Andrus Foe Paws

We have lived in Hingham since 1999 in a wondeful old house (circa 1872)that we renovated to suit our needs. We didn’t really want to try to sell it because w e think we will be happy moving back to Boston after this adventure and we designed the house to be great for grandchildren and children to come visit (guest room over the garage) with a main floor master bedroom so that Joe and I don’t have to do stairs in our old age. We admit to feeling like we were rattling around in the house when it was just the two of us but we have had children moving in and out over the past few years as they looked for jobs, decided where to go to school, etc. After thinking about it for a while we decided to ask our friends Brad and Missy if they would be willing to take on the house maintenance tasks while we were gone. After all, their four children are kind of like our grandchildren…we love them dearly…and they have a daughter named Abi after our Abi. We knew that they could use the extra space, that Brad was handy and that our Abi would feel comfortable living with them if she needed to…fingers crossed…we thought they might be willing to put up with sweet Shadow if we could find a place for Pippin.After some thought, they agreed to rent their house and move in to ours if we agreed to put anything valuable or breakable that we cared about in storage. We set a date of mid October and the race was on…sort and pack, sort and pack, sort and pack…oh….and take MANY trips to the dump and Goodwill. We cancelled our trip to Ireland with Julie and she came home for a few days around Labor Day (we were all disappointed but sometimes life throws curve balls…I had thought a trip to New Zealand and Australia should be in the works if I accompanied Joe to give his PWC speech in Singapore and that wasn’t going to happen either).

Our kids were troopers. They had to make room for the “niece and nephews” to take over Jessica and Julie’s rooms which meant a total cleanout. We had to make room for at least part of the extensive library that was moving in to the house. And we needed to create play space for four kids ages 2-8. At least we didn’t have to paint walls and refinish floors. 🙂

One thing we wouldn’t miss? SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!