We were very fortunate to have Deb’s parents assist on getting organized in our new place after we got married. We each had our own established places, both 3-story townhouses, combining into one 4-bed 2.5-bath house with garage and yard (no townhouses large enough in our area to accommodate our merged stuff, so we sucked it up and bought a “real” house). Deb’s place closed first, so she moved first, and the movers hated her — over 20 boxes of books. Then my stuff came in, and the movers really hated me — 32 boxes of books. Deb’s mom & dad unpacked the books, dusted them, and put them in alphabetical order by author in the library (former owner’s first-floor office, now lined with almost-floor-to-ceiling book shelves) and the family room (four shelf units, plus shelves in the entertainment system) and the basement (three old banged-up particleboard shelf units from my ensign days, basically just for paperbacks).

Book overlap: one. Clancy’s Hunt for Red October, only mine is hardcover and Deb’s is paperback.

Deb’s mom did our kitchen, and our styles matched enough I didn’t change anything. And now that I’m cooking more at Mom’s apartment, I can just close my eyes, picture where something would be in our kitchen if it were moved to Mom’s, and I can almost always find it.

Anyway, I did pretty well in my in-laws. Not boasting, just sa — okay, sorry, boasting a little bit!