I guess it’s time to tell you about moving day. We had been working non stop for 6 weeks,  most days 18 hours. The house had been cleaned like it had never been cleaned before. Bob had opened the wall between the kitchen and dining room, built an entertainment nook under the stairs in the living room and added a closet in the downstairs bedroom.  He installed baseboards and trim around all the windows and doors. The upstairs floors had been sanded and polyed 3 times. We had painted everything white, put in gray carpet on the main floor, vinyl in the kitchen and dining room.  We bought a new refrigerator and we had hired a plumber to install a new toilet and hot water heater.

So the shack was habitable and our time was up on the rental.  Time to move.

The first sound I remember on that Saturday morning is our friend Jim Womble pounding on the bedroom window  and hollering – ‘Are ya’ll moving today?’ Bob had asked him to bring his truck and help move the big stuff – the washer and dryer and the large pieces of furniture.

Now you need to understand – we had been at the shack every day, all day for 6 weeks. The only time we had been to the rent house was to fall into bed late at night and to shower and dress in the morning.

When did you have time to pack, you might ask. And you can imagine my feeling on being awakened by our friend that morning. Oh my gosh – we need to pack!

That’s right – not one single thing in a box. In fact, not a box in sight. How on earth are we going to get all this stuff over to the new house? Well, I called in reinforcements. I called our friend Kevin Higdon, who had been helping with all the work, and my good friend, Vicki Finn, told them to pick up as many boxes as they could find, some boxes of giant garbage bags and to get over to our house asap.

Our sweet next door neighbor, Justine, came over with an armful of old newspapers and started wrapping my china and all the breakables. By the time the boxes arrived, she had cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and everything was ready to be boxed up.

Bob and Jim were already making their second trip with the appliances, mattresses, sofa, chairs and tables.  So I gave Kevin and Vicki each a box of garbage bags and told them to fill them up. Didn’t care what it was – if it wouldn’t break – stuff it in a bag.

I carted out arm loads of books and pictures and paintings to the car and we started to make haul after haul after haul. Each of us would load our car with boxes and bags and anything we could stuff into the trunk or backseat and off we would go to our new abode, only to dump it out and hurry back to the rent house.

Bob and Jim made the final few trips getting all of Bob’s tools and outside stuff – grill, lawn furniture and lawn equipment, while I cleaned and vacuumed the rent house. It had been a good home to us and we would miss our neighbors.

I headed back to the shack and tried to organize the chaos. We did get the bed set up and found the linens in a garbage bag, so we had a bed for the night. We had arranged the furniture in the living room, so we had a place to sit. But everything else was in giant black garbage bags and a few boxes. No labels and no idea what was in each of these bags and boxes- each one was a surprise.  In fact, one bag had our pots and pans, and since we didn’t have a kitchen, they were put aside into a ‘ to be gone thru later’ pile.  Once we got around to this bag, we discovered Bob’s one missing work boot! How and why it was in with the pots and pans remains a mystery.

So, on a day early in May 1992, with the help of great friends, with no kitchen to speak of, no heating source for the winter, and still a monumental task ahead of us, we slept in our home for the first time.

We were HOME.

Until next time…….