We love looking back at our Day One photos from our previous house, so we did the same for our new home — on the day all our big furniture finally arrived — and snapped these shots. The place already feels like home. What do you think?
The living room:
The kitchen:
Other side of the kitchen:
The office:
The dining room:
The guest room:
The hall bathroom:
The spare room:
Clara’s room — we worked quickly to make it feel like home and to give her a comfortable place to sleep.
This is her room a few hours later:
I’m so grateful she’s already enamored with the place.
Here’s our bedroom on Day One — I was screwing the headboard back into place. Quick tip: a power drill will give you an accidental bouffant.
This move we tried a different approach because we had overlap between houses. Instead of loading everything into one big truck and moving in a single day like last time, we shuttled car-loads of smaller items whenever we were at the new house. When we were laying flooring or working on specific rooms, we brought a load of related supplies and smaller furniture each day.
It looked chaotic, but it worked well for small and medium items. Driving a few miles in the car instead of packing everything into a rough moving van reduced the need for bubble wrap and boxes. We could place things into the car thoughtfully without meticulously wrapping every frame. Packing and unpacking were faster and produced less waste — no box graveyard this time.
We also organized a Family Caravan: John’s parents brought their larger cars and we transported bigger pieces like dining chairs and consoles in a three-vehicle convoy. It was surprising how much we could move this way.
For the largest items — beds, dressers, the sectional, the dining table, daybeds and big armchairs — we still needed a moving truck and hired help. We recruited a team of four movers recommended by John’s sister. Because we’d disassembled furniture and packed in advance, we hired them just for the heavy lifting and kept the job to a few hours. That approach saved money and sped the move: the big pieces were at the new house by lunchtime.
With the heavy lifting handled, we still had time and energy to assemble rooms, focusing first on Clara’s so she could feel settled. John, recovering from installing hardwood floors, was grateful to avoid extra manual work. I also took a moment for a good-luck fist pump when I saw our U-Haul bore my home state’s name — small rituals help on big days.
One practical tip: use small zip-top bags and a Sharpie when disassembling furniture. Bag the screws, label each bag with where it belongs, and stash them in your purse or a clearly marked box. It saves enormous time and prevents the frantic search for tiny parts later.
My other tip is to take time to soak it in. We paused to take a few cheerful, nerdy photos throughout the day. Stopping for small moments like that keeps spirits up during long stretches of carrying, pausing, and carrying again.
Also, apparently I’m a windowsill ninja.
So that was Day One, plus a few moving tips. The accidental bouffant is gone, I’ve survived top-of-the-car loading duties, the sofa is reassembled, the office is less of a chair convention, and the house is slowly coming together — though it’s still a bit chaotic.
We can’t wait to share more photos as we continue to settle in and finish the rooms.