Finally moving in

We've been living in our house for two years now, and we're finally moving in. There are no more books in boxes. Now there are books in the computer niche in the basement...


... in the other niche created by load-bearing walls in the basement...


... and on bookcases in the storage room in the basement.

It looks like "the stacks" in the music library at Northwestern. The main part of the music library was a beautiful historic building, but the stacks were in a dimly lit, temperature and humidity controlled underground concrete room. They probably didn't keep their furnace and water heater and leftover construction materials in with the books, though.

The girls have their bookcases up in their bedroom, as well. I moved Audrey's bookcases out of the playroom because no one could get to them there. Now she's rediscovering some old favorites, most of which she's grown out since she last read them.

Finally moving in also means putting holes in the walls. Scott hung up some shelves in the dining room, and now we have a place to display some pottery. There's a piece by a local potter, a candlestick Mom and Dad brought back from Hungary, the tea set from our trip to Singapore, things Scott's mom collected, and pieces the kids have made in classes and camps.


Before, our knick-knacks were hidden in the hallway. Now the cookbooks live there.


Getting all those cookbooks off the kitchen counter made a lot of room for the stuff that won't fit in the baking supplies drawer. The counter's still cluttered, but not like it was before. The oils and boxes of breadcrumbs came all the way to the edge, before. It was hard to reach the knives.


I think we were holding off on finally moving in because we were waiting until we finished renovating the rest of the house. But we've decided we're done renovating for a while (probably a long while). So, it's time to just enjoy living in our house.