will save me from having to move furniture in the future). This includes two walls in the bedroom (beige-ish tan), two walls in the family room (cream-ish beige—seriously, I’ve never painted so neutral before in my life, but these two rooms are huge and don’t lend themselves to bold color choices), and one wall in the office (celery green). I’m going to have all of Charlotte’s stuff dumped into the room across the hall from hers so I can paint the nursery without any furniture or boxes to trip over. And what color will I paint her room? You may recall a previous post where I swore up and down I’d paint it green because pink was a clichéd color for a baby girl’s room. Well, I’m a hypocrite. I cracked. I love pink. LOVE it. So who cares if everyone paints girls’ rooms pink? Maybe they do it because pink is such a fantastic color! Still, it took me a ridiculous amount of time to commit to a color. I stood in the paint aisle of Home Depot for 30 minutes, vacillating between the green paint chips and the pink ones. Chris was leaning toward green (but hey, he’s a dude) and I just loved the pink. I had brought Charlotte’s lady bug quilt with me to see which color worked best, and it was a total draw. Both green and pink looked fine. So I gazed down at my baby girl, clad in girlish pink, and threw away everything I knew about gender theory (one of these days Oxy is going to revoke my women’s studies degree), and I chose PINK. Anyhoo, on Wednesday—move-in day—the master plan is for Chris’s mom, Charlotte, and I to go to the house at the crack o’ dawn (with another carload of stuff) so we’re out of the movers’ way. Chris, his dad, and the movers will follow several hours later, which will give me some time to finish whatever painting is still pending. Then it’s time to unpack! Thursday will be a flurry of activity as well. The following people/things are being delivered: 1) garage door openers and installation, 2) washer and dryer from Sears, 3) security system folks, 4) Verizon for internet/phone, 5) Direct TV folks, and 6) delivery of the media cabinet from Costco. Chris has done an amazing job coordinating all of these obnoxious details, not to mention cancelling all our current providers, ending the lease, and so on. He just took care of all of it—and I’m so, so grateful. Now, back to packing, packing, packing . . . .