Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Sneaking in....
I'm on the in-laws' PC at the moment, so I don't know how much of an entry I'll be able to do. To start with, I usually use a Mac, so this is a bit weird for me. Secondly, I don't want to be a computer hog.
Where to start? The past few weeks have been a blur of pain and chaos. At least 75 percent of this moving experience has been awful.
Around 4pm the day before we were supposed to close on the current house, our realtor called and told us it wasn't gonna happen! Seems the buyer changed loan type and lenders and no one informed us! The new lender was nowhere near ready to close and wanted to delay it to November 30! Dan and his parents were already on the road on the way to Denver, and with the following day being Thanksgiving Eve, it was far too late to change any plans with moving.
So on November 22, instead of getting the house sold and having cash in hand to buy the property in Sioux Falls, we had to sign power of attorney over to our realtor and just blindly hope the sale would go through. Rather nervewracking, because if it doesn't close, we'll have no funds to buy another house and will have to figure out how to keep paying the mortgage on the home in Denver with no money left in savings. Notcool.
Wednesday evening, we had an anniversary/birthday/farewell dinner at Red Lobster with my dad, stepmother, sister, brother-in-law, stepbrother, his wife and daughter, Dan and his parents. We had a good time, but the goodbyes were difficult. I have no idea when I'm going to see my family again because I won't exactly have any extra cash for travel to Denver.
On Thanksgiving, I had made reservations at a family restaurant for Dan and his parents and me. They were very accommodating to my gluten-free needs, so I got to have turkey with mashed potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce and French onion soup. When we got back, we got into the heavy duty last minute packing, which was so exhausting I can barely remember it.
Friday morning, the moving company arrived. Unfortunately, they had not been informed that they would be packing the large items and taking apart the waterbed frame (I have a Tempur-pedic mattress in it), so they didn't have the proper materials, and someone had to bring that stuff out, and then they STILL didn't bring out all of what was needed, AND I had to pay extra for it. But they got the job done, and a mere SEVEN hours later, the truck was packed up and ready to go.
The movers were finished about a half hour prior to when we needed to check in at the hotel (couldn't sleep in the house with no bed, heh heh). Poor Chip was thoroughly confused because he's never stayed overnight anywhere else since we adopted him eight years ago. It was awkward for me too, sleeping on an uncomfortable bed and trying to figure out what on earth I could eat.
We went back to the house Saturday morning for final cleanup. I was too wiped out to do very much of it myself, and no one seemed very motivated to do a thorough job, so I just had to leave it pretty much as it was. We hit the road about 10am, and I waved goodbye to my home and the Rocky Mountains.
Travel was slow what with Chip and I needing so many rest/potty breaks. We got to Kearney, Nebraska around 7pm, I think, with the time change. The Ramada Inn was nice, allowing me to order something gluten free from room service and having a cool if extremely crowded and boisterous pool area complete with a bar.
I had a Continental breakfast around 8am on Sunday with hard boiled eggs, yogurt, tea, a banana and an apple for the road. Good thing we got going early because Nebraska was all fogged in with rain predicted for that evening. Looked more like Britain and middle America.
Had trouble finding anyplace where I could eat that was convenient to the interstate. Nebraska isn't exactly the health food capital of the universe. So I had to wait until we got to Sioux City, Iowa, where I grabbed a Wendy's chili.
My intro to Sioux Falls was murky and cold. Chip was led straight into the basement at the in-laws' house, where he was kinda freaked out until we set up his kennel, and then he understood that this was where he would be staying. We brought in everything and stashed it whereever we could find space in the basement, which fortunately is about the size of a one-bedroom apartment.
After some rest, Dan agreed to drive me around a little bit, both to give me an idea where things were in town and to show off the car he bought this summer (10 year old Grand Am). To our surprise, there was a thunderstorm! We went into the nearest grocery to peruse the health food section, and when we came out, sleet was falling at a great rate.
We awoke Monday to find our cars encased in ice so thick we couldn't get the doors open to back out of the driveway to let the in-laws' SUV out of the garage. We were supposed to mee the movers at the new house, but the whole city was a huge skating rink, so we were late. And it was freakin' COLD!
Since I was the one who arranged the move, I was technically responsible for personally supervising the unloading of our possessions into the 2 car garage of our new house (temporary storage so we wouldn't have to rent a unit). But my Reynaud's went absolutely crazy after about two hours, to the point where my hands and feet felt like they were on fire even though I had on gloves and winter boots. So Dan's parents allowed me to warm up in the SUV once in awhile, and Dan supervised the movers when I was gone.
I was totally shocked that the movers were able to get the contents of a 1600 square foot house into a two-car garage! It took them approximately five hours because the current owners required an aisle down the middle so they would have room to get their stuff out of the house. So it's pretty much stacked to the ceiling, but it's all in there.
