We Are Moved!

Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day

Moving day has come and gone and we are happily ensconced in our new "digs" in Hamilton. Last week was an especially busy week for us. Chris took the week off to prepare for the move, while the rest of us continued the packing and moving of boxes to our new home. On Tuesday, the installers came and installed the hardwood flooring in our bedroom, and the carpeting in living/entertaining area in the downstairs. By Tuesday afternoon, we were able to start painting the downstairs area. We came in on Monday afternoon after the closing and primed some of the walls to get them ready to paint. C & K Painting was, once again for a short time, back in business. By Thursday afternoon, everything had been painted and was ready for the movers. On Friday morning, "Uncle Don" came in and installed a new door in the downstairs, and trimmed the other doors to fit after the carpeting was installed.

On Saturday morning the movers arrived to load the trucks and take everything over to the new house in Hamilton. Because Jen had done such a marvelous job of staging everything for this move, packing and labeling everything as to where, in the new house, it would go, the movers were able to do the whole job in 5 hours (which included 1 hour for lunch!). Once they were finished, all that remained was to unpack everything. We are still doing that!

Sunday was spent at the "old" homestead, cleaning and getting it ready for the "final walk-through" before the closing. This took most of Sunday to accomplish, but it was worth the effort.

Today, Memorial Day, was the day for the new owners of Ray Street to make their final walk-through before the close. I met them at 10AM this morning. I had dropped K off at Dunkin Donuts, where she met Aunt Gloria. They had coffee and then drove into Salem for a bit, waiting for a call from me to let them know that the walk-through was completed. That was done by 11:30AM, so K and AG returned to take some cuttings of perennials from our yard. AG wanted to do some planting at her condo in Revere, so we told her she was welcome to take some perennials from Ray St.

Finally, it was time for K and I to say goodbye to our home for the past 23 years. This was especially hard for K. Me, I've been ready to move on from here for the past 7 years, so I was psyched! I must say, though, that over the past few days I have been reflecting on the memories made on Ray Street. It's funny, but the good memories seem to be very easy to recall, whereas the "not-so-good" ones are really difficult to recall. In fact, I really can't say that I remember any of the "bad" memories. They seem to fade into insignificance over time, which is probably a good thing, eh? It's not good to dwell on the bad things or hard times.


So, tomorrow is the closing for Ray Street. The new owners seem truly excited to be taking ownership. They absolutely love the house, and I'm sure they will take good care of it during their tenure there. As for K and I, we, along with Chris, Jen and Aaron, are ready to start making new memories here in our new home, which, we hope, will become a FAMILY gathering place, just as 9 Ray Street was. We know we will be happy here. The house is beautifully restored; it has a great, big yard, and plenty of space for FAMILY gatherings.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for further updates from Hamilton. Also, K and I will be taking another trip to the Canadian Maritimes next month, so I will be blogging on that trip to keep you all informed.

Stay healthy! See you all on July 4th (if not before!).