I'm Tired, Boss

 Ok, so it may be a bit dramatic to say the move was a disaster, but I would categorize it as such. 

Did I tell you we had to push the move back a week because SoCalGas could not come out in time?

So that meant my rented dumpster didn't time correctly with the day of the moveout, which wasn't how that was supposed to go. 

And I mean, I THOUGHT we packed things well, but apparently the garage was not well packed. Which I tried to warn my husband about, that I thought we had too many loose items up in the rafters and such.  Well, it was true and the move turned into a partial pack and it took SO LONG. SO VERY LONG.

We were all exhausted by the end of the day, and I know it was kind of our fault, but the movers still did damage a lot of my furniture, broke my television, gouged my beautiful new bedroom wall, and then one of them spilled motor oil on the driveway and then tracked it into the house. So 11pm found my husband on his hands and knees with isopropyl alcohol, scrubbing motor oil footprints off the floor. 

It wasn't ideal. 

They also misplaced my daughter's "go bag" that we packed with her essentials. It was placed in the moving truck because did I mention we were down one car? My husband's car was in the shop, so we only had one vehicle to transport high value items. Which frankly, wasn't enough. Supposedly her bag is somewhere in the garage, because we were frantically putting everything in the garage because the very next day it was forecast to rain for 5 straight days, and anything that wasn't in the garage would get ruined. And now that it is no longer raining, we just haven't had the time to go look for it, but hopefully this weekend we will find it. We of course did a cursory search, but it is not in the front, and it requires literally pulling multiple things out. 

So I feel like I have spent the last 7 weeks dealing with either packing or unpacking, and I honestly could use a break. 

I was fooling myself when I thought I had gotten rid of a bunch of stuff. I was so proud of myself. Look, I told myself, you donated over 20 bags of things! You go! All those things you won't have to unpack! And yet, I found myself faced with a living room stacked with towers 5 boxes high. They are now all down to about 2, 3 at most, but I no longer want to even look at the living room. 

But in good news, I really do love this house. I was able to design it from the studs, as we had to rip out the old lathe and plaster walls. This meant that I got to do some things that made the layout a bit better, but overall we kept the main footprint.  We took out some walls, expanded the bathrooms, made an inside laundry (since it was out in the detached garage), and overall completely redid this 1946 California ranch. 

I love my kitchen, and every time I take a shower I feel like I am in a 5 star hotel. 

The other important thing is that I am next to my Dad, although I have been so freaking busy that I haven't spent as much time as I would like with him. But, I also don't want to like, instantly be over there all the time either. That feels a bit intrusive and a bit much, so I am trying to figure out what a nice balance will be. Now that my kitchen is mostly sorted out, I can start making some food and I can either bring it to him or he can come and eat it here, his choice. 

Another nice thing is that my husband's commute to work has been cut by about two-thirds. What used to take him an hour and a half in the morning takes him 30 minutes, and what took him two hours in the evening takes about 40 minutes. That's a huge! I am glad for him, as the commute was getting worse and worse, and was really starting to wear on him. He only works in the office 3 days a week too! But he was getting really tired of it, and I can't blame him.

The house isn't completely finished, there are still a few hanging projects like the outside sconce needs to be wired in, the garage door needs a lock, and we need to grade around the foundation in the front and sides and put some gravel or something, as we removed planters. We also have a blank slate for a back yard as we filled in a pool that had been in there since the 60's. It was a terrible pool that took up pretty much the entirety of the yard and was about 13 feet deep on the deep end. I mean, I love pools, but we would have spent probably upwards of 50,000 rehabbing it and then goodness knows how much to upkeep it, so we decided to fill it in. I stand by that decision!

I am still a busy bee, and will be for quite a while, but it is a good kind of busy. I hope you are in a good kind of busy too, or if not a good busy, then a wonderful state of relaxation! 


Comments

Nance said…
Moving. Always so many bumps and surprises, almost none of them good. Still, it sounds like you have a plan for what's left to do, and hopefully, you WON'T HAVE TO DO THIS EVER AGAIN!

I like the charm of older homes. Ours was built almost 100 years ago; same with Sam's home that he just bought. They're sturdy, have lots of character, and there's warmth there, too. I hope you're very, very happy in your new home.
1:16 PM
Anvilcloud said…
Our big move was 21 years ago. That is enough of that sort of thing. :)
It sounds like you have landed well. Excellent.
1:22 PM
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