Should log off now. Will come back if and when I get the opportunity before I get my Mac up and running again sometime in mid-December.
Later.
Where to start? The past few weeks have been a blur of pain and chaos. At least 75 percent of this moving experience has been awful.
Around 4pm the day before we were supposed to close on the current house, our realtor called and told us it wasn't gonna happen! Seems the buyer changed loan type and lenders and no one informed us! The new lender was nowhere near ready to close and wanted to delay it to November 30! Dan and his parents were already on the road on the way to Denver, and with the following day being Thanksgiving Eve, it was far too late to change any plans with moving.
So on November 22, instead of getting the house sold and having cash in hand to buy the property in Sioux Falls, we had to sign power of attorney over to our realtor and just blindly hope the sale would go through. Rather nervewracking, because if it doesn't close, we'll have no funds to buy another house and will have to figure out how to keep paying the mortgage on the home in Denver with no money left in savings. Notcool.
Wednesday evening, we had an anniversary/birthday/farewell dinner at Red Lobster with my dad, stepmother, sister, brother-in-law, stepbrother, his wife and daughter, Dan and his parents. We had a good time, but the goodbyes were difficult. I have no idea when I'm going to see my family again because I won't exactly have any extra cash for travel to Denver.
On Thanksgiving, I had made reservations at a family restaurant for Dan and his parents and me. They were very accommodating to my gluten-free needs, so I got to have turkey with mashed potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce and French onion soup. When we got back, we got into the heavy duty last minute packing, which was so exhausting I can barely remember it.
Friday morning, the moving company arrived. Unfortunately, they had not been informed that they would be packing the large items and taking apart the waterbed frame (I have a Tempur-pedic mattress in it), so they didn't have the proper materials, and someone had to bring that stuff out, and then they STILL didn't bring out all of what was needed, AND I had to pay extra for it. But they got the job done, and a mere SEVEN hours later, the truck was packed up and ready to go.
The movers were finished about a half hour prior to when we needed to check in at the hotel (couldn't sleep in the house with no bed, heh heh). Poor Chip was thoroughly confused because he's never stayed overnight anywhere else since we adopted him eight years ago. It was awkward for me too, sleeping on an uncomfortable bed and trying to figure out what on earth I could eat.
We went back to the house Saturday morning for final cleanup. I was too wiped out to do very much of it myself, and no one seemed very motivated to do a thorough job, so I just had to leave it pretty much as it was. We hit the road about 10am, and I waved goodbye to my home and the Rocky Mountains.
Travel was slow what with Chip and I needing so many rest/potty breaks. We got to Kearney, Nebraska around 7pm, I think, with the time change. The Ramada Inn was nice, allowing me to order something gluten free from room service and having a cool if extremely crowded and boisterous pool area complete with a bar.
I had a Continental breakfast around 8am on Sunday with hard boiled eggs, yogurt, tea, a banana and an apple for the road. Good thing we got going early because Nebraska was all fogged in with rain predicted for that evening. Looked more like Britain and middle America.
Had trouble finding anyplace where I could eat that was convenient to the interstate. Nebraska isn't exactly the health food capital of the universe. So I had to wait until we got to Sioux City, Iowa, where I grabbed a Wendy's chili.
My intro to Sioux Falls was murky and cold. Chip was led straight into the basement at the in-laws' house, where he was kinda freaked out until we set up his kennel, and then he understood that this was where he would be staying. We brought in everything and stashed it whereever we could find space in the basement, which fortunately is about the size of a one-bedroom apartment.
After some rest, Dan agreed to drive me around a little bit, both to give me an idea where things were in town and to show off the car he bought this summer (10 year old Grand Am). To our surprise, there was a thunderstorm! We went into the nearest grocery to peruse the health food section, and when we came out, sleet was falling at a great rate.
We awoke Monday to find our cars encased in ice so thick we couldn't get the doors open to back out of the driveway to let the in-laws' SUV out of the garage. We were supposed to mee the movers at the new house, but the whole city was a huge skating rink, so we were late. And it was freakin' COLD!
Since I was the one who arranged the move, I was technically responsible for personally supervising the unloading of our possessions into the 2 car garage of our new house (temporary storage so we wouldn't have to rent a unit). But my Reynaud's went absolutely crazy after about two hours, to the point where my hands and feet felt like they were on fire even though I had on gloves and winter boots. So Dan's parents allowed me to warm up in the SUV once in awhile, and Dan supervised the movers when I was gone.
I was totally shocked that the movers were able to get the contents of a 1600 square foot house into a two-car garage! It took them approximately five hours because the current owners required an aisle down the middle so they would have room to get their stuff out of the house. So it's pretty much stacked to the ceiling, but it's all in there.
Should log off now. Will come back if and when I get the opportunity before I get my Mac up and running again sometime in mid-December.
Later.
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