Jaime and Me

It wasn't, as advertised, the "best" move ever but now that it's over, we're here. Sorry, no pictures in this blog...it'll take a little while to get everything up and running.

The move started with the "packing service." Yes, I decided to forgo the inevitable pain of packing by hiring the moving company to do it for me. They were to be at the apartment between 8:00 am and noon. They showed up about 1:30 after numerous phone calls to the office.

They claimed to run out of boxes and tape but I found boxes and tape and did some of the packing myself. I think they just wanted to go home.

The movers were to come the next day between 8:00 and noon. Numerous phone calls to the office later revealed they were not coming at all...it was raining and they didn't want to get wet, I guess. Jaime and I spent the night camping in the house. I didn't want her in the apartment with all those piles of boxes around just waiting to fall.

The movers showed up the next day at about 9:30 or so. They had to finish the packing and get everything on the truck. It ended up taking two loads (one full and one almost empty.) I didn't fall for the "We never take more than one load" line from them since they'd loaded all the boxes first and left much of the furniture. Isn't that why I hired movers?

Of course, since that was the day I was supposed to be leisurely unpacking and talking to service men, I was running back and forth between the apartment and the house meeting the electric/water man, the gas man, the cable man, the washer and dryer man...well, only the cable man and washer and dryer man had to have me actually be there.

The gas man showed up before the electric/water man so he couldn't light the water heater. I wasn't comfortable doing that myself. Once I saw the picture of the man running with flames shooting out behind him, I called Phil who came and lit it without incident. The gas man did not light the furnace (I found out later.) It seems they don't do that in the city of Austin. I had to find another contracter that would do so.

The cable man came and said he couldn't hook up the cable because the box was in the neighbor's yard, the neighbors had dogs and a locked gate and weren't home. The dogs are little. He could have jumped the fence. We finally got cable 10 days later. I found my monitor 3 days after that and found out that the cable modem didn't work in some areas yesterday. I am now back online and watching JoJo.

The washer/dryer man came with a washer and dryer from this decade. Unfortunately, the washer was missing the lid switch which stops the tub from spinning when you lift the lid. As long as I agreed to not put my hand in there when it was spinning, he was okay with leaving it that way until they could get a switch for it. I found out later that he forgot to plug the spin thingie back in so my clothes sat in the water for 5 days until we could get a service man out to fix it.

Along about 2:00, the guy from the moving company said he wanted to send another guy out to help. He'd do so at a discount and it would speed things up on the moving front. I agreed.

I went back to the apartment and found the new guy playing rap on Jaime's boom box at full volume. It put me on his bad side when I asked him to turn it down. New guy did a lot of whining. He also did a lot of damage to the furniture. I'm hoping to recoup some of my losses on damage claims.

But, we're in the house. The garage is still full of boxes but I've unpacked over half of them. I have a bunch of future garage sale boxes and have made a couple of trips to the dumpster.

The house is great. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, big living/dining room, nice backyard and a garage. We now have heat, hot water, food, cable and, as of yesterday, Internet access. The landlord is very nice (and no, I'm not saying that just because you might be reading this!) and feels like an old friend. We talk on the phone about a lot of things that have nothing to do with the house. She may be glad that I'm online now so I won't be calling her so much anymore but I enjoy talking to her.

Last to come to the house was the Caddy. Again, Phil came to the rescue not once, but twice. First to jumpstart it, then to put the battery in when the jumpstarting didn't work. His only reward was cookies Jaime and I made...but they're good cookies.

Jaime is still trying to parse out the fact that "home" is now a house and not the apartment. I don't miss the stairs one bit. I can block off the computer room and let Jaime run around without worrying about what she'll get into. She can get the back door open and I've found her out on her slide more than once. The sight of her running in circles throwing leaves in the air will stay with me for a long, long time. What a beautiful child and what a lucky mommy I am.

I still have yet to find the silverware, our winter jackets, Jaime's winter clothes, the battery chargers for the cameras, and a few other things but we're happy and doing fine.

We're heading off to Grandma and Grandpa's for the holidays. This year we're staying 8 days. Grandma's house will never be the same. I'm sure I'll have pictures and blogs while we're there. Until then, no guarantees - I still have a lot of work to do :)

If anyone needs our new address or phone number, just email me. I'll be happy to give it to you.