Moved

We have moved! It was a long, hectic day on Friday. The movers came in the morning and moved all of our stuff from the house and the storage unit. My dad and I were at the old house directing stuff on that end – mostly staying out of the movers’ way and finishing up the projects requested by the buyers. Kevin and his parents were at the new house to be ready for the movers on that end. They spent the time before the movers got there getting the new house ready - assembling a storage unit in the garage, adding liners in the pantry and kitchen cabinets - and then directing where to put stuff once the movers got there.

Our cellphones came in very handy to give status updates to each other – movers are headed your way, etc. We added to the chaos by having a second mover take our weight equipment and having Comcast come to set up our tv/internet/phone on the same day.

It was a long day, especially for the movers. I have a lot of respect for what they do, and am thankful I can pay people to move my stuff for me. We really lucked out on the weather – it rained at the old house that morning, but stopped before the movers arrived, and it was a MONSOON that night at the new house after they’d finished. I hate to think how we would’ve moved in the rain.

We spent that night at our new house, but it wasn’t until Saturday night that I really got a good night’s sleep – too much going through my mind of what all we have to do.

ALL weekend was spent unpacking and today too. We both took today off work to give more time to get unpacked and settled. We have a garage full of empty boxes to show for it, and a very livable downstairs. We started with necessities – bed, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, clothes, and got all of that done – thanks to some help from my in-laws and my sister. We also treated the living room as a priority to give us a comfortable place to sit at the end of a long day of unpacking. We were even able to make progress on the study. The guest bedroom and the garage are a mess, they’ll get there. For now, we'll head back to work and give ourselves a break, and pick up again this weekend.

We have even been able to make a few improvements on the house already: installed two additional ceiling fans (thanks Larry!), installed towel rings in our bathroom and the guest bathroom, and Kevin even drilled a hole through the built-in desk for the phone and computer wires. We found a plug to cover it, on clearance for 34 cents!

I love the new neighborhood, there are trees everywhere and nice paths to walk on, it already feels like home. Smokey is having a harder time adjusting, but he loves his big backyard and will soon consider it home. We’re here and so he’ll adjust.

Lessons learned:

• Do not pack breakable items the night before, you likely won’t pack them well enough and they will be broken – several boxes of dishes were all broken, thankfully it was the ‘everyday’ dishes, not the china
• Make sure to find out if the dryer connections are being run as gas, electric or both. We thought they were running gas since the stove and water heater are gas, and didn’t know it wasn’t until we tried to connect it and couldn’t. so, we are now the owners of a brand new dryer.
  

Here are photos of our new house.

Unpacking takes time, but is much better than the packing and moving part of the process. We'll get everything organized and out of boxes, we've already got a lot of it out, the first night the answer to where almost anything was located was, "in a box".....not a good feeling.

homeowners!

Its official, we own the new house!!!!! We closed yesterday morning and were able to get the keys that afternoon. We brought a few things over to the house...it was hard to leave...

I'll have pictures soon, for now its crazy with trying to pack and get everything done that we need to get done to move on FRIDAY!

Our move-in date got pushed back several times so it is coincides with the FIRST week of classes at the university where I work, not the ideal time for me to be in and out taking care of all of this stuff......we'll get it all done and decide on what can wait. We are already pretty good at divide and conquer to get it all done. It is crazy busy. I slept fine the night before closing, but didn't sleep well at all last night - the excitement and overwhelmed feeling of all we have to get done kept me tossing and turning.. I'm more excited then overwhelmed

Kevin even got his truck back yesterday. I know he's as excited about the house as I am and add to that getting his wheels back, great day!

Inspection Nightmare

Apparently it is too much to ask for a normal day. Yesterday was shaping up to be a normal day until I got a message from Kevin in the afternoon.

The buyer's inspector was at current house to do our inspection, and while he was on the ladder to get onto the roof it slipped and CRASHED THROUGH OUR WINDOW. Kevin ran downstairs to see him hanging from the gutter with one leg through the broken window. He was so lucky to have only a few scratches, Kevin was anticipating calling 911 and thinking he was going to see lots of cuts and bleeding. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I found out... I left work a little early to help clean up the glass, it is everywhere...

I think the rest of the inspection went well, Kevin said the guy said the worst he found was a broken window, caused by him. Our realtor had said not to break anything, well we didn't...the inspector did.

So now we have cardboard and duct tape covering that hole.....his insurance will replace the window and the blinds, I just cannot believe we have one more thing to deal with....when i told my boss so i could leave early he said "isn't buying a house fun?" you said it.....we've had mishaps with buying and sellling, knock on wood these are the last of them.....

Kevin and I went ahead and attended the Astros game that we had tickets for, we needed something fun and relaxing to do..and it was way better than staring at our cardboard-covered window.....we had fun once we got away from the teenage church group who was constantly up and down to the concession stand, I am pretty sure the 18 month old in front of us knew more about what was going on at the game than any of them did!

