Before & After

Has this ever happened to you?

You wake up on Moving Day and BoInG off the air mattress on the floor. You are tingly from head to toes with anticipation of what's to come. All worldly possessions will finally be returned to you after their Trans-Atlantic voyage.

It's like Christmas in February.

Or whatever month Uncle Sam chooses.

You may think to yourself,

Oooooohhhh! The king sized pillow top mattress . . .

Goody-goody-gosh! Can't wait for the rest of the kitchen gadgets . . .

Oh, boy! The real TV . . .

Of course, you've jumped ahead of yourself a bit & have envisioned all of that (& more, lots & lots more) in your new Haus. Perfectly clean & properly placed.

You are snapped back to reality when you hear the semi-truck outside your new residence.

MoverDudes ding-dong the door bell & announce (Hopefully in English. But you can deal with whatever they toss your way. Keep thinking of the prize . . . those 800 thread count sheets are out there somewhere.) that they are here with the first truck. They'll bring the other 7 crates after these are downloaded.

Wha . . . huh?

You mean there's more?

Guess it's a good thing you had that second bowl of Frosted Flakes this morning. You toss your Man the bingo sheet to track the inventory. You threaten your children with no TV for a whole week - that's right, not just any ol' TV, I'm talking Disney & Nick - if they dare peek out of the basement.

You stand akimbo, a determined look on your face, ready to direct box traffic & finish off this PCS pronto.

And, just after crate "Rockin'Bauer #8 out of 16" gets dumped on your front lawn, You may think to yourself . . . Oh. My. Goodness! This is barely half! But, you'll suck down another big glass of iced tea & deal.

Yeah, I know. You are a military wife. You do this all the time.

You are also a HausFrau. Go work the magic, girl. It's what you do best.

See? That wasn't so bad was it?

Except for the fact that the MirrorHangingFairy has failed to make an appearance, the downstairs is looking rather dashing.

Especially, if dashing can be defined by many, many second hand items displayed in every nook & cranny. By the way friends, if you happen to see anything that you might recognize, you probably do. I most likely bought your stuff at SubourbonHausFrau's Boutique and am attempting to pass it off as antique, unique, European, exotic &/or expensive.

Speaking of second hand . . . the dining room table with its double-pedestal & 6 chairs is now ours thanks to a mere $500 & a bit of luck with Craig List. Like the sheer curtains? 10 bucks at the thrift shop.

Not the best-ever kitchen, not the worst.

Not the cleanest either. But, while I was not cleaning the kitchen last night, I did manage to win $5 at Bunco.

In the picture below, if you make squinty eyes & look from left to right, you can see into the dining room, kitchen, past the entryway & into the office. And, you'll notice the "before" picture on our TV.

Yep, that's right. HGTV. On my TV! How fun is that?

Like our new sofa? I managed to get the guy who sold us the dining table to give up his couch too, for $200. He also parted with the mirror over the mantle. For free.

Lucky for him, I didn't see anything else in his condo that I wanted before I was escorted from the premises.

What about the bedrooms, you might ask? Well, let's just say that I chose to goof off on the computer instead of making beds, dusting dressers and vacuuming floors.

Surely, that's happened to you before. Like now?