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The Move
In what was probably the most stressful week of the year (to date), we purchased a house and moved in this week’s episode of the Ricks Saga.
The beginning of the week began with a crisis as I realized that I may have missed a deadline in securing the funds for our down payment on the home. With the closing date scheduled, carpet cleaning ready to go, the utilities set to switch over, and several volunteers already coordinated, we could not afford a delay. Kira and I both went to great efforts to get the necessary paperwork in, thinking we could still meet the deadline, but then kept running into snags (on the other end). I was losing sleep over the whole ordeal, but in the end the money was all there a day earlier than needed, so it was much ado about nothing.
My only sister flew in to help us manage the children in our time of need. The kids were so excited to have her there. Merritt really took a shine to her after some warming up. He kept calling her by our neighbor’s name, Tina, because it sounds just enough like “Hannah,” but after several corrections he split the difference and called her “Heenah.”
On the day of the closing and the following move day, everything had to run like clockwork. We had a strict schedule that would allow us to maximize on our time available. We would go to the last day of swimming lessons, then change the kids in the car and leave for the truck rental place, check out the truck (but leave it there), then go to a final walkthrough at the house, then to closing, then pick up the truck and meet the carpet cleaning guy, send Kira and my sister home with the kids, and I would stay and do some small repairs while the carpet guy finished up, then I would drive the moving truck to our Illinois home. Everything went exactly according to plan, except for a minor delay in the closing…
The closing was relatively uneventful, except that I had a terrible feeling that something would show up in my credit history that I didn’t know about and would dash all of our hard work and dreams. Naturally, just as we were in the final approval there was some bizarre flag that said I already am an owner of my mother’s home! It was the strangest thing, because there is no way. The real estate agent said she’d never seen anything like that in her 17 years of experience. Anyway, after a brief delay while it got investigated, we were all set and took our keys!
Move day went very well, also. We had so many excellent volunteers, that I didn’t have to throw my back out (another very real fear I had). After the truck was loaded, I drove it to meet the unloaders at our new place, while Kira stayed to coordinate the final cleaning and inspection of the old home. After more work than we’d care to remember, we were finally all done getting moved late yesterday! I put together the beds and we tried to feed the kids from what food we had kept out.
Today, we have the kitchen almost all put together, and the kids’ rooms are basically set, minus some minor details. There is still a lot to unpack, so this will be our project for the next several days. Luckily, I have a dissertation defense to attend in Chicago on Wednesday, so I will get to escape a little! I also scheduled a root canal for Thursday, just so I can avoid more unpacking. That should be the last one for a long time, I hope.
We are very excited about the house, and the kids are thrilled with the space in the back yard and in their rooms. We are very happy to have more toilets to share, and are excited to decorate and personalize the place. I have a lot of little and not-so-little home improvements to keep me busy, so this will be a big investment in time as well as money. The neighbors are all very kind and welcoming, and everyone has said excellent things about the town and schools. We’ll keep settling in, and keep you updated on it all.