Moving
Since the last blog, we have been moving.
I know it was 4 months ago, but this is what happened:
1) I posted the last blog
2) A week later, my husband said, "We can sell the house now and make a nice profit, or we can keep it, and live in Mortgage Hell for the rest of our lives".
3) I said, "How about selling it?"
4) Another week and we talked to a Real Estate Agent
5) A week after that we got an offer we couldn't refuse
5) For the next couple of weeks I went house-hunting for a nice rental in the area. This included driving to a different house every day.
6) Three weeks after that, the house wasn't ours any more, but we could still live in it for awhile, and we had the largest sum in our bank account we ever saw.
7) The same day we signed the papers for the new rental, to take occupancy in a month or so.
8) The next week was Halloween and Tommy's Birthday. (He got a snowboard).
9) Then we started planning The Big Thanksgiving Family Reunion, with more food and more relatives than ever have gotten together under one roof in our family before, and we also had Ellen's Birthday( she got all the furniture and cool decorations for her new room that she might want).
10) Kyra and Takeshi came and stayed at our house and we had Thanksgiving and we also went to the SF Opera (The Marriage of Figaro).
11) As soon as they left and the house was a total Thanksgiving-Birthdays-Houseguest mess, we got the keys to the new house
12) The previous occupant was the owner. He was still moving out on the day we got the keys. He hadn't cleaned it, and he was supposed to set us up with someone to build a fence for the backyard so the dog would stay in, but he hadn't.
13) I hired a cleaning service for the new house and frantically called fence-builders
14) We went to furniture stores to get a new living room set and new Master Bedroom set, since the old stuff was hand-me-downs from hand-me-downs, Eric's mother having given them to us "for the interim". I decided that the interim had definitely ended.
15) Packing
16)Throwing out what seemed like a houseful of junk, only to find the house was still full
17)Giving away everything I could, having Saint Vincent de Paul and all my friends come over and take what they could
18) Packing, Packing, Packing
19) Sitting at the new house during a 4-hour time frame waiting for furniture delivery men
20) Getting the utilities switched. This was an adventure in itself, because I've lived in Palo Alto so long I forgot that no other town has all services provided by "City of Palo Alto Utilities" or, as Eric calls them, "The People's Republic of Palo Alto". I had to find the Garbage Company, The Water Company and PG and E, each seperately. I didn't even know there was such thing as the water company until they left a note on the door saying to contact them or the water would be turned off.
21) Somehow Ellen had a huge catering job the day before we were supposed to move. A fancy dinner for 35 guests was cooked in our new kitchen before we moved.
22) Moving Day arrived! The moving company came and moved everything.
23) When they were done, I came back to the house and looked around. It was still full of stuff!
24) I was thinking about hauling stuff to the dump, but it was suddenly Christmas!
25) Bought a Christmas Tree, got some presents and stocking-stuffers, wrapped things, bought Christmas Dinner makings, went to a Christmas party, lived out of boxes.
26) We managed not to wrap the moving boxes, and not to unpack the Christmas presents, and had a nice Christmas, complete with stuffed Cornish Game Hens which Ellen made.
27) The dog got some Christmas presents and had a lot of fun playing with them in the big backyard which had a new fence, and which he was finally used to.
28) The cat finally got used to the house and stopped keeping me up all night
29) Ellen told me about a Junk removal company, so they came and took away the junk on the day before New Years Eve
30) We remembered the stuff in the garage and the shed, and I finally took the last load over to the new house today
So that, in brief, is what I've been doing for the last 4 months. The next blog entry should be much sooner.
I know it was 4 months ago, but this is what happened:
1) I posted the last blog
2) A week later, my husband said, "We can sell the house now and make a nice profit, or we can keep it, and live in Mortgage Hell for the rest of our lives".
3) I said, "How about selling it?"
4) Another week and we talked to a Real Estate Agent
5) A week after that we got an offer we couldn't refuse
5) For the next couple of weeks I went house-hunting for a nice rental in the area. This included driving to a different house every day.
6) Three weeks after that, the house wasn't ours any more, but we could still live in it for awhile, and we had the largest sum in our bank account we ever saw.
7) The same day we signed the papers for the new rental, to take occupancy in a month or so.
8) The next week was Halloween and Tommy's Birthday. (He got a snowboard).
9) Then we started planning The Big Thanksgiving Family Reunion, with more food and more relatives than ever have gotten together under one roof in our family before, and we also had Ellen's Birthday( she got all the furniture and cool decorations for her new room that she might want).
10) Kyra and Takeshi came and stayed at our house and we had Thanksgiving and we also went to the SF Opera (The Marriage of Figaro).
11) As soon as they left and the house was a total Thanksgiving-Birthdays-Houseguest mess, we got the keys to the new house
12) The previous occupant was the owner. He was still moving out on the day we got the keys. He hadn't cleaned it, and he was supposed to set us up with someone to build a fence for the backyard so the dog would stay in, but he hadn't.
13) I hired a cleaning service for the new house and frantically called fence-builders
14) We went to furniture stores to get a new living room set and new Master Bedroom set, since the old stuff was hand-me-downs from hand-me-downs, Eric's mother having given them to us "for the interim". I decided that the interim had definitely ended.
15) Packing
16)Throwing out what seemed like a houseful of junk, only to find the house was still full
17)Giving away everything I could, having Saint Vincent de Paul and all my friends come over and take what they could
18) Packing, Packing, Packing
19) Sitting at the new house during a 4-hour time frame waiting for furniture delivery men
20) Getting the utilities switched. This was an adventure in itself, because I've lived in Palo Alto so long I forgot that no other town has all services provided by "City of Palo Alto Utilities" or, as Eric calls them, "The People's Republic of Palo Alto". I had to find the Garbage Company, The Water Company and PG and E, each seperately. I didn't even know there was such thing as the water company until they left a note on the door saying to contact them or the water would be turned off.
21) Somehow Ellen had a huge catering job the day before we were supposed to move. A fancy dinner for 35 guests was cooked in our new kitchen before we moved.
22) Moving Day arrived! The moving company came and moved everything.
23) When they were done, I came back to the house and looked around. It was still full of stuff!
24) I was thinking about hauling stuff to the dump, but it was suddenly Christmas!
25) Bought a Christmas Tree, got some presents and stocking-stuffers, wrapped things, bought Christmas Dinner makings, went to a Christmas party, lived out of boxes.
26) We managed not to wrap the moving boxes, and not to unpack the Christmas presents, and had a nice Christmas, complete with stuffed Cornish Game Hens which Ellen made.
27) The dog got some Christmas presents and had a lot of fun playing with them in the big backyard which had a new fence, and which he was finally used to.
28) The cat finally got used to the house and stopped keeping me up all night
29) Ellen told me about a Junk removal company, so they came and took away the junk on the day before New Years Eve
30) We remembered the stuff in the garage and the shed, and I finally took the last load over to the new house today
So that, in brief, is what I've been doing for the last 4 months. The next blog entry should be much sooner.
posted by Catherine Weaver at 11:00 PM
3 Comments:
Dear. Lord.
I had no idea the old house had so much stuff in it!!
Glad you're done (pretty much?) with the big move, and congratulations!!
And don't worry, I'm sure you'll accumulate lots of junk for the new one. It just takes time. ^_~
The astute reader may have noticed the lack of involvement by the man of the house after the money showed up. I am going to owe the blogger Big Time when I get back from this trip which the house sale funded (among other things).
--Eric
You make it sound like everyone was under your roof! Anyway, I hope your settling in. Moving. What a Job.
Mom
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