Stage One of Moving Over

The bulk of our household goods are now on their way to Kansas. They'll arrive in August. What remains here now - clothes, dinnerware/cookware - will be sent by express shipment in a few weeks. Express shipment means that they should arrive, by plane (the bulk shipment will arrive by ship then truck, etc), by the time we arrive in Kansas (late July). However, we have heard from others that their bulk arrived before their express.

I care about the most about the following items making it through their journey:

• Our household goods arrive in one piece. I expect some minor damage - but, no major damage, thank you very much (Actually, if the entertainment center gets destroyed, I am perfectly okay with that. I didn't even want to ship it in the first place as it's old and falling apart. DH, however, thinks it's great).
  
• I recently purchased about a year supply of Portuguese wine (and a few bottles left over from our Italy trip). By this, I mean a little more than one bottle a week (Matt's a beer drinker and I go through about one bottle a week) and not including Port (which I cook with weekly when making marinara sauce) and other dessert wines we've picked up along the way. Anyway, aside from a few really fantastic bottles of wine to share on special occasions, the rest of it is good table wine bought at steals. As in, we would have not have purchased this much wine for this little money in the US. Who doesn't like a good steal on good alcohol? Some Americans do not like Portuguese wine as much as we do, favoring younger, somewhat sweeter wines. But, Matt and I both have acquired a taste for the wine here and love it (he does drink it from time to time - his preference is usually beer, however).
• I also purchased at least a six month supply of locally produced olive oil. Much of it organic - also at total steals.
• Matt would want me to add his beer making supplies to the list. He will totally flip out if his supplies do not make it one piece!

Overall, the pack-out went well. I don't even recall Matt and I getting into one fight (believe me, moving and packing out is usually really stressful)! The chaos is now over, we've received loaner furniture, to use for the next few weeks, before we move into temporary lodging for 10-days before heading to the US, first to visit family, and then to our new home - either in Kansas or Missouri (we are looking to buy a house off-post this time).

I'm excited to buy a new house. This may be where the difficulties begin. I want a house with a lot of light, a kick-ass kitchen (gas, preferably) with a pantry (DH has to face it, I am passionate about cooking now. I plan on making most of our bread, yogurt, mozzarella cheese, buttermilk, cream, ice cream, marinara sauces and so on. I need room to store flour and grains in bulk for the making of bread and baked goods, etc.), hardwood floors, decent storage space and a fenced-in back yard. I'd also like four bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Oh, and I do not want to live more than 15-minutes away from post. Is this too much to ask? Probably...