Monday, April 7, 2008

Moving Day...The day from HADES

Sooo...it's been two weeks ago today we moved.  My memory is getting fuzzy on all the details and I can assure you, that's a good thing.  Otherwise, we're going to be in this house until the day we die.

The day we moved, I thought I was GOING to die.  We got up at 7 am, got the kids dressed and dropped them off at the in-laws.  My mother in law took two weeks off to spend with her mother, who went on vacation with us and stayed the week after, too.  So thankfully, someone was there to keep the kids.  If they hadn't been...let's just say that an already impossible situation would have been...stink, I don't know.  Even more impossible.

I went to pick up breakfast and some milk for the kids to take back to the in-laws.  Keep in mind, they used to live about 5 minutes away from us.  So I'm on my way back to their house to give them the milk and I get a call from Hubby who had to go to the final inspection at our new house.  The final inspection for the CURRENT house we've not yet moved out of is in an hour.  WHAT?!  It's 9 am.  No one bothered to tell us the final inspection with the buyers was at 10 today or are they pulling another one of their inconvenient stunts and doing everything last minute?  Well, it was me, my father in law, and Hubby loading up a packed to the gills 3 bedroom house with enough toys alone to fill up the smallest u-haul available.  We got the biggest and wound up STILL having to take stuff to our neighbors and had two cars plus my van full of stuff.  It was insane.  Long story short, the stupid realtor walked it with his lip up to his nose, looking like we were scum and said, "Well, I guess since you went on vacation last week you didn't have time to pack."

It was one of those moments I want to go back to and say #1.  What business is it of yours?  And #2.  If you want us moved out quicker, pick up a box and help us yourself, dingbat.  I will forever remember how mad I was at that little comment.  I saw how angry everyone was that we were ready to move.  Closing wasn't until 2 that afternoon, we hadn't got the u-haul until 7 that morning.  When are you supposed to move when you have two kids?  A week before just so your ready for the final inspection?  Ugh.

THEN, we got my mother in law, who left my kids with her mother and my sister-in-law, to come help us.  We upped our "man" power by half.  Between my fat pregnant lard butt and her, we equaled MAYBE one scrawny man.  We did get the smaller stuff out and was able to put it by the u-haul so the men didn't have to waste time going back and forth.  So we were SOME help.  So, for the next 3 hours, we slaved, sweat and pulled muscles to get ready for them to come back at 1.  We pulled it off just as they were arriving.  BUT, we hadn't been able to clean much.  We vacuumed and swept, but that was about it.  The floors were HORRENDOUS because I refused to mop once we had a contract.  So for six weeks, my floors were abused by Punky and Chicken at dinner time.  I fully intended to have time to mop and get things at least MOSTLY presentable.  They again walked in with the lips up to their nose.  Hubby had already informed me after our earlier encounter that he wasn't in the mood for any lip.  Didn't he see it?  Why did he just stand there?

THEN after the final inspection (which left all of 15 minutes to get anything done if they found something wrong), they had the nerve to ask us if we were going to fix the broken nob on the washer.  Um, hello?  do MOST people even leave their washer and dryer?  NOOOOOO.  The nob is yours to fix!  Those appliances are as is!    Some people can be so ugly.

After that as we're sitting in u-haul, Bryan gets THE phone call.  Yes, it's our closing officer telling us we can't close that day.  WHAT?!  What are we going to do?

We stayed with the in-laws that night.  Thank goodness for the in-laws.  I love them dearly.

The next day?  We're supposed to close at 2.  We get a phone call around 1:15 that they still didn't have all the documentation they needed and had to delay closing until 5.  At this point, we had arranged for SEVERAL men from church to come help us unload and they were scheduled to arrive at the new house by 5:30 or 6.  I was about to just lay down and have a conniption.  This was about the time I realized Chicken was running a fever.  No wonder he was so cranky.  And here I was thinking he was doing it just to spite me.  Soooo....thankfully around 2:15 they called us and said they had everything and if we could be there by 3, we could close then.  I doped Chicken up with Motrin and took off, leaving a very sick little boy behind.  I felt like the worst mother ever.

Everything went smoothly and we were homeowners around 3:45.  I took off back to the in-laws to check on Chicken, who seemed to be doing fine after the Motrin kicked in.  We went to the new house to unload the cars and get the stuff from our neighbors.  By the time I got back, everyone was there, ready to unload the u-haul.  I needed to run back to the in-laws and get Hubby's mom and grandmother so they could come see the place.  I also finally had room for chicken and Punky in the car, but Chicken was getting worse by this point so I left him with a sister-in-law, feeling even more guilty that I wasn't there for him.  

When we arrived, Punky was so excited.  Several times since we've been here, she's looked at me and said, "I love my new house."  And, "I love my princess room."  When we moved in, we went cold turkey into a toddler bed so it would all just be one big transition.  The princess room was a hit and she hasn't had any problems with it after the first nap she took in the bed (in which I lost her in this new massive house, only to find her sitting next to the toilet in their new bathroom).  By the time I got back, the U-haul was completely unloaded, too, so with all the manpower we had this time, it was unloaded in less than an hour.  Punky went home with the in-laws again because her room wasn't ready and it was late.  

After everyone left, Hubby and I were looking forward to enjoying a nice evening at home, even though I was still worrying about Chicken.  Around 10, my father-in-law called and said we needed to come and get him.  He was still running a fever and needed his mommy.  Of course, we rushed to get him.  I was tempted to take Punky home, too, but she was already sound asleep, so we left her there and I didn't want any drama because of the new bed.  Chicken was really sick, too.  No symptoms other than a fever.  I took him to the doc the next day and she said to give it a little while and start the prescription of antibiotics if he wasn't better by the next day.  That very night, his fever got up to 104.7.  I almost had a seizure for him.  I called and while a different doctor told me to wait a little longer, he had just gotten off antibiotics about 10 days prior, so I felt like hew as relapsing from his sinus infection.  He ran a much smaller fever for about 36 hours after that, but has been generally fine since then.  Yet another circumstance where I had to trust my gut.

So, what are the pro's to this whole experience?  As I mentioned in another post, the people who bought our previous house switched the utilities in their name too early and we didn't have to pay our last month's utility bill of $130.  The loan officer that we got our mortgage through was very helpful and did everything possible to get us to close on time.  When it didn't happen, he cut us a check for the u-haul bill of $150 and gave us an additional $500 for our trouble.  How many mortgage companies do you know who would do that?!  We now live and are mostly settled in our brand new 2400 square foot house.  The kids love it, I love it and I'm pretty sure Hubby's diggin' it, too (I won't mention the plumbing leak we've already had from our shower to our bedroom carpet just to keep things positive.)  ;oD  I'm also loving my new front loading washer and dryer and new fridge.  

So all in all, everything was worth it.  There was just so much going on in such a short amount of time we had very little down time to regroup.  Hubby and I have sworn off moving for at least 30 years...or at least until we can afford movers to do it all for us.  Now that we're debt free, save the mortgage, that'll probably be a little sooner than 30 years, but you never know.  

I'll end this novel and if you actually read it all, you get kudos.  Just something to document our day.  It was so crazy, it was too good not to!

2 comments:

Angela said...

What craziness!! I guess all's well that ends well. Can't wait to see your new digs!

Jennifer Shirk said...

Uh...very thorough. LOL!

I'm still thinking about the broken knob on the washer. Sheesh! They're worried about a broken knob?? Come on.

Well, at least eveything is behind you now. Enjoy your new home!