Luckily, I was off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Monday after. And, most importantly, the daycare was open. That meant I could go and actually get some packing done. After a few trips to donate items to charity and 6 hours (each time) of packing, I managed to get most things in boxes and ready to be moved. The attic is anothe story...most of the stuff up there is in boxes or bins anyway, but it's still a mess. There's a lot of stuff up there I'd like to get rid of--like Carlos's old law books, but I'm guessing we're stuck with the damn things. I got rid of old school papers, my master's capstone project (or whatever it was called), and some course books from college. There's STILL more stuff to donate though...so much stuff. I don't want so much stuff.
It is sad to pack up the condo. I loved living there--sort of. It's complicated and perhaps I'll flesh it out later, but not now. The living space itself was great for us--just the right amount of room. Of course it would have been nice to have more space, but we used every room and enjoyed living so close to the Charles River bike path and Boston. I will definitely miss Watertown. Someday I'd love to move back to the area, especially Belmont. But I need half a million bucks first.
The hardest room to pack up and for me to go in is the boys' room. So much care went into planning it, painting it, decorating it, etc. And good memories with the boys in that room when I was at home during maternity leave. It just makes me sad.
And so the boys can see where they lived when they were just born and the place they came home to after leaving the NICU, I'm going to post some before and after pictures of the condo. I should have been more organized about this and gone room by room, but I don't have the patience or the time to do it right now.
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| View of living room from dining room |
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| Kitchen--ugly linoleum floor; no lighting, old washer/dryer |
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| Master bedroom with grody old carpet |
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| awful bathroom with 4 different kinds of tile and old vanity |
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| guest room/nursery with old carpet, yucky paneling, bad light fixture |
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| dining room |
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| third bedroom; just bad all over |
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| nasty medicine cabinet and old wall paper |
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| Ewwwwwww |
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| ripping up the linoleum someone put over hardwood floor in nursery; I now think the tile had asbestos. Whoops. |
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| Bathroom in progress...this was the day the tile floor erupted and we discovered the subfloor was rotten. |
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| I scraped myself with a rusty nail that day and had to get a tetanus shot! |
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| look at all the dirt that was under the carpet in the master bedroom! At least 20 years' worth? |
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| nursery after carpet was pulled up |
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| backyard...the tree on the right later fell down in a storm! |
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| another view of the kitchen; taken from the porch |
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| bathroom with new subfloor and new toilet. Waiting to put new vanity, medicine cabinet, and tile floor in |
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| vanity installed |
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| The third bedroom was the "junk room" for a looong time |
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| Guest room after we bought the new bed |
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| Guest room. I barely remember when it looked like this! |
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| third bedroom |
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| master bedroom in progress |
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| Carlos getting ready to lay tile in bathroom |
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| The wet saw |
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| Tile down! |
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| The fireplace mantel we found in the trash in Brockton |
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| The bar...before I put different (nicer) stuff on the shelves |
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| Espresso bar |
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| putting in the attic |
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| With new lighting but still no paint on walls |
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| With new drum light |
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| new light over sink |
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| Walls painted finally! |
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| Kitchen floors in progress |
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| After we made the playroom in the third bedroom, we changed around the nursery a bit. Mainly we took the desk out, which opened up the room a bit |
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| My sister-in-law made the name signs! |
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| Love these frames from my mom's college friend. The are currently packed, but it just dawned on me that we can now fill them up...all 12 months!! |
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| These toy bins are the best thing ever!! |
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| Still in progress...I actually did eventually clean off the couch! |
Looking at all these photos, I'm remembering how much we did that you actually don't even see! We put up shelves everywhere. We had to add a pole and shelf to the nursery closet. The linen closet walls were falling down; the pantry didn't have any shelves. We changed out the switch plates and outlets/outlet covers (in most of the house, but not all), and we replaced the old brass door knobs with brushed nickel ones. So many things...
I wish I had been more systematic about taking photos. I should have taken more photos of the place staged, too. It looked good. Maybe I can get Adriano to get me the photos. The last piece is to take photos of the place empty again....and I never did take photos of the outside after the retaining wall and sidewalk were done last spring. And the front and back yard landscaping. Oh well.
I'll be better with the next house!!!
