We are so sad that summer is officially over, but are looking forward to the Fall! Sheena especially is SO glad that she can dive into her favorite season of the year! Sweaters, tall boots, scarves and colorful leaves! We can’t wait to share our fall fashion, kids, culture and FOOD ideas with you this season!
Sheena’s summer this year was a whirlwind! She and her family have decided to pack up and move to Holmdel, NJ and are so excited for this new chapter in their lives. She has lived in Middlesex County her whole life and to move to another county all together is a huge deal – almost like moving to another state! Sheena’s summer revolved around their home, whether it was listing their current home or working on building their new construction home in Holmdel all while having 3 crazy boys with no school. Because everything was in such limbo, she had a hard time managing where and what everyone will be doing at any given time, which for Sheena is a big deal as she is such a planner. Between keeping the house in perfect condition for selling (which is nearly impossible with three little guys living in it), to the kids commitments and hubby being swamped at work, it was a challenge to say the least.
Old Home:
With a January 2018 ready date for their new home, Sheena decided that listing their old home in the Spring/Summer of 2017 would be their best bet so they don’t miss that selling season before their new home is ready. As we’re sure some of you know, selling a home is the most stressful thing because you just don’t know when what is going to happen and you are in a constant state of the unknown. It is also a very emotionally challenging experience. Once listed, the home had to be spic and span for open houses and private showings, so Sheena felt like she was always running around cleaning everything, shoving things into the closets and cabinets and yelling at the kids to put all their toys away. She couldn’t really start packing either because again the unknown of when the house would sell. She didn’t want to leave boxes around the house during showings. She also had this superstition about jumping the gun and starting to pack too early.
So the summer for her on this front really consisted of selling this house. They did end up selling mid July and the buyers wanted to move in August 1st!!! Of course, that is when Sheena went into panic mode! Packing a house in 2 weeks seemed near impossible but she really didn’t have a choice. Luckily she had help from her sisters which made it more manageable. She refused to hire a company to pack her belongings because she is a complete control freak and couldn’t imagine someone else packing her stuff. She also wanted to purge a little on the way, but quickly realized that was near impossible with such a tight deadline. The plus side was that they sold all the furniture in the home to the buyers, so she didn’t have to worry about packing any furniture items. Tips on packing a home in under 3 weeks below!
New Home:
Soooo…Sheena’s new home was slated to be ready by January 2018, however, due to major construction delays, they are looking at a new close date of August 2018! We know, we know, insane, right?!?! We guess with new construction, you never know (yup, add another unknown to our list)! The summer has also mainly consisted of building this home. Picking out a layout, interior finishes, walk-throughs, construction meetings, etc etc… It, for some time, had taken over their lives. However, they are super excited of what is to come and can’t wait for it to be ready.
In-Between:
Sheena’s plan was, between the time they sell their old home and when their new home is ready, she, hubby and the boys would live in Edison with her parents. They have the space, it would be amazing for the kids to spend that much time with their grandparents and she with her parents as well. Living there for 5 months didn’t seem so bad and she would drop and pick the kids up from their charter school in Somerset without a problem. As of now, that is working out great, however, with the delay in construction, God knows if living with parents is something she can survive for almost a year when she’s become used to not living with them since she was 18 years old. Time will tell this portion of the story. As of now, the family is all settled in with Nani and Nana, routine is set and everyone is comfortable. Of course, Sheena and Mommy Vaid are still working on adjusting to each other in one space, but they are plowing through the hurdles best they can.
Kids:
With the limbo of buying and selling a home, the kids plans were always up in the air. Sheena signed them up for different mini-camps as signing up them up for a full summer camp wasn’t an option. She didn’t know when the house would sell and how fast they would have to move out. They couldn’t really travel because of showings, couldn’t play as freely at home, stay in the same camps as their friends or even have their six flags trips. Sheena was mostly stressed about the home, so it took away from them. Unfortunately, the boys didn’t get the exact summer experience they were hoping for, but she tried to make it the best she could.
Packing Tips:
Sheena learned a few things along the way of packing up her home and is sharing…
- Start as early as possible! Sheena is the definition of a procrastinator. Her sense of how long something will take is completely skewed and more than often she thinks she can get stuff done a lot quicker than she really can. In her mind, she though, 11 rooms on the top two floors should take about 11-12 days (giving the kitchen two days) if she did a room a day and the basement, she gave another couple of days. Boy was she wrong, it is all so overwhelming that she kept jumping from room to room because she couldn’t focus on any one room at any given time. She was also trying to purge at the same time (at the beginning) and realized it was taking way longer than she thought to do that.
- Have supplies ready and in abundance! She loaded up on boxes, tape, bubble wrap and sharpie markers. She quickly realized that going to home depot every other day to buy more supplies was becoming a nuisance so she just overbought everything in one round and was more efficient in packing.
- Trash bags are awesome, the heavy duty ones though. Most movers say to stay away from trash bags but she loved them because they were perfect for those smushy, plush items and that just morph and fit into spaces in-between other items.
- News papers for dishes/bowls. She took stacks of newspapers and put dishes inbetween the pages as the bubble wrap was just too space consuming for that. (check out her instagram for a visual on that tip)
- Boxes: She bought most of her boxes at Home Depot. They were the most cost efficient and very sturdy. She also got a lot of boxes from ShopRite, in the dairy department. They have the egg boxes which are great for kitchen stuff, they have cut out handles in them, cardboard sections and are heavy duty. To get those boxes, she would either call the night before to have them hold them for her or go early in the morning to pick them up, otherwise they shred the boxes by 11am.
- Mark ALL your boxes on two sides so you aren’t busy flipping boxes over to find where it goes.
- Have everything ready for the movers on moving day. The more organized you are with your boxes and bags, they more efficient the movers will be with moving. If you aren’t ready, don’t rush the move, it will just be that much more frustrating and not enjoyable.
- Lastly, HAVE FUN! This is the last of this home and you want to enjoy your families last few days there. They sure did 🙂
Love the wall art in that two story room! Post a link please!