new house

Furniture and Settling

/ rachelgoes262 / Leave a comment

Everyone rearranges their home differently. Furniture placement often depends on how the room is laid out. The placement of windows, doors and electrical outlets can dictate how you set up a room. For me specifically, I set mine up in a way that maximizes cat comfort. That means access to all windows and plenty of play space.

When we were in the apartment and later in the old house, I have always had my window AC unit in my bedroom. I need it to be able to sleep at night in the summer. The bedroom is also typically a smaller room that is easier to cool than the living room or other large rooms in the house. 

In the new house, room layout has made it so that my window AC unit cannot be in the bedroom (for multiple reasons). It must be in some other room. I narrowed down the options to one of two windows. One window in the sunroom and one window in the living room. The AC unit is in the living room.

A few weeks ago, when we were under the first heat dome of the summer, I was struggling to sleep because the AC unit is not in the bedroom. I have a fan in the bedroom, but it is not enough. I decided that I wanted to pull the bed out of the couch and sleep in the living room near the AC unit for a few nights.

The way my living room is currently set up for everyday use does not leave enough space to pull the bed out of the couch. I had to rearrange the furniture to be able to do that.

It sounds simple enough. Somehow, when I went to do it, rearranging furniture was not simple. It was simple to physically do, but not emotionally. 

You see, in the old house. My furniture placement was dictated by the neighbors. Yes, I know. It sounds crazy. But when the people across the street drive their truck into the front of your house, you seriously reconsider furniture placement.

When they drove the truck into the front of the old house, they drove up over the curb, over the sidewalk, into the bushes in front of the house, and into the front porch before stopping. I was woken up in the night by the crash. Luckily, I was sleeping in my bed in my bedroom. It was not a night when I had fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie. If that truck had come into the house any farther, it would have been in my living room. 

The sheriff officer who responded even mentioned that I might want to be careful using my living room because it would probably happen again. I emptied the entire living room. I rearranged all the furniture in my house in way that if they drove into the house again and came in further, we would be safe. I started actively discouraging the cats from being in that room. 

Anyone who came into my house thought the furniture was set up weird. That’s because the neighbors drove into the front of my house. The Sheriff told me to expect it to happen again. 

There was half a house I could not use at the old house due to neighbor issues. It wasn’t safe. In addition to the vehicles driving into the house, there was the gunfire and the deliberate aiming of fireworks at the house that all happened on the side of the house facing those bad neighbors. 

When I went back to the old house at the end of August 2025 with the moving truck to take everything out before the sale, the one neighbor across the street threatened the two men I had hired to load the truck for me. It was a nerve-wracking move. It was so nerve wracking that I completely forgot all the items in the garage and one item in the basement that I had wanted to take with me. Things were left behind (like all my snow shovels).

I was fortunate in that kind people helped with our Amazon wish list once we were in the new house and replaced some of the items that got left behind like the snow shovels. I did not intend to leave items behind. It’s just that we were trying to get everything out of that house as fast as possible before that neighbor escalated and there was gunfire or police involvement (not that they would have responded).

The men who loaded the truck held their ground with the threatening neighbor. They made sure I left first and they followed me. They did tell me after that they were close to calling the troopers due to his behavior but wanted to just get the truck loaded and out of there as quickly as possible.

In the new house, it has been hard to overcome that programming from the old house that I have to keep everything as contained as possible and cannot spread out in my own house for safety reasons. 

When I rearranged the furniture so I could pull the bed out of the couch, that was hard emotionally. In fact, I only slept on the couch one night. I did not sleep well. I was scared. I know we are safe here and that no one here will drive into the front of the house, but I was still scared.

The other challenge in all this is that I have not really used the garage or the basement in the new house due to the experience we had with moving. 

I do have some items in the garage. Part of the issue with the garage is that when I bought this house, there was a lot of stuff left in it from the previous owner. I have all that stuff piled in the garage. I am working with someone (a “junk” truck) to come and take all that stuff from the prior owner out of my garage. So, I do have things, like the lawnmower and the roof rake, that I want to put in the garage and are currently in my sunroom due to the fact there is no room in the garage to put them. 

Once all the stuff from the prior owner is gone, I have things I want to put in the garage. I will put them there.

The basement is a harder location for me to handle. So many times, when the neighbors at the old house were being abusive, the basement is where we had to hide. It was the safest place from the booming and from the bullets. 

Now that we are safe in the new house, I don’t want to go to the basement. I go down every morning to check the live mouse traps and that is it. 

Right before the heat dome started this summer, I did put a few things in the basement that needed to be kept cooler. I put the WD-40 and a few other items down there. So, I am finally using the basement in this house. There is one tote bin of items in the basement.

Obviously, it’s going to take time to settle into this house. I have a lot of traumas with the daily neighbor harassment, boom cars, and attempted arson that we lived through. We are grateful to finally live someplace safe where we are not being harassed daily. I can finally sleep through the night without someone pounding on my door at all hours of the night. 

