Laundry

We planned on moving to Florida within a few years, and the day finally came to contract a builder for our dream home.

We chose what is known as an open-floor plan: master bedroom and bath off to one side while the guest bedrooms and bath are on the other. These are separated by the great room, kitchen, and dining room. You can walk from our front door, through the great room, through the back sliding glass doors and onto the lanai where our pool is. As I said, it’s an open-floor plan.

After we signed the contracts, it was time to visit the subcontractors and pick out the roof, house paint – inside and out, windows, flooring, appliances, pool, decking, and landscaping. I never knew so much went into planning one home. I surely learned a lot about construction, planning, and building. Thank God my husband was a carpenter/handyman and had an extensive knowledge about these things.

In September of 1998, our builder called stating that he’d begun construction. He started a few months before we anticipated. What do we do now? We wanted to be in Florida to oversee the project just in case something might go wrong. We wanted to be able to catch any problem before a molehill became a mountain.

We were lucky selling our New York home. The day we put up the for-sale sign, a couple rang the bell and without looking inside, said one word: “sold!”

They loved the property and outward design of the house, but I invited them inside anyway to see the interior layout. They were thrilled and signed the contract that night.

One week later, we told our grown children to pick out the furniture they wanted. We were taking our new bedroom set and giving away the rest. By the time the kids were done with their selections, there wasn’t much left to donate. After we had chosen the items we planned on taking with us, we told our kids to take the rest – and they did. While we would have had no problem donating anything, we were equally happy knowing our kids could make use of the things we would have left behind.

We arrived in Florida at the end of October 1998 and moved into a small rental while waiting for our new home to be completed.

Finally, moving day arrived at the beginning of April 1999. We were overjoyed and could hardly wait to begin setting up our new home.

We had tossed a few items of clothing in one suitcase and decided to use those clothes until we set up the kitchen. However, the first thing we did after using our new key to open the new front door, was quickly unload the car, and put those boxes in the great room. The garage was big enough to house the small U-Haul trailer we rented. Once that was secure, we headed to the nearest supermarket, and purchased enough food to last a week. Once settled in, we’d go through the few items and then decide what we would buy during our next supermarket run.

My husband and I took pictures of the inside and outside of the house and emailed them to our kids. They were more than pleased with how everything looked. We told them that as soon as we were settled, probably in a few weeks, we would ask them to come visit.

They agreed, but insisted that rather coming down all at once, they would take turns. They had talked it over and agreed that having them here at the same time, would be completely overwhelming. Realizing that we had four children (and their families) and only two extra bedrooms, we were glad they came to that conclusion before we mentioned it.

We reminded them to pack light. After all, we had a new washer and dryer. They could launder anything they needed, when they needed it. They agreed with our logic.

Our first set of visitors was our daughter, her husband, and their two toddlers. The week went too fast and before you knew it, we were driving them to the airport for their trip back home.

We still had two sons living in Florida. They opted to be the last to visit since our third son was coming from New York. He had not yet married and said he’d like to rent his own car to take in the sights on his way from the airport. We would have had no trouble picking him up, but he insisted.

He pulled in the driveway, got out of the beautiful bright red truck, and gave his dad and me tight hugs.

It was about then that we realized why he wanted to rent his own vehicle. After opening the back hatch, he pulled out two very large duffle bags and one small carry-on suitcase. The odor from the duffle bags was a bit intense. Not quite unbearable, but intense.

My husband looked at him and jokingly asked, “Your bags stink. What do have them, body parts?”

Our son answered, “Well, you said to pack light because you have a new washer and dryer. I just thought I’d help you break them in and brought my laundry.”

I wanted to remind him that I said, “pack light …” but instead inquired, “Just how much laundry did you bring?”

To which he replied, “All of it.”

We rested that entire day, but the next day, I shooed them both out to fish while I spent the next several hours washing, drying, and folding our son’s laundry and airing out his duffle bags.

During a barbecue dinner of burgers with homemade salads, we had enjoyed a hearty laugh over the laundry event.

Once again, the week sped by and while we smiled and waved as he was driving towards the airport, I said to my husband, “he didn’t bring enough laundry.”

My husband looked baffled. I answered his look by saying, “If he’d brought more, maybe he’d still be here while I washed it.”