I hate moving. The kicker is that I am going to have to do it again in about eight months. At least then it might feel as though I am moving home. Right now, I am living in a rental. It is not home. Since arriving home from the Philippines, life has been a whirlwind. The buyers for our house were given until the 22nd of April to find a buyer for their house. They did. When we first accepted their offer, we never looked closely at the closing date that they had specified. We wish we had. We were to close a week before the last day of school. They were unwilling to change the date due to a family wedding. Life jumped into hyper-speed on the moving front. We moved our store room and other miscellaneous boxes that I had succeeded in packing on April 27. The next weekend, after having my parents here for the weekend, we moved another load to our temporary storage.
Our final move began on May 15th. Earlier in the week I had texted our new landlord asking when we could pick up the keys from him. This was my text, "Hey Luke just wondering when we can pick up keys next week. We would like to be able to get started moving Thursday morning." Luke's response: "I will be moving Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon so you can swing by anytime after 4:30 and grab keys." Would you assume that we could pick up keys at 4:30 and that he would be finished moving by Wednesday afternoon? That's what we thought. When we arrived on Wednesday at 4:30, Luke was not even home. We had brought a trailer full of boxes. We called him and he immediately panicked and said he was not finished moving or cleaning. That was obvious since he still had his living room furniture in the house...and his two Turner and Hooch dogs. I peaked through the living room window and saw his huge dogs drooling all over the carpet. Ughghgh, I could not believe I was going to be living here. I was already grossed out.
Luke told Chris where the front door key was and he let us begin moving all of our boxes to the basement. Great, I wanted to move them all back upstairs later! Chris went in first and put the dogs in the backyard. As I opened the back door from the garage, the dogs were standing there growling at me. I shouted to Chris that the dogs were in the house. He asked if I was sure. Duh! I HATE dogs. Totally can't stand their smell, their mess, anything about them. Sorry, if that offends. I HATE dogs. Even more now.
Apparently these dogs were able to open the sliding door if it wasn't locked. Chris took the dogs to the back yard once again, this time making sure to lock the sliding door. We got busy unloading the trailer. All of sudden, the dogs were in the front yard. What the heck! They could get out of the side yard as well. At least they didn't take off running. Chris put the dogs back in the back yard, and padlocked the side gate.
We set off to unloading the trailer. The smell of the garage was horrendous. The steps into the house were covered in a mixture of mud and dog poop. Can you believe living with that and not ever bothering to clean it up? Again, the smell was so awful. I cringed every time I stepped on those steps and tracked more crap in to the house. We finished unloading (in the rain) and then returned home to begin loading up two more trailers. We wouldn't be able to unload them, but at least we could utilize the friends Chris had asked to help in moving heavy furniture so we were ready to go in the morning. It took all evening to move couches, beds, the piano, and dressers.
Around 10 pm, I called Luke again to find out when we could get the keys from him. He wanted us to come over then. No worries, we weren't exhausted or anything. He was busy "cleaning" and getting ready to steam clean the carpets. We picked up keys and headed home to bed. We slept on mattresses on the floor.
Thursday morning dawned early for us. We headed early to the house to begin cleaning and set up a few things. I was just sick at the disgusting state of the home. Luke's version of clean was not even on my scale of acceptable. There was dog snot, drool, and dirt all over the baseboards and half way up the walls. The kitchen cabinets were coated in a greasy film. As much as I would have liked to stay and continue with the cleaning, I had to return home with Chris to start the moving process.
We had great friends who came to help move on Thursday morning and afternoon. We were mostly done around 3 pm and figured we could get the last items on Friday when we returned to clean our home. A dear friend had offered to come and help me clean. She cleaned the bathrooms while I got started on the kitchen. In the middle of that, I had to take Kristen for her yearly check up. It had already been rescheduled by the Dr.'s office twice; I didn't want to have to put it off longer. I went in my cleaning/moving clothes and sat exhaustedly in the office waiting. I couldn't even relax. There was just so much to think about doing. Kristen was healthy.
We returned to find Lois working on the third bathroom. I finished working in the kitchen and then started to unpack a few things. The house was somewhat clean, but I still cringed to walk on carpets or place things on counter tops. There was so much more to do. We ordered pizza for an easy dinner.
I vacuumed and each room filled up the dust bin. So disgusting. I could get through this for the next eight months. Maybe by the time I leave, the house will have begun to smell better.
Our first night in the rental was uneventful. Amy and Misha were now able to walk or ride their bikes to school. I opted to keep Amy out of school for the morning so she could help us with the final boxes, packing, and cleaning at the house. She was a stellar helper during this move. Misha was given the choice to stay home for the morning and "help". She opted to go to school. No option for Kristen, she was just off to school.
My visiting teacher came to help clean at the house. So grateful for thoughtful friends. As much as I think I can do things on my own, I need help. I needed a lot of help. As it was, we were still cleaning and getting the final boxes out of the house. The buyer and her realtor came for a walk through at 9 am. We told them we would be out of the house by 11 am so that they could get their carpet cleaner in. We had closing at 1 pm in Westminster. We pulled the last boxes and plants out of the house at 11 am. Chris and I both had our tearful moments. We loved this house. It wasn't ours anymore. I was moving to a cesspool. I was pretty depressed. Only eight months.
We closed on our house at 1 pm and walked away with a tidy little sum. We'll need it. The teller at the bank said that if she had that much money she'd buy at least three cars! She had never handled such a large check before. Me neither.
Saturday was another full day of cleaning. Lois came back again and cleaned out window sills and washed down doors for me. My girls cleaned doors and baseboards. It was easiest to send Kristen to play with her friend who now shared a back fence with us. We made great progress. We can't wait for our new home to be finished.
