Moving. It's happening. (During a pandemic and wildfires!)

 Moving Day...week?

(Our bare living room with one lone mattress left...and a piece of bread....4 boys, that's why.)

The moving process has been a long one. The first discussions about selling our house came about after deciding that I would stay home with our kids. With my husband, Elijah, working from home because of Covid-19 it opened up a lot of options for us. One option was to stay in our house, however we were also feeling the weight of living in a 3,400 square foot home. The amount of cleaning alone was getting to be too much. And, honestly, we really didn't use a lot of the rooms and spaces in it. We decided that we wanted to focus on a simpler life. 

Once we made the decision to sell our house we had to think through all the possibilities that were opening to us. 

• Move to Mexico - as much as I would have loved this it just isn't realistic with two little little ones. 
• Buy a fixer upper - tempting! Again, having two little ones and then trying to make that happen seemed like too much for us right now. 
• Buy a new house - ummmm, that's what we are leaving. It would be a parallel move, if not a step down. 
• Build - ding, ding, ding! We have always wanted to build and knew we would some day. We decided that that day is today (well, not literally "today", but the next step in what we want to do). 

Elijah and I have very different ways of processing new ideas. For the most part we compliment each other. It also makes for a lot of frustrating conversations along the way! I like to make a decision and run with it. He likes to think through all possibilities, even ones that he doesn't like, before settling on something. The above process took months. With the decision to build decided (I'm decided and he's still processing other options), we then needed a more detailed plan on how to get to that end point. Here was our thinking,

• We need a place to live while we build. We began with looking at apartments, but really, they just didn't feel right. 
• My mom suggested an RV months ago and I laughed at that idea because no way could we make that work!!
• RV living....yep, we are going with an RV! Back it up a little though, we need a place to stay while we settle our fiances after selling and to research and buy a rig. 
• My parents renovated a room on their property to be a studio apartment for our family, known as The Creekside Room. This will be our home while we prepare for the next step to the next step! 
• Once we are completely done with selling the house and moved into the Creekside Room we will begin looking for property. Will it be in Oregon or Washington? Who knows?! We sure don't! We do know we want it at the beach. 

The Creekside Room

We are so close to being out of our house! Elijah is there finishing up cleaning and moving the last items while the kids and I are in the Creekside Room unpacking and helping to finish it. My parents are incredibly industries and handy! They have been retired for years now and do all kinds of improvements and such on their property. This latest project is a huge one! They've had to replace flooring, added a kitchen counter and sink, and are building a half bath from scratch! We'll have a huge shower, toilet and sink in the bathroom! It's like magic, really sweaty magic. 

The real test of it all is in purging our possessions and figuring out what is really important to us. I thought we had done such a great job with it. And then I started unpacking. I quickly realized that we still have too much stuff. I have a box started that I have been tossing items to donate into. We will have to be really aware of future purchases. 

The West Coast is on Fire

One thing that I have not mentioned, as of yet, is that the West Coast is on fire. Oregon and Washington are experiencing wildfires like they have never seen before. The air quality is so horrific that it has moved beyond the hazardous scale. We had to really debate if we should postpone moving or plow ahead. Because we were unsure if it would get worse or not we decided we better stick with our plans. The smoke is really affecting the move, 

• Because the smoke was so bad we wanted to keep the doors shut as much as possible. We used the garage as a staging area. We moved items into there, shut the house door and then opened the garage door to load the truck. Even with this precaution and trying to not prop doors it still became smokey in the house.
• We couldn't let the toddler play outside or "help" very much with the moving truck because of the air quality.
• NO TRASH PICKUP!! For reals, people, this was hard. Trash pick up was postponed for a week due to hazardous air quality levels. I am so grateful that the waste management company chose to keep their employees home! We are now stuck with a ton of trash. 
• We had to consider the possibility that the junk collection company we were going to schedule may not be operating during this time. Luckily they are!
• We are not mowing because it is just not safe to have anyone outside more than necessary. This feels so wrong though! 
• The smoke is affecting so many places! Hood River and Vancouver are about the same. No reprieve even driving an hour away. 
• Again, we're trapped indoors with a 2 year old....and an ADHD 12 year old!! AHHHH! I envisioned spending a lot of our time outside instead of staying in a tiny living space. Nope. Hard stop. We go out as necessary but no playing outside hardly at all. (I did send Autzen to pet the goats during a break in his classes.)
• The wonderful summer breeze cannot be enjoyed in our new little home. It is sealed up tight against the smoke.

There is rain in the forecast so we are hopeful it will tame the fires for the coming week! We will have our whole family back together on Friday. That night will be day 1 with all of us in our new home! We are incredibly grateful to my parents for all they are pouring into this space and having our family be here while we transition. What an adventure! 

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge all those directly affected by the fires, those that have lost their lives or loved ones, those that have lost their homes and jobs. To all the first responders that are in the thick of it. Thank you!