So, Where Were We?
Oy.
So, the day of the big move, somehow while he was in his kennel so he wouldn’t chase around the movers, Pugly got a-hold of the power cable to my laptop, which wasn’t plugged in, thank goodness. He chewed it up until it wasn’t recognizable, rendering it useless. He just wanted to be sure to express his unhappiness at being in his kennel while such interesting things were going on.
Around 5pm, we realized that the phones weren’t working at the house and while the cable guy was installing cable and internet the night before Thanksgiving — a humongous task apparently because of some sort of water damage to the old cable, the phone company was kind enough to let everyone off early on Wednesday for a four day weekend.
Basically my parents and I were stuck with each other for four days with no way to communicate with the outside world but by cell phone (which my mother can’t hear ring and can’t figure out how to access the voice mail of) because there were no cell phones and no power to connect the laptop to the internet. 
Yet somehow she can hear my pager go off several rooms away and will say, “I think I hear your pager going off.” or “Something is beeping.” Every. Single. Time.
And I’ve come to realize that no matter how much you give away and throw away or donate, you still have much more than you think you have, and even though you’ve gotten rid of a lot of the stuff you had when you moved the last time,this time when you move, it still feels like you have three times as much. And I know I have less furniture and I’ve moved into way more space, but looking around the house, it doesn’t feel or look like it. It’s a strange phenomenon which I think someone should study. Maybe those paranormal investigators on Sci-Fi or Discovery Channel can come check it out.
It actually took 4 days to move, which I really don’t understand. I paid movers to move the furniture on Wednesday, but we seemed to still be packing things on Saturday. That’s never happened on any of my previous moves. It just kept going on and on…like a Twilight Zone move, The Neverending Move…it just seemed so hopeless after a while. Where was all of that stuff coming from? How had it come from that small apartment? How was it going to fit into my new house? Would it all have to go into the basement?
And as a new homeowner, I’ve discovered some other interesting phenomenon…
- My bathroom outlet apparently only works if the lights are on, so forget charging my toothbrush or using the night light.
- Lowe’s had about 5 outdoor garbage cans to choose from and only one of those was a normal person size. Target didn’t have any.
- I couldn’t find anything to sort my recycling in anywhere. I had to order bins from Amazon.com.
- I have been unable to find an appropriate plunger for my type of piping.
- Apparently not all washer and dryer hook-ups are compatible, nor do they sell conversion kits. Don’t ask me. My father tried to explain it and it went over my head. At the moment, my washing machine hookup is MacGuyvered to the 1960 hookup in the basement.
- There are only 4 grounded outlets in my entire house and one is for the washer and dryer.
- There are only 3 phone jacks in the house, and none are upstairs.
- We have been to Lowe’s 4 times trying to get the shades for the living room cut right. Today my father is taking a pair of sewing shears to one of the shades himself. If it were anyone else, I might be more scared, but he’s the only one I trust to cut a straight line.
- The two grounded outlets in my kitchen are not where I would have chosen to put my microwave and coffee maker.
- The shades in the living room had to go up ASAP because every time I drove home, I saw my father sitting on the sofa sleeping/watching T.V. and I’m sure the neighbors think that’s all we do.
- My mother’s answer to everything seems to be “It’s in a box” or “It’s in a basket” and it’s getting on my nerves just a little. I just want to know “which box” or “which basket”. My labeling system was much more clear than hers. (Though I appreciate her enthusiasm and help.)
- I thought I was being clever when I packed up my CDs and numbered the boxes in the order they were packed. Unfortunately, my mother did not unpack them according to the numbers the boxes were marked.
- I miss my organized, clean space. It’s just all a bit chaotic right at the moment. Even the unpacked, put away stuff is disorganized to me.
- The furnace chimney fluke was not where we thought it went through the first floor. We discovered this when my father went to hang a shelf in the bathroom. Fortunately, he was using a hand drill and stopped when he hit metal.
I’m quite exhausted. I couldn’t wait to go back to work just so I could sit down all day.
I must say that it’s been nice having consistent heat. My apartment had a heater in one room and the minute you left that room, you were friggin’ cold. Except for the Dining Room, which is heated by electric heat baseboards, I’ve had the gas-heat baseboards on throughout the house at a nice consistent temp. An interesting side effect is that my toilet paper is toasty warm as it’s above the baseboard in the bathroom.
I bought one of those crescent shower rods and my dad installed that and a shower massage in my bathroom. Both made for nice improvements in my bathroom. The shower massage will definitely help with my sore muscles with the fibro and the crescent shower rod adds about 6″ to the shower area and make things feel less claustrophobic. I feel like I’m such a small person, I don’t know how bigger people don’t feel like they’re bumping into everything in a standard shower, personally.
Plus, I now have a laundry area in my basement with a closeline and folding table. My mother did her clothes the other night and said everything dried overnight, which is a vast improvement over everything taking days hanging on my bathroom shower rod in the old apartment. I’m told this is because of the furnace down there. I’m very excited. Can’t wait to do my own laundry, possibly tonight.
I did lose closet space in the bedroom though and I’m becoming one of those people. I’m expanding into the hall closet and the guest bedroom closet. I’m putting my sweaters and cardigans in the hall closet and my costumes and fancy-schmancy dresses in the guest closet so far. Plus Summer shoes and high heals are going in the guest closet. (In Summer, the Winter and Summer shoes will switch, of course.)
I bought one of those 5-2 day programmable thermostats. Right now, for the cold-haters, I’m leaving it at 68°, but when my parents leave, I’ll program it so that on weekdays from 11pm to 5:30am and from 8am to 4:30pm, it’s 55° and the rest of the time it’s 65° and on weekends, it’s only 55° from 11pm to 5:30am.
I’ve got tons of projects to do around the house. I need to put some insulation in the basement and other such things. Plus there’s tons of unpacking. I’m not going to bother with hanging pictures until I’ve unpacked and settled on where my furniture goes.
I want to have a potluck for the NaNo group here. I have the space now…though it’s covered in boxes.
I’ve about decided that what I want to do for the Dining Room is find a picnic table and refinish it. No benches. Then get 6 mix-matched chairs with backs to put around it. The Dining Room is all wood paneling and has a wood stove and kind of looks rustic so I thought it would be kind of neat to add to that look.
I suppose I could ramble on and on about the house. I could tell you about my plans to get a platform for my bed and get rid of the headboard all together and to buy mix-matched furniture for the bedroom too or my plans for the patio or how I still need a ladder or how I don’t know what to do with my plants to keep the cats from eating them this Winter…
But I think I’ll leave that for another post.
Tags: little red house, moving, homeownership
