We recently bought a house in Shoreline, WA. As soon as I saw pictures of the house on Zillow I fell in love. When we toured it, I knew I wanted to live there. We hung out at the house for a few hours when we got it inspected and it felt like home. It’s definitely not the nicest house we walked through, but I love its charm.
The house was built in 1954 and we are the second owner. It needs updating, but it was a well cared for loved house. The other day I was unloading the groceries from my car and an older couple drove by. They stopped and told me that the man grew up down the road and was best friends with one of the owners. He would come play here when he was younger. The mom of the home lived here with her young family, and continued living here after her husband died. Her two sons never had kids so she never had grandkids. The older couple told me the previous owner would be happy to know there are kids back in the home. (She passed away and that’s why the house was sold.) Glad we can bring new life, love, and memories back to the house.
We had to break our lease on our rental when we moved. Our landlord said that was fine as long as we helped find the new renters. (We listed it on Zillow and Craig’s List and showed it. Then we gave them our landlords number so they could submit an application for it.) Chris really wanted our house empty before we listed it. My mom knew I would be stressed and overwhelmed with the packing, cleaning, moving, and kids so she graciously volunteered her time and flew up to help us move!
I was so happy to have my mom’s help. If anyone knows her they know she has a knack of getting things done. She’s quick and efficient. She’s a great cleaner and organizer and she is constantly on the go. She’s awesome!
We were closing on our house on Wednesday August 17 and so she flew in a few days early on Monday the 15. (Fairly late we basically picked her up from the airport then went to bed.)
Tuesday (the next morning) we got up early because the notary came to our house to bring all the papers we needed to sign for our house. My mom stayed upstairs with the kids and kept them out of our way so we were able to sign everything quickly and easily. (And quietly!!!)
After Chris went to work we went to grab some of our favorite donuts we discovered the last time my mom was here. (They are a creamed filled donut coated in cinnamon sugar and corn flakes. They really are awesome!!!) Then we went to drive by our almost new house. (I was beyond excited to show it to my mom!!!) We then took the kids to a park near the new house to let kids play. That park has a cute little garden at it so we walked around that for a bit.
We went back to the house to start packing and cleaning. (Chris and I had done some packing before she came, but we still had a ton to do!!!!) Like I said, my mom is amazing at this type of stuff so we packed up about 80% of the main floor and about 80% of the upstairs. We also were able to order Paseos sandwiches that are so good! Even better we used Uber Eats so we didn’t even have to leave the house to eat them. We were able to keep on packing while eating delicious food!
That afternoon we were ready for a break and we took the kids to Discovery Park Beach. My mom has been to Seattle 3 times to visit me, but this was her first time at Discovery Park Beach. It was also her first time visiting when the sun was out along with the mountains! We took the scenic drive to Discovery Park and we were able to see a huge Bald Eagle hanging out on a tree. It was super fun to see it! We also walked around the lighthouse and picked blackberries.
We got home and we were happy to show Chris all our progress that we had made. One of my sweet visiting teachers had arranged for us to get a pizza delivered to us. It was so nice not having to worry about dinner. After dinner we sat and visited for a bit. Then my mom stayed with kids while Chris and I ran out to get some desserts. We brought back some cookies, pudding, and trifles and ate those and visited some more. Chris also informed us that he wanted everything in boxes the next day so we could load up the U-Haul truck and hopefully unload it that evening or the next morning so we wouldn’t have to rent it for more than a day. For some reason I was thinking that we had more time to be fully packed so I was a bit stressed!
My mom is also great at talking me down from my stress-freak outs and not taking my grouchy-ness personal. Instead she just gets my booty into gear and we get things done!!!! (And still have fun laughing and visiting!) Wednesday we literally just packed and sweated all day (I also need to add the hottest week was the week we moved. Temps were in the 90s and to my AZ crew that may not seem like much….but we have no AC!!!!) We had left over pizza for lunch and a salad we picked up from Fred Myers (Frys). We kicked it into gear and we got everything in boxes before we had to go to the new house for our keys. We even cleaned up the house a bunch. I was impressed with all we did!
We met Chris at his bus stop by the new house and we all drove over to the house to meet our realtor! (Me and my mom also loaded up the car with the first load of our stuff!!!) We got the keys and we were finally able to show my mom our house! It was so fun to walk around it.
I won’t lie, we walked around and the house seemed that the house was smaller than I remembered…(but once our stuff was in it seemed bigger so we are good!)
We unloaded the van. Stopped by Dick’s for dinner. Dropped Chris off to get the U-Haul and met him at home to start loading. I was beat at that point but we still had so much to do!!! Chris hired some guys to help load the heavy stuff and Chris did a lot of the boxes himself. The semi heavy stuff me and my mom had to help him with. By 9:30 that night we realized it would probably just work out easier to lay kids down in the old house and move in the next morning. Chris wanted to drive the huge U-Haul that night to the new house so there wouldn’t be traffic, so my mom stayed at the old house with the kids and Chris and I stayed the night at the new house. This actually worked out perfect for us since we didn’t finish loading until about 11 that night and didn’t make it home until about midnight.
Thursday morning we woke up, Chris went to Home Depot and picked up some guys looking for work to help him unload the U-Haul. I then went and picked up my mom and the kids and got another load for the van. When we got home the guys had finished with the U-Haul!!!
We spent the rest of the day unloading the house and moving in. We also went and ate Thai food that night!
Friday we woke up and it was my mom’s birthday!!!! I was thrilled to spend her birthday with her! Friday we were able to do some shopping for the house and other errands. It was definitely a more fun, more relaxed day! We went and had a special lunch for her birthday! She even got sang to in Italian for her birthday. It was beyond great!
After lunch we went to the old house and cleaned and took another load in the van. This actually didn’t take too much time, luckily. After that we were officially moved out!!!!
We went back to the new house and unloaded. (I need to add that the new house is one story with a basement. The downside is that it is on a hill so you have to go up a bunch of stairs to get to the main floor basically going up a whole flight of stairs just to get to our main level….which is awful for unloading!!!!)
We met Chris that evening at the University of Washington to go canoeing for my mom’s birthday. It was so much fun and so pretty! I think we all had a great time! My mom and I are thinking of doing some sort of Olympic mother daughter rowing event…watch for us in 4 years! We definitely laughed a ton!!!!!
After canoeing we went to have fish and chips so good!!!
My mom was definitely missed on her birthday, but she got so many calls and texts. My sweet dad even had flowers delivered to her and my grandma sent a card to my house. I have a great family and my mom is loved!
Saturday Chris had to go to the old house, paint and take pictures for listing it. My mom was ready to get to work unloading, but I wasn’t. (We are going to be renovating soon so we didn’t want to unpack everything until after we are finished.) We spent the morning mostly hanging out, but organized and unloaded some as well.
When Chris got home we went to eat. We went back to thai food which was great again. We then went to a Shoreline neighborhood party. There were bouncy houses, a petting zoo, SWAT trucks, a bomb robot that Ryan got to control. And so much more!!! The kids had a great time. We then went and ran some errands.
Sunday we went to church. Had lunch, then we went to the Ballard Locks. We had a great time walking around and enjoying the boats, water, and the scenery!
Monday morning we woke up and took my mom to the airport. It was hard having her go! We miss her already, but we are so glad she came! I know I couldn’t have done it without her. I’m glad she was willing to work so hard on her birthday and was willing to be away from her family as well on her birthday! I am so happy she came though! We definitely worked hard and played hard. Thank you thank you thank you Mom!!!!
