Moving part 2

So we should have been done, right? The truck unloaded, stuff in the new house.

But there was still stuff in the old house!

So my sister was driving through town on the way home from her vacation, and we called and asked if she and her husband might come help, just for a little while. She said, "You never ask for help, so you must really need it!" and they tracked down one other friend and met us at the old house.

That was the last call we could make from the new house--the internet stopped working suddenly and we couldn't fix it, and, since our phones run through the internet, we couldn't call them about it.

So, back at the old house, Beth and Ryan and their friend Kyle started dragging all the remaining big stuff--bunk beds and things--out to the truck. They also got the rest of the stuff out of the office and the garage, and were an immense help. But they had to leave at 7:00, and we still hadn't packed the kitchen or laundry or the miscellaneous stuff.

So I suddenly felt well enough to help, and I set to work. Through all of this, Tim still was sick and had no voice, so it was rather silent and unhappy in the house. We packed. And we packed. And we packed. And we packed. Finally, after midnight, we had the truck full and we headed over to the other house. We got there and dragged all the twin-sized mattresses into one room and made one big bed there. The kids quickly dropped off to sleep, and Tim and I started, all by ourselves in the middle of the night, unpacking the full 26-foot moving truck. By ourselves. It must have been well after midnight, because Tim said, "We have 3 hours before we have to get this truck back". So we worked and worked and worked and finally, as the sun was coming up, we were done. We swept the truck and then dragged our sleeping children into the van and drove the truck back, just 15 minutes shy of its due time at 7:00 am. Tim had been working for 24 hours straight on 4 hours of sleep, and I had for about 18 hours on about 2 interrupted hours of sleep, and both of us sick, by the time we dropped onto the one big bed with all our sleeping children and fell asleep.

Church was at 1:00 the next day. We didn't go. But the Elders' Quorum president stopped by to ask if we needed more help during the week, and he arranged it to have people come on Thursday.

Then we dropped Tim off at his show and went back to the house to pack and clean, which we did all day. Tim was still sick enough that he could barely sing the show.

Monday, Tim got the day off from the show because he still couldn't sing. So we went back to the old house and loaded the van full of boxes, and then the kids and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Tim bought us a new vacuum, and we put it together, and cleaned more. THen he came back and we packed the kitchen. By now we were out of boxes, so we put everything into plastic grocery bags--and the laundry into garbage bags--and loaded the van full to the top again. Only one bagful of glass dishes broke in transit, as far as we know, and it broke to dust when it fell out of the van. Anyway, Tim dropped off that load, too, while the kids and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned more. Then he came back and cleaned with us.

We finally loaded the kids out of the house--Benjamin was sleeping on a blanket on the porch, and Daniel and Anda had loaded themselves into their car seats and fallen asleep an hour before--when Tim mopped the last floor, locked the doors, and we were done. And good riddance, we both thought as we looked at that fancy stylish house that we hated. The sun came up as we dropped the key under the neighbor's mat, as instructed, and we drove away.

Tuesday, we noticed the office in the new house smelled REALLY BAD. So bad that we finally closed the door. Tim took all the desks and things out that he had planned to keep and added them to the DI pile that FILLED the driveway. Still smelled bad. Like cats. Like Cat Pee.

With everything out, we finally realized it was the carpets. So we emptied the master bedroom completely so the cleaning company could re-clean it of the cat hair. But the cat pee smell was in all three kids' room, plus the den, and it was BAD. The kitchen was too small to unpack into. We couldn't find anything, and now we had to empty the office, too, for fear that the smell would seep in.

Tim arranged for a carpet cleaning company to come on Thursday morning, and on Wednesday we spent the day completely emptying all the bedrooms so the carpets could be cleaned. Everything that had been in them had to go into closet shelves and into the living room, den, and school room, which still held half a dozen model airplanes and a closet full of tools that everyone kept promising to move so we could use the space.

We also went to the theater to try to call Cox Cable, so they could turn on our internet access again, which they weren't supposed to have turned off in the first place.

Oh, and did I mention that the owner had actually had the gas shut off, so we had no hot water through all of this? Wednesday, the gas company came and turned on the gas. Now, with all the calls and services we've used, I have to say that the lady who answered the phone for both me and Tim at the gas company was the nicest lady I've ever worked with. So Wednesday, we also go to shower finally.

