Thoughts of the Lady in the Tower

2004-06-28 - 2:26 p.m.

The New House

I'm a homeowner!

Busy, busy weekend. First, I caught a cold. I went home early on Wednesday and stayed home Thursday. I decided that it was worth using ALL of my sick leave to try to get better before moving. It worked mostly. Friday found me with just enough congestion to get out of breath climbing stairs and unable to sleep at night (trust me, this was a HUGE improvement).

Thursday night Jonathas brought his trailer to my parents' house and we cooked dinner for them. After they left, we got most of our totes packed into the trailer. Amalia remarked later that we had more totes than she's ever seen in her life... I'm not sure how many there were. I think we had 5 stacks up to the ceiling in my parents' basement... I think 6 in a stack. Yeah, a lot of totes. Plus there were the 6 flat ones I had in the storage room, plus a multitude of little ones...

Friday morning Mom and I went to closing. Driving to closing (Gaithersburg!) took longer than the actual closing itself. I was glad she drove, though. Traffic was crazy and people on the beltway are crazy... I would have called them to say I'd be late and pulled off to give my nerves a break. Closing wasn't a problem, and we stopped at Wal-mart on the way home. We picked up a bunch of little stuff... amazes me how stuff like that can add up! $140 later, we escaped Wal-mart (Mom picked up the tab as housewarming!).

Got back to my parents house and started packing up our room (which didn't get packed much at all because of the cold R and I had). Finished that about 3:30, which was about the time everyone started getting off work and such.

Jonathas and Amalia came out, and my parents, and the two of us. We filled Jonathas's truck and trailer, and the back of my truck, and headed over to the house to empty stuff. It was sprinkling, so we didn't use my Dad's (uncovered) truck. By the time we got everything unloaded we were getting hungry.

Dad locked his keys in his truck, so we returned to their house to load the truck/trailer while they went back to my place to pick up Dad's truck and get food. We finished loading the trailer about the time they got back, ate dinner, and called it a night.

Went back to the new house to shower and sleep on an air mattress... and discovered that there was no water! We found out the next morning that they shut it off during the final inspection (to make sure that they can), and forgot to turn it back on (ours isn't the first house this happened to in the development!). So, we slept all sweaty and nasty. Ewww.

Got most of the rest of the stuff unloaded about mid-day Saturday. There were a few pieces left, including the Really Heavy Solid Oak entertainment center. Jonathas and Dad got that stuff while Mom, Amalia and I unpacked the kitchen. My parents collected Pfaltzgraff for YEARS and had a ton of stuff. When they replaced it a few years back I asked if I could have the stonewear, and now that I own a house I can finally use it (its too much stuff to move it around a lot).

Unfortunately, the boxes have been moved around several times (and they are heavy, so they've been dropped a few times, too), and some of my favorite pieces were broke. Pooh. The pattern is Village, and Replacements.com has some. Will have to look into that, and eBay as well.

After the last bit got moved, we took Jonathas and Amalia out for lunch and did a little bit of grocery shopping. We still hadn't showered, so we only wanted to grab what we needed for that night so we could do MAJOR shopping the next day.

The rest of the weekend was a bunch of unpacking and set up. I'm tired and my calves ACHE from the stairs. There's still a bunch to do!

Sunday we did some shopping. Ouch! Spent a lot of money, but that's how home ownership goes... Also got new cell phones. I'm pleased with the phones (free, but they're flip phones, color screen, seem nice), and the service so far. Service in Southern Maryland can be spotty, so we went with AT&T since they have a 30 day service guarantee (if I don't like the coverage in 30 days I can take it back, contract doesn't apply until after that). I get service at the house (my major concern, since Amalia's phone doesn't work there). I'll probably do a Southern Maryland tour over the next month just to check it.

The rest of the week will be more unpacking and set-up. Kaolin will be over on Friday to help! Fun, fun!