Surrounded by Stuff!

What a difference a week makes.

Since this same time a week ago, a tornado has struck the inside of our house, leaving boxes, wrapping, styrofoam pieces and.....FURNITURE in its wake.   Hallelujah, our ship came in!  While this container's entire journey dragged on through delay after delay, it literally sped through customs in less than 24 hours. On Wednesday, April 24th, we bid "good riddance" to our four month-long Survivor series, and welcomed our long-awaited household goods delivery.

A sight for sore eyes that morning!

Laborer begins taping up our interior.

Our entryway, prepped for furniture delivery.

Our new couch...

Moving in, Japanese style, is a treat to watch.  The movers arrived and their first task was taking broad sheets of cardboard which they taped along all of the walls and corners.  This preliminary step serves to protect the interior of the home as they bring in boxes and maneuver furniture.  These men labored hard for 9 hours that day, unpacking our things and assembling furniture.  By the time they left, they had not only assembled our beds and Stew's desk, they also swept up most of the debris from the floor, and removed all of the empty boxes.  Now that's service! 

There are no words to describe how it feels to sink into a new mattress after months of sleeping on the floor.  I (Lissa) am finding reasons to get to bed EARLY at night now so that I can simply lay there in luxury, allowing the mattress to swallow me whole.  

Have I mentioned that we parents are finally sharing a bed again, instead of sleeping on separate floor cushions?  

Stew's final morning at the dinette table

The yawning cavern that was our living room is now full to the gills with inviting places to sit and relax.  Each of us has staked out our favorite spot.  Lissa camps out with her laptop in her new oversized chair-and-a-half, while Stew situates himself at the end of our leather sofa.  Reading, studying and surfing is all so much more enjoyable while sitting on real living room furniture, instead of at a dinette table.  That dinette table, while adequate, has been retired with a full-sized dining room table and six chairs taking its place.  We have stowed the portable mini-speaker in favor of Pandora smooth jazz over surround-sound.  Ahhhhh.....

Home.  Finally, though it's still a bit surreal, our place FEELS like home.  At last, we feel like we really belong here, instead of living in Tokyo as long-term squatters.  In time, we'll have this mess organized and we'll get back to doing what we enjoy doing most -- opening our home to others.  As a matter of fact, our first overnight guest is due in mid-May, when Stew's brother Gary comes through Japan on business.

Thank goodness, we are back in business too!  Photos will come soon.