Thursday morning, the carpet cleaners came. They, even, were appalled by the smell in the office. It was that bad. They had to replace the carpet pad and tack strips and enzyme clean the carpet in hopes that they could get the smell out. Cost us $600! The home owners planned to pay us back--sometime. Anyway, by the time the Elders' Quorum showed up to help us get moved in, the carpets were STILL WET, so we wearily had to to send them home.

Friday, the carpets still stank, so I went to Home Depot to price out new carpet pieces and also stick-on linoleum tiles because the kitchen floor was white with green flowers and uncleanable. There were little black splits in it everywhere with black circles around them inside the linoleum--mold, I assumed. The carpet guy at Home Depot said that they couldn't install carpet where there was a pet smell that strong--it's a HazMat situation.

So Friday night Tim sniffed all around all the carpets and identified the cat pee spots. Our bedroom had none, so we vacuumed with "Love my Carpet" deodorizer and put up our bed and then slept with the kids in the den once again.

Saturday, I was finally fed up. All by myself, while Tim was at work, I put together all the kids' beds, the crib, and dragged mattresses to them all, and made the rooms sleepable, avoiding the cat pee spots. Then we went to home depot and, at our own expense, bought kitchen tiles.

Sunday was mother's day. Tim insisted I eat the candybar the ward gave me without sharing it with the kids, which I did--but when nobody was looking so they wouldn't feel bad. The carpet company came and re-did the office, and we agreed to let it dry 24 hours. Then I spent the rest of the day doing the kitchen floor. This was so we could build cupboards so we could put the kitchen stuff away and start eating at home. The new floor looks fantastic. It was easy and looks great, and was well worth the $90 it cost--it makes the whole room feel better, and it doesn't show dirt as well. I also built one of the cupboards I bought from Wal-Mart.

Monday, we realized the room still stank. So we called the house manager and he sent the neighbor over to look at it. She agreed that it stank and said there's nothing you can do but rip out the carpets. But we had no money left for that (having already put $1000 into just the house part of the move, in addition to rent and deposit), and the owner and manager didn't either.

So Tim started working on emptying the tool closet, boxing it all up, because we desperately needed the storage room so we could start putting things away! He also pulled up all the stinky carpets and used the remnants of the new pad to replace all the old stinky pads.

Then, Tuesday or Wednesday, Tim found 40 square feet of carpet listed on Craigslist for free. So he went and got it. And when we unfolded it, the main body was just the size of the office, plus a bunch over in a rectangle here and there. Delighted, we ripped out the old carpet and threw it out the window. Then, we dug up a can of Kilz out of the tool closet and painted the floor under the new pad, and the kids loved that. Benji plunged both arms into the paint and smeared it around this his hands, and, with the kids working over his head, he looked like Jackson Pollock had been babysitting.

Since then (it's now Monday), we have been dragging boxes here and there, taking landlord stuff out to a pile in the yard, trying to dig up places to put the big stuff so we can unpack the boxes. I managed to be the first of 300 emails to get three big sets of shelves full of cubbyholes from a doctor's office that was moving--they're the shelves that used to hold their files, and all the cubbyholes are about 8" by 12"--perfect size to hold sheet music, mic parts, folded kids clothes, toys, etc.

Tim dragged a bedroom set outside that we are giving away, so then we could stumble across the rolled rugs from one side of the living room to the other. I dragged boxes and boxes and boxes out of the way until I could set up the kids' computers, and then my own (finally), which is now threatening to die (not a surprise since I got it used in 2001 and it was designed and built for Windows 95--it's that old!). And yesterday the relief society arranged to come help me get stuff in order on Thursday, so that's a huge relief.

We might actually get moved in here before we have to move out!

But the move is hardly done. I can't find my clothes or most of the kids, I can't find the spoons, although I had no trouble producing the level and stud finder. I built one cupboard but need to build at least one, maybe 2 more because the kitchen, as usual, is just too small.

And then there's all those boxes! Everything we own, including stuff that used to live in the garage, is in the house wanting to be dealt with. And the kids keep unpacking boxes onto the floor and scattering the contents, which doesn't help things in the least.

And, in the midst of all of this, we found out that we are expecting a baby! This is very exciting news that we are happy about. But it does complicate things immensely, since my body is now running on "doing something else, sorry!" mode and "don't make her mad, she stings!" mode. It's very much like when your computer starts an automatic download in the background and suddenly the sixteen windows you already had open become barely responsive--that's me.

And I thought Tim getting a job would solve all my problems. Silly me. Then I thought moving to this new house would solve all my problems. The long-prayed for blessings are certainly not without their own trials!