The move

The movers came. We packed and packed. I am so grateful to my girlfriend L. She came down from Seattle and sweated and packed. The house was hot and dirty. Things were dusty and dirty. Some items had never been unpacked because we always thought of C as a stepping stone to Tom's career.

When the company didn't expand as planned and the economy tanked, Tom decided to go independent. He is so happy to be back in our old town. He and the boys and I love the new house.

We toasted it well on moving day. I am told that upwards of 50 people came to party with us. Friends I hadn't seen in a while came to say hello. They brought wine and beer and other drinks. One friend who didn't drink had to go out and buy more pop as I hadn't provided anything. I had advertised BYOB and an hor d'ouvre. I provided the location, which is all I was able to do with the movers wanting me to tell them where to put furniture just hours before the party. With all the guests providing food, the party went off with much laughter and enjoyment as we gave multiple tours of the house.

If it didn't get unpacked or have a home by 2:00pm, the item went into the basement or garage. I was thrilled the place looked this good in that amount of time. The bedrooms upstairs were full of boxes, but it was a "Before Party". The beds were in place and the book shelves. Everyone got the idea of how it would look when we were done.

Tom had borrowed a power washer from a friend. The front of the house looked awesome. He had blown away the weeds in the seams of the walk way and the spider webs around the eaves and front porch. He didn't have time to complete the power wash of the back deck but it was much better. He had removed the spider webs and brought the mess down to acceptable levels.

When we drove up on Friday evening and I saw him, after all his power washing, he was covered from head to foot in mud. He was a dark filthy mess. He wanted a hug and kiss as his reward for hard work. I gave him a peck on the cheek and told him to shower. I gave him the requisite hug and kiss when he came back after showering and changing. He had missed the inside of his ears though. You could still see a film of mud. It took three showers before he was truly clean. He is a hard working when given a power tool.

He wants to take out a few trees in the yard. I noticed some offer good shade to the deck on sunny days, rare though sunny days are this year. I think we are in agreement as to most of which trees to remove. First the berries need to go. The steel weed eater needs some work to get started.

The views are stunning from the bedroom windows and on the deck. I love the whole house. We have to figure out the bathroom light switches. Every bathroom has five to eight switches. Only one turns on the lights. The bathrooms have one of those fancy fans with heat, fan and light. I am guessing the switches are for the fan, but it is hard to tell as over 50% of the light bulbs are out.

I have to focus on getting the old house ready before I can work on the new house, so I haven't had time for light bulbs or missing closet rods. I just want to be fully out of C. Get the new renters in.

I haven't heard anything more on the old renters, but my property manager says the deposit check has not cleared the bank yet. Not a good sign. I figure worst case scenario is the most we would be out would be a couple weeks rent. Tom doesn't think even that, as she was the one who canceled. I am just glad she is not our tenant. I couldn't even hire people to spread the bark nicely enough for her. I worked my tail off getting that yard weeded and barked and she called to say the job wasn't done to her satisfaction. When she said she wanted out, I was fine accepting. The yard looks lovely barked, though I miss my beautiful flowers and the mint.

I am waiting now on the Direct TV installation. I am told it will take three hours for all we want done. It is free for being such long term customers. I wanted to take advantage and have lines put in the basement for when we finish the space downstairs. The system in the house turned out to be dish net. Direct TV has the football package Tom likes, so everything has to be switched out. The party room didn't even have any lines, so new lines have to be run. We did find a line of sight that might work. You never know for sure until the remote is in your hands and the TV is working.

The front door bell doesn't work so we have had people standing out there waiting for us, until they figure out to knock hard. The house is so big that the boys can't hear the front door in the play room. I told the telephone installer yesterday to honk his horn in his car to get the boys' attention. Tom arrived home before the telephone guy was finished. That was a painful installation. I called at 8:30 to confirm our order and was told yes some time between 8 and noon. After noon I called back and was told the scheduled time was for after 4:00pm. I was not happy having waited all morning. Not wasted time as I had plenty of unpacking to do.

Tom had woken at 5:00am and had no clean pants that he could find. He asked me to get up and find him some clothes for work. I dug around in a couple of gigantic boxes until I found some packed clean pants. He had been snoring during the night and I had gotten up to find some ear plugs unsuccessfully. I finally stuffed little shreds of toilet paper in my ears, so I could sleep. I was motivated to tackle our room so I wouldn't have to wake at 5:00am again.

I found some of my ear plugs in the drawer of the side table right next to the bed. Life does not have to be this difficult. I also located most of Tom's pants, though I can't hang them as the rods haven't been installed in the closet yet. But I put them where they could be found easily.

This morning Tom bent over to kiss me before leaving and I almost broke his nose when I flailed out of a deep sleep, ear plugs located and silence prevailing. Slowly we are making progress.

I told a friend I might need to do a welcome to the neighborhood garage sale. All that stuff that I packed and don't love anymore as it was so much flipping work to move.

The movers wanted to know how good a job they did. All I can say is they were worth every penny. They didn't get it all. I was more like a three and a half truck move. They also left a few things, like the shelves to a book case. A lot is my own fault for not being completely prepared. I am messy and without my mom and my girlfriend it would have been even a worse disaster. The movers split the difference. They had bid me $6000 if they did all the packing and moving. $1500 for just moving. We ended up at $2800. There was still a lot of packing to do when they arrived. Usually they pack and the next day load and the day after that deliver. We crammed packing the house and packing the truck into the same day so it made for a full first day. Unloading went much faster. Nothing like a party to go to to motivate me.

We are in and half unpacked but now I really need to be in C. getting the house ready. The boys are going to a play date. Trevor is supposed to be at conditioning, but it is a unique summer for us this year. I can let this week slide. Next week starts real football camp on the 17Th. I had better find out what time. I need to let the school know we are not homeless, that we have a real legitimate address now.