Moving and Settling In

So it's been about 10 days since we moved into the new house. We moved last Thursday, and spent about 4 days turbo-unpacking so that by the end of the weekend, we had unpacked every box. Then the next week was spent arranging and organizing and even decorating.

So now I can comfortably say that we are almost done.

As T mentioned in his blog post, everything still feels very new. A few months ago, when the house was still being built and all around us were plywood walls and concrete floors, we had our "light switch walk through"- we told the builder where we wanted the light switches to go and what we wanted them to operate. At that time, I couldn't have imagined how the house would turn out. As I look around at the now-finished home, with everything we chose over all those months actually installed in the house, I am still taken aback at the fact that it's actually done. 

Everywhere I look, I see the items T and I chose together. The aspects, the features, the placements, the finishes, the very walls, the floorplan, the whole thing. And we had so much fun doing it- and even that fun is part of the house now. The experience, the teamwork, the discussions, the decisions, the delights, the disappointments, the deadlines, the shopping trips, and most of all, the fun- all of that is part of the house. And now we finally get to live here, and I can only say alhamdolillah for that.

I still don't quite know what switches operate what. I flip the wrong ones all the time. I am not on autopilot yet in this house. It feels like home, but it feels unfamiliar still. We aren't taking things for granted yet- we are not blindly walking a path from bed to bath or from kitchen to stairs or from mudroom to kitchen- these paths, inshallah, will become traversed thousands and thousands of times as we age in this house. But today, at this moment, it is all still so new. I still haven't sat on every seat in the house. I still haven't stood in every spot. I still haven't cleaned every crevice, haha!

The newness, once lost, will be lost forever. It will be replaced by familiarity, which is lovely and comfortable and will truly let us know we are home. And I welcome that. But for now, I want to savor the newness.

Alhamdolillah.

Making a Home

Taher and I started the process of building a home a while ago. Almost two years ago. There were a lot of steps between then and now. We found the right spot. Bought it. Sold our house. Found the right builder. Made plans. Revised them. Waited through the winter for the ground to thaw.

And today, the process of actually constructing the house has finally begun. They demolished the old home that stood on our property and inshallah the digging will start later today.

I am excited. I am grateful to have the support of our family. I am grateful to be starting this journey with Taher, whose presence and involvement make everything fun for me. 

We have been picking brick and stone and roof colors and bathroom fixtures over the past 2 weeks. Ahead of us lie many many more decisions. And although the prospect of making 1,000 decisions, one after another, is daunting, the reality of making them hasn't been all that stressful. 

Instead, it's been cool. I feel like we are on a shopping spree. In a sense, I guess we are. We find ourselves calling each other throughout the day and talking about the differences between wrought iron and flat black finishes. 

Then we convene at the computer after the kids are in bed and try to finalize some of our choices. When we get tired, we call it a night and go continue binge-watching The Office ;)

I know the idea is to get these choices made and to move this process along, but I hope it doesn't go by too quickly :)

More updates will follow. In the meantime, alhamdolillah!