We’re a day behind on posting because our internet wasn’t connected at home until late yesterday, but here’s a snapshot of our first full day in the new house, with boxes piled in every room. The clean, blank slate is gone and chaos has arrived. For now we’ve simply dropped furniture and cartons throughout the rooms — nothing is permanently placed yet. We’ll live with things for a bit before committing to final layouts.

To put this move in perspective: our last long haul was moving from NYC to Richmond in a minivan. Since then we’ve done a few smaller moves with a trailer and borrowed help, but we hadn’t experienced a full household move with dozens of boxes in years. It’s not glamorous — moving is rough — but it’s also oddly energizing. We’re slowly making progress: we’ve found the socks and underwear, we’ve got showers back on the routine, and the living areas are beginning to feel like home.

Our plan is to be mostly unpacked by tomorrow, though we’ve been taking frequent breaks for picture-taking, tending to Clara, changing addresses, and answering comments, so progress has been intermittent. Once the essentials are settled we’ll start tackling projects: painting, hanging artwork, removing or replacing fixtures, mapping furniture arrangements, and installing window treatments. Which project comes first will depend on our mood and what supplies we have at hand.

For major renovations we save money and plan carefully, but for smaller, reversible updates we prefer to dive in so we can live with the space before making permanent decisions. That approach keeps us from getting paralyzed. We hang a frame, live with it, and move it if it doesn’t feel right. We pick paint colors and arrange furniture knowing we can change them. We’ll share photos and details as each room evolves.

Future dining room:

Future office:

Kitchen:

Future living room (furniture is temporarily placed where we dropped it):

Hall bath (we’re in the middle of installing a diaper sprayer — more on that upgrade soon):

Clara’s room: rebuilding the crib and getting the essentials set up was a priority so she could adjust. That strategy has seemed to work so far and made settling in much easier for her:

Future playroom/kids’ room (we had to disassemble the daybed to get it down the hall):

The master bedroom: our old bed frame stayed with the previous house, so for now we’re sleeping on the floor until we build or buy a replacement. We’ll decide on a new bed when we have a clearer sense of the room layout and style we want:

The master sink/bath: a tension rod needs to be raised to accommodate an extra-long curtain, which is on the to-do list soon:

Burger apparently wanted to inspect the hardwood and molding — who knows what captivated him — but here’s the sunroom snapshot:

Laundry and mudroom:

We also have a separate walk-out basement entry under the bedroom this time, which will be perfect for storing tools, bikes, the lawnmower, seasonal decor, baby gear, and maternity clothes. Having dedicated storage will make future organization much easier and keep everyday living spaces less cluttered.

That’s the house in its current, freshly-moved-in state. We’re excited to unpack more boxes and share progress as rooms start to take shape and projects unfold. Expect photos and updates as things evolve — we’ll capture each step from the messy initial piles to the finished spaces.

Psst — we have a floor plan to help make sense of the room layout. We swapped which room is Clara’s nursery and which is the playroom since the smaller room made a better nursery for now.

Pssst #2 — we announced the winners of this week’s giveaway on our site. Check the recent giveaway post to see if you won.