This Labor Day weekend marks the first 365 days that we have lived in our brand new shiny house.  It always seems surreal that this beautiful house is OUR HOME.  We have put so much time, energy, and money into personalizing it and making it feel like home but it hardly seems like it has been a year.   I remember our very first night in the house.  We didn’t go to close until late afternoon, like 5:30 or 6:00pm.  Bill was going to go to class after closing but it took so long that he didn’t have time to drive back to Fairfax to George Mason.  So he decided to go back to the townhouse and get a truckload of stuff. 

I had planned ahead, thinking it was just going to be me and Stewart in this big empty new house until Bill got out of class, so I threw some essentials in the trucks:  snacks, water, blankets, pillows, a fan, a lamp, toys for Stewart, and his portable DVD player.  I didn’t really know what we were going to do all night but I was so excited to finally be in the house that I didn’t want to spend one more night in the town house.  Stewart and I set up “camp” in our gigantic master bed room (which seems even larger with no furniture) I piled up the blankets and the pillows on the floor, set up the fan, the lamp and Stewart and I hung out.  After he fell asleep, I remember sitting there on the floor, with the light off, staring out the window, watching the lights reflect on the wall, watching the rain run down the window as the lightening lit up the room.   

Bill pulled into the driveway around midnight.  I didn’t know you could put so much stuff in one truck – and I don’t mean a U-Haul truck (we weren’t picking that up until the next day.)  He had our beds and contains of misc. items strategically crammed into his truck.  I’m not even sure he could see out the back of his truck.  But we brought our beds and we spent our first night in the house exhausted but comfortable. I can’t remember exactly how many trips it took from Herndon to Charles Town – but Bill eventually picked up some day laborers (from the day laborer center!) and they helped us move the big heavy stuff.  (We had movers but closing got pushed back and there weren’t any available on such short notice.)  I think it must have been at least 5 trips with the gigantic u-haul and me cramming stuff in my truck.  We went back and forth from Herndon to Charles Town all day Thursday.  We didn’t stop.  We ate sandwiches and chips for lunch and dinner.  Poor Stewart was so bored.  We made our last trips on Friday – back and forth and back and forth.  We had to drop off the U-Haul in Chantilly and then drive back to Charles Town.  We showered and packed and jumped back in the car and went to Virginia Beach for the weekend. 

It seems crazy that we left a house full of boxes needing to be unpacked but we have gone to Virginia Beach every Labor Day weekend since we moved to Virginia.  It’s a tradition! It’s taken 365 for us to fill up the house, paint, add the deck, put up some crown molding (Bill started in our bedroom and the adjoining sitting room, which is currently the nursery), we finally have blinds on every window in the house and curtains on all as well (which is a huge accomplishment for me!.)  It feels like home.  It smells like home – it no longer smells like wood, paint, and plaster.  

Sometimes I wonder if this house will be big enough when the boys are older and crazier but I can’t imagine trying to keep a bigger house clean.  I feel like our house is never as clean as I would like, and I feel like we spend so much time cleaning and you can’t even tell.  The hardwood always needs to be cleaned and the counters need to be wiped, there is always a bathroom that could be cleaned - i had the time to do these things when I was at home but now that I'm back to work, and Bill is back to school, and I am in school.  Some things are always getting left for the next day, the next week, the next time.  I'm sure I am my worst critic but I just always want it to be beautiful and shiny.