Well, We Moved!

It's done! We have sold our old house and are in our new house. That was easy......not! The whole process was a bit of a big stinkin' mess, almost every aspect of it actually. I wasn't naive enough to think that it would be easy and everything would go smoothly but I don't think I could have imagined how much actually could go wrong. Good thing we were all well rested and therefore well equipped to handle it. Oh right, we weren't! None of us slept worth poop the night before. Dylan must have sensed the madness about to happen because he was up for about an hour and a half in the middle of the night. Given the last minute prep, Mike and I had gone to bed fairly late and then I woke up early (thanks to the pregnant bladder) and my mind was racing so there was no chance of going back to sleep. With about 5 hours of sleep under my belt and no full night for anyone in the house, it was time to face a long day!

First, there was our walk through for our new house. We scheduled, long ago, to do the walk through the afternoon before the closing. When we arrived for the walk through, almost none of the work they had agreed to get done after the inspection was completed. Plus, the house was filthy! After a lot of phone calls and emails back and forth between realtors, sellers, lawyers and us, it was decided that the closing would be delayed by a few hours to allow the sellers' handyman to try and finish the work. Luckily, I had arranged for our cleaning lady to come do a thorough cleaning of the house so that I wouldn't be icked out using the bathrooms and kitchen as soon as we moved in. So, we let the filthy condition of the house go. We paid for it though because she was there, with her husband helping, cleaning an empty house for almost 6 hours. Yikes! But, the house was pristine and ready for use and the peace was kept between both sides of the buy\sell transaction so it was worth the extra cost. We scheduled another walk through before the delayed closing on Wednesday (which was also our move day) to inspect the completed work.

Except there was no completed work to inspect. After rushing around for 4.5 hours at home getting the last boxes taped up and labeled, instructing the moving crew and getting my in laws set to take over while we were gone, Mike, Dylan and I headed to our new home (and hit stand still traffic in the middle of the morning due to an accident). When we got there, all we found were jobs not done, the seller, the seller's realtor and the seller's handyman saying "see, this is what we're working on!" Ugh. So on the way to our closing (which we were late to), we spoke to our lawyer to tell her the scoop and she then got into a discussion with the sellers' lawyer to find a solution. It was decided that we would with hold some of the money from the closing to cover the work in case it wasn't finished. We've still go that money as several items aren't completed. Supposedly we're waiting on parts but the couple of calls I've made to the seller this week have gone unanswered so we might just be holding onto that cash indefinitely. Who knows!

Other than that snafu, the closing went well. It happened right during Dylan's nap time and yet he was an angel. While I signed papers, Mike chatted with the sellers (who were really kind by the way and gave us a list of all kinds of helpful contacts AND left a nice welcome package at the house for us) and Dylan played with his Toy Story Moving Day Package of figurines, watched a bit of a movie on the iPad and looked out the window at the world. He was SO good! The closing took about an hour and a half and then it was time to head back to the house and back to the moving chaos. Dylan fell asleep on the way back but, unfortunately, woke up after just a 40 minute snooze. Seeing as how he normally naps about 2 hours, that was definitely not enough refresher time for the little guy, especially after the poor night's sleep he had. He got a bit upset when he walked in the living room hoping to watch tv but finding it empty instead but was ok after a hug from Mom, an explanation that they were packed to go to the new house and a diversion to go play outside.

With the movers still packing up, seeing Dylan look really tired and not having much else to do to be useful, my mother in law and I went on a walk in the hopes that Dylan would snooze a little more. He didn't but he did have some chill out time, I got a little exercise and we took one last trip to the neighborhood bakery to get a cookie for Dylan and some treats for the movers.

When the trucks were almost loaded and ready to go, it was time to move the cats over. With Luci and Oliver running loose in the back seat with Dylan buckled in, I took the driver's seat and my mother in law took the passenger seat. It was rush hour traffic time (I can't remember exactly, but probably approaching 5) so I opted to take back streets in the hopes that minimizing the stop\go action would be easiest on the cats. The cats always try to be agreeable in the car but nerves and motion sickness get the best of them. Luci sat quietly on the seat and foamed at the mouth while Oliver was up and down puking (Dylan let us know that Oliver was getting sick) and pooping. We had provided a litter box for him for such an occasion but he didn't quite make it there before nature called. And nature called quite stinkily! There was no way the pregnant sensitive nose lady could make the trip with that stench...we had to get ride of it. I'm not supposed to go anywhere near the stuff that comes out of the back ends of the cat for fear of cooties that can be harmful to the baby, but my mother in law is not nearly as equipped as I am at navigating the back seat of the car from the front (too many years since she's assisted babies in the back seat...for that matter, when her babies were young car seats weren't really a thing so they were probably in her lap or right beside her). In any case, I had to figure it out. Armed with a big wad of paper towels, I scooped up the poop and handed it to my mother in law who was armed with a plastic bag to wrap it in. Unfortunately, the stench got too close to my nose and it made me gag....so much so that hanging my head out the window breathing in fresh air for a few minutes was not even enough to suppress the gag reflex. For a moment or two there, I thought I was going to join Oliver in the vomit fest! Thankfully, I didn't. So, while the ride was not uneventful, we did get the cats to the new house successfully. As my mother in law says, the ride was like being in an episode of I Love Lucy.

Once we arrived, I got the kitties settled in the upstairs room that will be baby #2's abode next year. Since we had little to nothing going in there from the movers, it was the perfect place for them. Then we waited. The word from Mike (back at the "old" house) was that they were waiting for another truck to meet them and then they would load up at the storage unit. (Luckily the extra truck would also come with more hands to unload.) After much more waiting, we were told that one of the trucks was lost on the way to the storage unit. More waiting and we were told they were finally heading our way. At 8pm the trucks finally arrived to unload at the new place. During this wait time, Dylan and I entertained ourselves with toy play and watching movies on the lap top. My mother and father in law had to call it a day and left before the trucks arrived. They felt awful abandoning Dylan and I sitting on our fireplace mantle in an empty house but it had been a long day for them, they had given us a great amount of help and I was appreciative of what they had done for us during the day. We couldn't have gotten to that point without them.

Even though I had very carefully planned out and packed a suitcase, along with a pile of other necessities, for our needs that night, the suitcase didn't make it into Mike's (or my) first car load. It wouldn't have been an issue except that Mike got trapped in by the moving truck and was unable to leave to go back to the house to go get it until they finished unloading. That was at 10pm. The missing stuff included a pack in play for Dylan to sleep in so we didn't have to wait for his crib, sheets for all of our beds, pj's for all and towels for showers. So, poor tired Dylan had to wait to go to sleep. When Mike returned with the stuff, the crib had been unloaded so we just quickly assembled it so Dylan would be as comfortable as possible. The little guy, after not getting a good night's sleep the previous night, have an abbreviated nap and a very busy day, got to bed at midnight! 4.5 hours past his bed time. And I tell ya, I cannot brag on the kid enough! He was a serious trooper and in good spirits all night. He and I sat on the rug (once unloaded), found a box of pillows to lounge on and entertained ourselves with movies and pillow fights most of the night. He was SO good and impressed me SO much! I don't think I would have made it through if he had fallen apart because I was more exhausted than he was. What a kid I have. He is seriously the best.

Needless to say it was a very long moving day. The movers collected payment and headed out our door after 1am. A 15 hour plus day for them. They were great too. Even though they were obviously exhausted, they stayed pleasant, joking and extremely helpful to us throughout the whole ordeal.

The closing on our old house was last Friday so we had the next day, Thursday, to be completely cleared out of it. That was not without drama either. But, that'll have to wait for another posting. I've got some boxes calling my name.