Rearranging furniture is an issue I need to work though. I can arrange my furniture in any way I want. We can safely use this entire house. We no longer must live in fear of people driving their truck into the front of the house or of fireworks being deliberately shot at the house from directly in front of it. 

We are so grateful to now live in a house we can safely use. I just need to get used to the idea that I am safe to sleep in my living room if I want. 

Smaller Space

/ rachelgoes262 / 4 Comments

Back in August, I had started a blog post about the forced exodus from our old house due to abusive neighbors. I wrote about the attempted arson and daily harassment we experienced that necessitated that we leave under extreme duress for temporary safe housing that I only disclosed to very few people. It made sense to write about it at the time I was living it, especially when everyone in that area (except the attorney) was normalizing the abuse we experienced. 

Reading that now, I relived what we lived through this summer. It was very traumatizing. I am not ready to talk about or post about the attempt on our lives that occurred this summer and the subsequent daily harassment we experienced by the neighbors. 

Suffice it to say, we are now in permanent housing several hours away from those horrible people. We are safe. We no longer experience daily harassment, abuse or threats. We can sleep through the night without being deliberately woken up. I can walk outside safely without being physically attacked. 

It was very hard to leave an area and a community I was part of for over 20 years. We were literally bullied out of our home we had known for decades due to two families who were engaging in various criminal activities.

Now that we are in a safe place, I am learning a completely new location This is the hardest move I have made since the 90s. 

When we initially left, I could only take the cats in the car and whatever I could fit in the trunk. We had to arrange the leaving at a safe time when I would not be physically attacked or otherwise physically prevented from leaving. A few weeks later, when I went back with a moving truck to move all my belongings out of the old house, the moving men were threatened with assault by the neighbors. It was a rough situation.

I had spent all summer downsizing and minimizing the house. I knew we would be moving to a smaller space, even though I did not know where we were going. 

When they say, you and your belongings grow and increase to match the size of the space in which you live, that saying is true. 

While I got rid of over three truckloads of stuff before the move, it was eye opening to see how much I really have now that we are living someplace that is literally half the size of the house we fled. 

At first, it was encouraging to find that all my belongings fit into a 16-foot moving truck with room to spare. I had friends who kept saying I had way too much stuff and there was no way everything would fit into a 16-foot moving truck. To my surprise and delight, they were wrong! 

All my belongings were stored in the moving truck for about 8 days before we could get into permanent housing. To be honest, I mostly forgot about what was in there. 

The cats and I were in temporary safe housing with only what had fit into the trunk of my car. It was very freeing as well as eye opening to see how little we needed on a day-to-day basis. What was most important was that the cats and I were together through the entire ordeal and that we were all safe. 

While I was elated that all my belongings fit into a 16-foot moving truck with room to spare, moving into our new home was a bit of a comedown. With half the living space, it now feels like I have way too much stuff. 

We have only been in our new home for a month. In addition to unpacking and getting settled in our new home, I am learning a new area, working full-time, attending to all our medical needs, and had to deal with the fact that Sophie was totaled in this transition. 

It’s been a lot of change and a lot of trauma.

When it snows this winter and things slow down, minimizing will be back on my radar again in full force. This house feels cluttered with all our stuff in it. It is overwhelming. Therefore, things need to be removed.

I’ve seen how little we needed when we were living the emergency those few weeks in temporary safe housing. We do not need all the stuff in the new house with us now. 

The biggest difference between the temporary safe house and our permanent home is that when we were in temporary housing, we were in an urban area. It was easy to get things there and access resources such as groceries and laundry. In our new permanent home, on-site laundry is a necessity. Other necessities we need in our permanent home that were not relevant in temporary housing include emergency supplies for winter, as we are not in an urban area close to amenities. 

If people get more things to fill a larger space, then we must conversely get rid of things to fit a smaller space. 

Our weeks in temporary housing showed me how little we need. The challenge will be curating the items in our permanent home down to what will fit here without being cluttered. 

On top of everything I am doing trying to get settled in a new area, I am also trying to take time for me. The cats and I need to heal from all the abuse we suffered at the hands of the neighbors. Jolene especially has been traumatized. She had always been a friendly, outgoing cat until the summer when the neighbors escalated. Now she is timid and fearful. We are all still mourning Jude. I feel so guilty I could not get him out of that house before he passed. We all have a lot of trauma to process as the result of the daily harassment we experienced and attempt on our lives. 

This winter expect to see a return to minimalism as we acclimate to a smaller space. I’m now looking at it with fresh eyes after our experience being in temporary housing for so long and having to flee our prior house under extreme threat and duress. I have a lot of “comfort items” that were not comforting and not needed when we were living the emergency. You don’t realize how little you need until you can only leave with a very small, space restricted amount of stuff. 

The good news is, that chapter of our life of horror is behind us. We have a new chapter ahead. While it has it’s challenges, we are all safe and no longer in physical danger. We can finally get back to our roots at Rewind Live Slow.