I’m writing this blog post on Saturday, October 15, 2016. One week ago today we unloaded our PODs and officially moved into our house the following Tuesday. Life has been a whirlwind for 10 months but nothing (except for when we moved from Colorado) has been more exhausting than the last seven days. I injured my good knee running down the Mid-Mountain Trail so I’ve been hobbling around on two sore knees because the pace of unpacking and getting organized has been unrelenting. I’ve been too busy to be homesick for Denver and that is a good thing. In Utah’s mountains, September hits in glorious full force but by October, the fall colors are winding down and, though the temperatures are still mild in the 60s, winter is knocking on the door. October in Denver was my favorite month of the year and I’m trying not to think about it.
What I want to remember about this week:
Last Saturday.
We unloaded the PODs. We were so grateful to have several men from the Elder’s Quorum at church come help as well as friends and family. We took about two hours to unload and thanks to my friend Sarah and Jamie’s mom Linda, we were able to unpack the kitchen that afternoon. Having a mostly functional kitchen is my first step in feeling at home; Jamie’s is apparently hooking up the TVs because that’s how he spent most of his time. #Priorities.
Friends Lori and Robert come to help that afternoon and drive with Jamie to Park City to pickup our large farm table, only to realize it doesn’t fit through our front door. Yay. Need to either take off the door or remove the legs so it has been housed in our garage.
Bode has been missing our Denver life like crazy. We flew Hadley to Utah for Girl’s Camp last summer so she had an instant network of friends but Bode has been slower to make connections. My heart was so full to see neighborhood boys flock to our house to hang out…and they’ve continued to knock on our door every day to invite him to play.
Early evening, we drove back to Park City to sleep in the townhome for the next few nights. Bode and I hot-tubbed under the stars, a memorable wind-down to a memorable two months.
Sunday.
Drove back to Midway for church, enjoyed meeting a lot of new people at our ward’s “Linger Longer” after church with root beer floats and super friendly people. I looooove how inclusive our new ward is and we’re already making a lot of friends.
Day II of Operation Declutter the House. Our goal was to dig out the beds and find the sheets. Mostly successful but the amount of boxes everywhere was still overwhelming. Bunked in Park City. Hot-tubbed to soak our sore muscles, relishing every last drop.
Monday.
After driving to Midway and dropping off the kids for school, I spent the day unpacking our bedrooms, working with the Dish Network guy (who was from my mom’s hometown Raymond) and a gazillion other miscellaneous projects. Tried not to have a sore attitude about the Master Bedroom, the room I hate the most in the house (it’s so small we can’t fit both dressers and the closet is such a joke I have nowhere to put my shoes or laundry basket). Master plan once we finish the basement is for Bode and Hadley to move downstairs and we’ll knock out the closet into Bode’s current room to give us more space. My only consolation of the Master bedroom? This view.
We’d planned to move in by Wednesday but I announced to Jamie the house might be functional enough to sleep in by Tuesday night.
Tuesday.
Jamie drove the kids to school while I stayed at the townhome in Park City to finish packing and cleaning. What I thought would take a couple of hours took six and I was so exhausted by the end of it, that I rewarded myself with my mushroom bisque obsession from Cafe Zupas. And then unloaded and unpacked everything once I arrived at our house. Moving sucks!
I’ve missed the majority of Bode’s soccer season due to the insane amount of driving I’ve been doing but was delighted to take in his final game where his team won and he scored a hat trick. The advantage of missing competitive try-outs and being the oldest on your rec league team: superstar! 
That night before bed, we stood out on the deck marveling at the stars and the twilight outline of the mountains. We were home!
Wednesday.
Got the kids out the door on time fed and mostly clothed. Hailed that glorious thing called THE NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL bus after surviving 160+ hours shuttling the kids back and forth from Park City. The house is total chaos with the landscaping crew digging out our front yard’s sprinkler system and the basement under construction. Our house has three very small bedrooms upstairs so we hired a great local contractor, Jordan, to finish two rooms in the basement: Hadley’s bedroom and Jamie’s den. By Wednesday, he already had the two rooms framed. Progress!
Finished unpacking the majority of the main level and cleaned up all the clutter so the house looked almost presentable! My friend Lori came to help setup Bode’s bed and tackle the disastrous basement by setting up shelves. I worked long into the night and posted this on Facebook:
“Our neighbors unloaded their PODs on the same day as us and I spotted the sweet wife yesterday. She: 1) Parked her car in the garage (where is all their crap?) 2) Already has her house decorated for Halloween and 3) Took a shower. #AreTheseUtahnsForReal?” I didn’t post that to criticize; I was merely in awe.
We don’t have a table, chairs, washer or dryer hooked up and a million other things…but you can rest easily knowing the pumpkin patch/greenhouse was being prepped.
Thursday.
Electrician finished up on the two rooms in the basement. $#&*$# builder didn’t install an electrical panel big enough to support any other outlets so we had to replace the whole thing (another unbudgeted $1,000 down the tubes). Worked my arse off to finish organizing the basement into five areas: cold storage, regular storage room, great room storage, den/Hadley’s crafting space and home theater room. It will be a while until we can afford to finish the entire basement but we want to make it as functional as possible. Once Hadley and Jamie are moved in downstairs (hopefully within the next few wees), we’ll make the adjacent Great Room Bode’s play area (mostly because he can’t fit his toys in his bedroom).
Friday.
Organized the garage (oh, the horror with all of Jamie’s pumpkin C-R-A-P). Priority after finishing the basement: Build a shed. Needed Jamie’s help to build all the metal shelves in the basement and garage so temporarily organized our three-car garage into two general areas: Jamie’s stuff and recreational equipment. Wading through it all put me in a worse mood than the basement, primarily because we have a ton more space downstairs. The good news is we’ll now be able to park our cars and trailer in the garage once the snow flies. We likely won’t have time to setup shelves and truly organize the garage until spring and I’m totally OK with that.
Went to the Heber Valley dumping station (nicest “dump” I’ve ever seen) and rewarded ourselves with pumpkin cheesecake shakes from Dairy Keen. Oh, how our Friday nights have changed.
That night as Jamie prayed at dinner, he said he was thankful for the “food upon this table” to which I irreverently interjected, “we don’t have a table.” Vowed to get that blasted table inside by the end of the weekend.
Saturday.
Slept in until 7 p.m. After my manic week of 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. wake-ups, this felt like a dream! Jamie left the house early to unload compost for the yard while I had my first leisurely morning in months. Worked from bed (looked at our view every few seconds), made fresh strawberry syrup from scratch for our pancakes and it felt wonderful to finally spend some time in the kitchen!
The afternoon, we organized Bode’s room and cleaned the house. That evening while Hadley babysat Bode and our friends Ben and Sarah’s kids, we went on a double-date to dinner and the evening session of Stake Conference. The perfect end to one crazy week.
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Thus ends our first full week in the Heber Valley!
My first impressions of our home? I love it overall. Everything is crisp, new and beautiful. We have granite countertops, white cabinets and hardwood floor, which we never had in our old house. I especially love the larger kitchen and pantry! But we’ve downsized. Significantly. And until we finish the basement (especially those two rooms), we have essentially crammed two levels from our old house into just one and it’s causing a lot of headaches. Hadley is temporarily bunking down in my office and since my closet only has shelves, she has split her wardrobe between Bode’s and my closet. Bode’s toys are still in in boxes because there’s nowhere to unpack them and Jamie’s office is crammed into the bay window of our very small Master bedroom.
And somehow with all the headaches, stress and sore bodies, this gorgeous little plot already feels like home.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 