Moving Is a Chore

 PAINFUL UN-GROWING PAINS

When we moved from our house on Kathryn Cove, we rented a three bedroom nearer to the college. At that time, we did look at the apartment complex where we now have a one bedroom, but neither of us was ready for shared walls. Unfortunately, we only postponed the inevitable of having to downsize to a one bedroom. And we just thought we had downsized when we moved from the place where we had lived for 21 years!!! Reality is cruel.

Side bar - The Yamaha piano that my dad bought for me years ago went to Charlotte and Darcy. It was Jane's idea to put the plaque on it. At first I was emotionally paralyzed, "What would Dad think?" But now I realize I get to see it about once a week and play it regularly. Plus my granddaughters have started learning to play and way earlier than I started. So now it's all good!

          Charlotte and Darcy.

    A tribute to my parents.

DOWNSIZING AGAIN

Last year, Butch shocked me by suggesting that we sell the house. This year he shocked me again by suggesting we move half our household to storage in Washington. I was angry last year, but this year. I was just dazed and stunned; too much to even think about. It didn't help that Butch moved all, yes all the boxes from every closet in the rental house into the front room . . . in APRIL! We walked around them for two months. My brain was as cluttered at the living room. As if moving wasn't cluttering my brain enough!!

We had to determine what would go in a moving van to go the Washington and into storage; and what would fit in the one-bedroom apartment. We quickly determined the larger furniture had to go: the pool table, the china hutch, book cases, washer, fridge, sewing machines, and fabric.

The everyday necessary items would have to fit into the one-bedroom: dining table, the upright grand piano, TV hutch, hide-a-bed couch, and grill.

Everything else had to be sold or given away: leather couches, outdoor furniture, children's toys, electronic keyboard, and stand.

MOVING DAY

Jane came to help on June 1. She repacked the kitchen items she unpacked just last year. She also got the kitchen in the one-bedroom functional even though much of the other stuff doesn't fit . . . yet.

Thanks, Jane, so much!

Future movers of America, 

     we thank you too!

And Jen and Chris and the kids were absolutely amazing. They drove to San Marcos early on June 4. The big kids were available to move boxes, fetch and carry. Such a big help to give instructions to them and they would just do it! It saved me so many trips to the car loading items for the apartment!!! Thank you, Josh, Caleb, Olivia and Creed. Jen and Chris worked as a team making the giant tetris pieces all fit in the 15 foot U-Haul. They worked all day and didn't stop until the back of the van was shut. And then they all went home. It happened all in the space of  9 hours. Jen and Chris, you are amazing. Thank you, Lesaks, one and all.

  
Thank you, Jen and Kiddos.

          Thanks, Chris!
 

Fast forward a week...

We arrived in Bremerton, Washington on Sunday, June 11 after about 2699 miles of driving. We unloaded all day on Monday into two storage units and returned the U-Haul truck Monday evening. PHEW!!










U-Haul parked in front of Joe and Sharon's.

      Empty van (almost!)

 
Notable stop:
In Phoenix, we met up with Kathryn and Landon for dinner. We unloaded Mom's cedar chest for Darlene into Kathryn's RAV4. With the second seats folded down it fit!


Cedar chest in good condition.

      Everyone is happier with a full belly!









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Almost Finished

Image
Hello to Friends and Family! I haven't posted in almost a year. It's hard to keep up with the changes. That is, until March of this year. Butch and I spent our spring break working on the house painting trim and doors. We stayed in Joe and Sharon's basement and worked everyday at Wellcroft. Then as soon as we left, our builder forgot who we were. When we returned in May we couldn't see where anything had been done. Even the electricians commented that, "Nothin's changed!" We let the builder know we were back in town, and he said he'd get a crew out to Wellcroft to finish up so we could close with the bank. But we didn't see anyone on site until mid-June three weeks later. And this ghosting trend continued throughout the summer. Jane and Perry came to visit, except the house was not ready for them! But they were wonderful for our morale and helped us through the decision to have the house painted. Such patient folks and a good example for us. Front ...
Read more

So Many Permits, So Much Time

Image
  TIME TO GET THE PERMIT(S) The permitting office of our county is much like a house of mirrors. Once you get in it is almost impossible to get out. We were dreading this part more than any other aspect of the building process to date. It has been a waiting game from the start.  SITE PLAN $$$ Early on, before we dug a well or submitted application for any permits, we had to make a site plan and have it approved by the county. On the plan we finally submitted there was some discrepancy about where the stream actually flowed. This was somewhat comical because we got the stream placement directly from the county website! We just waited that one out, and sure enough, after a few months the issue blew over. The trick with the site plan was that it had to have the placement of the septic and well, each with its own requirement of so many feet from the house, the property boundaries, the well, the stream, etc. ad nauseum. Butch worked on that for months. And after even more waiting w...
Read more

Roof Trusses and a Rare Find

Image
It was an exciting day when the lumber yard delivered the trusses.  We arrived on the place and noticed the trusses stacked in a bunch on top of the garage.  Turns out, each truss was too heavy for the four-man crew to move without mechanical assistance. They had to move the hydraulic lift into place inside the garage to support the truss as they moved it towards the end of the garage. They finally got the first truss in place and quickly went to work on placing the rest of the garage trusses. When the garage trusses were in place they started work on the trusses over the second floor. We didn't get many photos of this process unfortunately. We were making preparations for driving back to Texas. In our final weeks in Washington we packed in as much as we could. Fifteen of us went to a Mariner's ballgame, compliments of Joe and Sharon. Mariner's beat the Red Sox 6 - 3. Tons of fun but it got hot! We spent a day with friends from Northern California where we used to live. Ran...
Read more