August 24, 2025 Sunday

Good morning!

Well, I was thinking it seems silly of me to label the blog for Monday just because I post early Monday morning when I actually have been writing it on Sunday for some time.  Has never set right with me...but I do really like writing it on Sunday and taking my time.  So--new home, new blog rules.  They are self-imposed rules anyways--lol!

This blog is mostly pictures.  Pretty shot.  Not up to much else--lol!  After Allie and I pre-moved I did get all the essentials I brought with us fairly organized so that the new place looked like this all week.

I had thought Allie was adjusting well, but the scary maintenance room was too much for her.  Adapting as not necessarily in a cat's repertoire.  Finally found a spot where she could rest and be close to me.

One of the little glass tables.  She was used to jumping up on one in order to lounge in front of the TV at her former abode.

But she didn't want to jump up on it with the pillow that would glide...and she didn't like the new red chair...so it took a while for us to get a routine going.  She would jump up on either the end of the red chair (to get to the table) or directly on the table only if there was no pillow on it.  She figured out that if she jumped up on the table and briefly went over on to the chair I would then put the pillow on the table for her. (That may have only made sense to some cat people--lol!) 

When things started up in the maintenance/laundry room--even with the door shut--she was very jumpy for a few days.  Just stared at that door...

...and gave me the evil-eye...whatever possessed you...into what hell have you drug me?!

But she calmed down because I moved all her things out of the scary room into the studio by the second day.  And I ordered an electric throw blanket (red one on my legs).  When that materialized Allie felt how warm it was if she jumped up on the end of the chair to get to the glass table...and started to occasionally stay with me on the chair.  LOL!  Cats cannot resist warmth.  Still really makes me laugh because Allie would never sit with me if I had a fluffy blanket over my legs.  A warm one made the difference--lol!  

We settled in all week.  I am SOOOO glad we had that time before the movers came on Saturday.

Meanwhile...McFamily went back over to the apartment a couple different nights to get things ready for the movers.  The boys have been good helpers!  There were three tables to take apart...

...kitchen and pantry to finish packing...

...and the gathering together of all the odds and ends to be moved.

Allie and I were just recovering from the past two months of packing, the pre-move, and putting necessities away.  :)

They went through the garage to see what would go with the movers.  The tall shelf in the back was stuff to go with.  The rest is mostly sell or donate.  Except for my little wooden folding chair I had when I was a toddler that's against that back wall...

...and they located Karma's dusty old litterbox-hiding-bench from when I lived at West Winds (place before this one I'm leaving and two cats ago).  Thank goodness I never got rid of it!  I doubt Miss Allie is ever going to want her things in that scary room--ever.  It's hard to see what I'm talking about from this picture, but a better one is coming up.

Yesterday the movers came--15 minutes early--and they were fantastic!  Leah was there and snapped some pictures during the process.  

Dagan was home with the boys upstairs.

The movers even covered the apartment door so as not to ding it up!

They wrapped all the tables and even the small dressers from the studio!

Used shrink wrapping on a lot of things, too.

They were fast--never stopped moving!  

Very polite and friendly, too.

They even protected the door frame!

They got done in the apartment and then headed to the garage.

Leah took some pictures of the place before they left.

This felt so strange to me.  Not being there, you know?  I get very attached to wherever I have lived.  The things that are left are to be sold or donated.  Seeing the pictures...brought back so many memories.

Feeding the partridges, sparrows, and arctic hares all winter every year.

My crowded apartment filled with bookcases...and some of you might remember the gatefold table (right front) that Ian and I used for creating art on Gramma Days (before covid).

I've missed having a desk.  Loved this one.  But won't have one anymore after having one since I was sixteen.

Even the empty hallway...

...used to be full.  Dagan and Leah always joked about my never having empty space.  True!

The studio!!  It has looked half naked for a couple of years, but now stripped down to the bookcases...OMGosh!

The new one will be filled with all kinds of colorful and fun things.  Will bring me such joy to see it in full bloom again one day.

The movers were even faster than expected about 3 1/2 hours or a little less...and the charge was even less than estimated!  They were really great!  

Allie was shut in the bathroom with her litter box moved into the shower...

...her carrier to hide in...

...and her food and water.  If she didn't cry I figured she was probably okay in there for a couple hours.

