There's nothing like moving to remind one of just how much stuff one owns. Now that the last of our belongings has crossed the threshold to take up residence in one of the three rooms devoted nearly entirely to boxes I'm astonished and a little shamed to see so much. I made a remark about how embarrassed I am about the shear number of boxes and the three movers who overheard me rushed to tell me that ours was nowhere near as involved or stuff-ridden as most they have seen, a thought I found sweet but hard to believe. The new place is over twice as big as the old and I have absolutely no idea where we're going to put it all.

Then again, to be fair, I traded a fairly large, well-cabineted kitchen for one that is nearly fixture-free, and the basement here is fairly unusable for storage. But still.

So here we are, trying to figure it all out. I'll try to post some photos, although you know by now that I'm not so diligent about that. But I really would like to share this space with you. The original part of the house was built around 1800, as were most of the houses around (there are some gorgeously restored 250+ year old beauties nearby) and was fairly modest - two rooms down, one room up - with wide planked floors and half-log beam support underneath. The ceilings are low and there is precious little in the way of trimmings or superfluous decoration. The second construction added two rooms onto the front, one up and one down. These rooms have the deep window sills characteristic of builds circa 1840s and lovely molded plaster curving around the angles of the windows. The most recent addition to the house must have come after the family made a bit of coin (at least for their time) because the third floor and new wing not only more than doubled the size of the previous structure but also contains the dark hardwood moldings and small-plank floors typical of mid- to late-Victorian homes.

The overall effect seems to be jarring to visitors until we explain the evolution of the house, giving some kind of context for the mis-matched interiors that they may not even be conscious of noticing. After absorbing the history, almost everyone is charmed. Sure, there are soft spots in the floors and the walls aren't quite what you'd think of as level and there is that weird pattern in the floor of the Boy Wonder's bedroom that suggests generations of owners who stained around a succession of area rugs rather than just finish the whole floor but still we feel that the house is an amazing find and we feel lucky to be here. All told there are 15 rooms and three covered porches. The rooms on the third floor are not yet restored enough to be usable but I believe that they have the most potential for being made very beautiful as they have not been as "re-muddled" as those on the first two floors with overhead lighting and quirky painting choices (in terms of both colors and methods).

It's good to be home.