Our stuff is in London!!!! Now where are we going to put it all???

Our much anticipated "sea shipment" arrived on Wednesday, February 18.   It has been quite a journey for our "household goods."  They travelled from KY to Cincinnati and then from Cincinnati to Norfolk and then a LONG trip on a boat across the Atlantic and into London.  There were two trucks, and 4 guys in the crew.  All very nice and amazed at the amount of stuff we had I think!

Let it be recorded here that Brad was skeptical that all the furniture would fit into its designated room.  I was pretty confident that it would all be ok!

The guys came at 8:00 to remove all the temporary furnishings, and the crew arrived with our containers around 8:45, but it all worked out fine.  Yum had arranged for a "parking suspension" to ensure the trucks would have a place to park without blocking the road.

 The unpacking took until about 2:00, with two coffee breaks!  I was furiously unpacking boxes as they were bringing them in in order to get as much of the "debris" out as I could.  The kitchen counters were completely covered in all the contents of the boxes.

 The girls helped with about 2 boxes before they decided it wasn't exciting enough for them.  But they were able to find some long lost toys to keep themselves out the way of the crew.

All of the furniture fit, with the exception of the toy shelf that was too tall to fit up the stairs.  But it is an Ikea shelf that was easy to disassemble....Reassembling proved to be somewhat of a problem since when Brad went to put it back together about 15 of the dowels snapped in half.  Oops.  Thank goodness there is an Ikea about a 15 minute tram ride away and Ikea is open until 10 PM (unusual around here since most places are only open until 7!)  And there was one other minor casualty....they broke our bedroom door frame whilst getting one of the dressers in...oops!  But it has already been repaired!

The girls were so excited when they finally brought the bunk beds in; they had been waiting for those for a long time!  And I am so thankful there are here and there is actually space in their room for something other than beds.

Of all the rooms, our room was (and still is) definitely the most disorganized.  It literally looked like our closet, dresser and bedside tables exploded.  Which they kind of did.  The movers unpacked several boxes in the kids' rooms and just placed all the items on their beds, just to get the boxes out so that made for some mess in their room as well.  But it forced me to get it put away so they had a place to sleep!  Our room will be in a bit of chaos for a few more days until our wardrobes (that we will be assembling....) arrive and are functional.  They wardrobes are due to arrive on Thursday, and then Brad will hopefully be able to assemble over the weekend.

There are a few items I wish we had either put in storage or not brought with us like the kids Pottery Barn chairs and a lot of movies, but all in all, I think we did a pretty good job of streamlining.  The rooms are somewhat cramped, but to be expected downsizing by 2/3!!!  And I have already donated 6 bags of stuff to the Leukemia society, with many more to follow am I am sure.

I am most thankful to have my good sharp kitchen knives, my non-stick pans (although I did set off the smoke detectors making pancakes the other night), my comfy bed with lots of storage underneath, and our VERY comfortable couch and chairs in the reception room.  I am patting myself on the back for bringing all the storage bins and shelves that we did because I have utilized the majority of them.

We shall see what opinions Brad has about the placement of things when he gets home!