If you follow me on Instagram, you know by now the story of our first home. I won’t go into details because we’re still in the midst of all the clean up, but basically a water valve leaked and we came the next day to find water in the kitchen and dripping through the ceiling in the basement. Everything is dried out now and we’re waiting on insurance for the go-ahead to order new flooring. So we’re camping out without appliances or a kitchen floor.

That is the sad news.

The happy news is that there wasn’t more damage than that AND my family kicked it up a notch for us during this whole stressful time. My parents were absolute life-savers with this move. I think they were over at our house every day last week except for one. They painted, cleaned, moved, organized, advised, and hung heavy stuff on our walls (like my piano shelf that my dad made for me in high school–I finally have a house to hang it in!).

We closed on Friday, March 8th, and on Saturday, we had quite the painting crew going. Kevin’s mom and brother were there in the morning to help and my best friend and mom were there until dark.

The painting went a lot faster than I had anticipated, mostly because my mom is a wizard of some kind when it comes to painting. Sara did a great impression of her late in the day (when we were mostly delirious) and it was basically, “Look at me, I’m Carolyn! [makes a quick paint roller motion] Done with this wall!” When I told my sisters, they both said, “Oh, definitely. Mom is the person to have around when you’re moving!”

On Sunday, Sara came back over and we finished with some touch-ups on the paint and then she graciously shampooed all of our carpets. God bless her.

Monday was one last push for painting because we ended up deciding to paint the hallways and stairs as well. I was going to leave it, but the tan color looked pretty bad with the new colors in the living room/kitchen. My parents rigged up a system on the stairs with two ladders and a board and before I could blink, they were finished with the tall wall space. Thank God because I had been so nervous that someone would fall.

Somewhat of the rest of the week was a blur. Kevin and I both had the week blocked off strictly for moving, but we ended up needing it off for contractors and insurance adjustors and what-not to come and take pictures and write estimates on the damages. (We discovered the water damage on Monday morning.)

My mom and I cleaned all of the blinds in the house. Let me just say, cleaning blinds is a two-person job and it will take a whole day. They look great now!

On Friday, my parents and brother helped move our furniture in. And the weekend was spent trying to find things in boxes and slowly organize.

Throughout this entire process, I have continuously been reminded that I cannot do things on my own and I feel so blessed by these people who surround me. They were there from the beginning to celebrate with us and they were there in the rough patches when I wanted to curl on the floor and cry. It’s been a hills and valleys week, but we love our new home and are so excited to get the flooring in, our appliances back, and the basement pieced back together.

For updated info on our home situation: flooding in our basement | the fifth week