Now I told you we built in some cat doors (holes) and there's one behind my toilet that goes into the maintenance room...where we thought her litter box, food, water, and carrier (she used to often go sleep in) would be.  Best laid plans, right?  Well, about the middle of the week this last week I suddenly heard Allie crying in panic again...but she sounded muffled?  Curious cats...she went through this hole while it was all quiet in the maintenance room to find out where it went...

...and discovered to her horror she was in the scary room in the dark!  Couldn't find her way out and I had the door shut (to keep the scary noise down oddly enough--lol!).  Needless to say, Allie bolted out of the door when I opened it and did not try that again.

I never heard a peep out of Allie while the movers were here.  Went to let her out and she was nowhere to be found!  Yup!  I could see her panicked eyes staring at me through the cat door.  I went into the scary room and turned on the light.  Allie was curled in a ball between the "hole" and the water softener...still too scared to move even though I told her they were all gone and she could come out.  Goodness!  Allie was THAT scared of the movers making noise outside the bathroom door that the scary room was the lesser of two evils!

I left the door open, light on, and told her she should come out before it got noisy in the scary room again--lol!  When Leah came down after the movers drove off I told her and (sorry Allie) we laughed and laughed.  Leah went in to get a picture of her and she had moved out to beside the water softener but was still afraid to move.  Leah took six pictures and they were all identical--lol!

She took a picture of me, too.

After we were talking out there for a while and Allie didn't hear any thumps or strangers...it didn't take very much longer to get out of the scary room--lol!  Kept her eye on the front door, though.

Last night--after the movers--about all I was good for was watching Stargate SG-1...lol!  But in my trusty brown chair...after moving over the laptop table and a few things.  I slept for 10 hours last night!!

Today--Allie seems to have laid claim to the recently abandoned red chair.  She is also exhausted and slept most of the whole day.

And what does it look like here now?  This is the storage room...

...which is outside my front door on the other side of the stairwells.  Leah had a sign posted "S" (for studio boxes) to go in there.  They will be unpacked last.

Everything else that didn't go in the storage area or the garage went in the studio. 

The studio is packed full.

I have no idea where the litterbox-hiding-bench will go, but I have to find a place for it.  At least I won't have to look right at a litterbox in my living room or studio.  Hurray!!  And it's even black to fit right in.  I was too tired and sore to deal with moving anything whatsoever today.

You can see the arched door on the end there.  Just empty inside.  A more thorough cleaning, insert litter box, and fingers crossed Allie will like it.

View from the studio doorway.

From the kitchen.  Can hardly wait to have a bigger table behind the chairs.

From by the wardrobes.

What a mess, eh?  But I already had necessities over here for us to be fine for a good while.  Leah had signs up on the wall in the studio.  The "K" (kitchen/pantry) boxes are closest to the left side of the studio.  Then the "B" (bathroom/laundry) boxes.  And finally all the "L" (living room/bedroom) boxes.  The movers were really good about asking where things should go if it wasn't labeled boxes. 

The "L" boxes also hold all the things from my dressers in the bedroom.  A lot of cardstock, writing supplies, and odds and ends.  All will go in the dressers and hutches in the living room.  Clothes will go in the 12-drawer dresser next to the wardrobes.  Going to be a long process, but now I don't have to rush anything or push myself.  Nice!!  Kind of overdid it the last couple of weeks, so if I take a couple more days off I won't feel under the gun anymore, you know?  Nice! Nice! Nice!

I am sitting here in my big comfy brown chair with Allie curled up between my legs listening to the boys clomp back and forth upstairs...and it is so nice!  I know it is chaos again of a different sort but going forward...well, it is going to be a settling in and not a tearing apart, you know?  I can almost picture this place put together.  I can almost visualize having my home around me again.  Major nesting in is my future.  

Oh, and I won't forget to eventually make it in to the lab for that blood test.  Maybe this week.  I've got 3 1/2 weeks before that appointment so no pressure.  The move has taken its toll on me...but I will recover and be able to start moving again pretty soon, I think.  Meanwhile--I'll be back next Monday!  Thanks to all of you who have hung in there with me for the three years of this move, covid, cancers...been quite a time of it.  And, if you're new, welcome.  You're around for a new chapter that has begun in my little corner of the world.  Till next week...