PS - I should never have made a label called "misadventure" I use it way too often.

thats one way to move

In a bizarre way, we've started our move to the new house

Today was the walkthrough at our house and my parents came up last night so they could see it. On the way there we got rear-ended! We had just stopped at a red light and heard screeching tires and then a jolt as the car behind rammed into us, pushing us into the car in front of us. ugh....thankfully no one was hurt. We had to pull over and call 911 -- I am pretty sure that's the first time I've ever called 911. We had to wait for the police to do a police report, and let our realtor know we were going to be late. Good thing she was there since I didn't know the builder's phone number. They were able to wait for us, so we didn't have to reschedule, and the house looks good! Our builder showed us everything at the house (shut-off valves, etc.) and we were able to put tape any place that touch-up paint is needed.

The truck was damaged in the back - the bumper is banged up, you have to move it to open/close the lift gate, and worst of all the exhaust pipe was smashed in, causing it to not have much power, and also make awful sounds any time we try to accelerate. Rather than getting on the highway in it (not safe), we thought it would be best to put it in the shop on that side of town and get a rental car until its fixed. so, we put it in the shop, got some food at Burger King since we were starving, and drove home in a pontiac vibe, quite a different ride. my poor parents, didn't quite know what sort of excitement they were in for when they decided to ride with us to see the new house.

The adrenaline was pumping when we got hit, I couldn't quit shaking for quite a while....

Is it asking too much to have a normal day sometime soon??

Craziest week ever

I am glad to see this week come to an end, it has been the CRAZIEST week – some good, some bad.

On Sunday, we went to a friend’s house to spend the afternoon while an open house was being held at our house. Smokey had a play date with their dog, Java, and loved playing with him and exploring their yard.

Not long after I’d eaten, my sister called – she had sharp pains in her abdomen and wanted to go to an ER but didn't want to drive herself. I went to get her and took her to an urgent care place - the first one we went to is only open Mon - Fri (what kind of urgent care is that?!?) We headed back towards another one she knew of, and thankfully they were open – she was in a lot of pain and so I just wanted to get her somewhere that could help her. We were there all afternoon and into the evening. They gave her fluids, and ran some test to determine what the problem was (we were guessing appendicitis), diagnosis: a kidney stone. They were able to prescribe pain killers and I took her home. I haven’t been so aggravated in quite a while as I was when we got to the first place and it was CLOSED, I go into ‘protection mode’ when I see someone I love in pain and was mad that we thought we were close to getting her where she could get help only to have it be a closed sign.

Her pain wasn’t getting any better during the week so she had an outpatient surgery on Thursday to have it removed. They weren’t able to remove it but did insert something to make it easier for her to pass it. She still has pain, but nowhere near the pain she had earlier.

The timing of when this happened was actually really good – any earlier and she’d have still been in school and had to work with her profs to make up the work, etc. tough to do when each class is only 6 weeks. If it had happened much later, we’d have moved and I would’ve had to recommend she get an ambulance to get her since it would get her to help much faster than I could, and it actually worked out being at our friend’s house since I was CLOSER to her then I was at home. A recommendation for everyone – make sure you know where your closest urgent care clinic is, it could come in handy when you least expect it. We call this week “the lost week” for my sis since she only left the house to go to doctor appointments

Now the good news from this week:

we got an offer on our house! We signed the paperwork to accept the offer on Wednesday night, and assuming all goes well we will be able to close in early September *fingers crossed*

We also got to see our new house on Friday, for the inspection. It is almost completely finished – the grass and landscaping are even done! There are still some things to be fixed – mostly found by the inspector, and we found where the missing towel rod and toilet paper holder are from our master bath. I noticed earlier that the finish doesn’t match the rest of the bathroom, and this time we saw that the ones in the guest bath have been installed. Turns out that is where they put them, so it should be an easy fix – just swap it. I forgot to take my camera, but will plan to bring it Tuesday for the walkthrough.

moving

I am so tired of cleaning my house for other people. We spent Saturday morning cleaning up the house for an open house on Sunday, good thing we did because we got a call (as we were beginning to make dinner) that someone wanted to come see the house between 3 and 4, so our cleaning did double duty - got the house looking nice for the open house and also for the unexpected showing on Saturday. The people spent about 25 minutes in the house, which we take as a good sign. ugh, I am just tired of having to constantly clean the house and put stuff away when I leave for the day......we'll keep the new house clean, but not to this point. I also miss some of the stuff I have in storage - our CDs, and I was going to put together some pictures for a friend who moved away, only to realize, nope they are in storage.

We move in just under 3 weeks and it'll be hectic and crazy, but once we're settled the house will be ours and only people we invite will be coming into it.

Professional development

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am shy around people I don't know – get to know me, I talk your head off, but I am an introvert. This is especially true when I go to conferences. I've had to make a conscious effort to talk to different people and not simply go to the presentations and then disappear into my room. Each time it has gotten a little bit easier. I like to think that as I've forced myself to step out of my comfort zone I've expanded the reaches of my comfort zone. I'll never be a natural public speaker, but I've come a long way and now actually ENJOY getting to talk to people who do similar work at different institutions and have to grapple with some of the same issues. Getting to know these people also gives me resources to bounce ideas or ask questions of since they are familiar with the work that I do, and in some cases have already done something similar to what I may be working on and have a question about.

This year, I decided to take a bigger step by getting involved with putting on the 2010 conference! I think it will be a good opportunity to get to know the people better and also to give back to an organization that has helped me so much in my 8 years (have I really been working 8 years?)

I drove to Waco this afternoon for our planning meeting tomorrow. So now I'm in my hotel room, because I'm tired from a day of work and driving from Houston-Waco.