Florida Homeowners AND Residents

We successfully closed on our new house Wednesday afternoon! Yey! The moving van should arrive in an hour or so and we'll begin THAT process.

The dog is with her grandparents in Ocala and the cats are in a Residence Inn about 15 minutes from our new house. They are starting to get on one another's (and our) nerves. Keeping a kitty litter box in a closet ain't much fun.

Had a bit of a scare coming down I75 Tuesday afternoon; a hard rubber thingie came flying out of nowhere (probably fell off the back of someone's work truck), went under the car I was driving, flew out behind me, went over one lane and smacked right into the windshield of the car Mr. B was driving. Thankfully, it hit in the middle, not on the driver's side and doubly thankfully, Mr. B is cool under pressure.

If this had happened Wednesday, our FL insurance would have covered it free of charge. Since it happened Tuesday (when we were still under NC), our crappy NC insurance did not cover it so we are out $260. But, really, since it could have been far, far worse, we're not really complaining. It's already been replaced.

Anyway, other than this, everything's worked out okay so far (well, we're a bit irked at Allied but that's another story, maybe).

Here are a few pictures from our journey (so far). More to come!

Oh, BTW, the Internet in our new house is WICKED fast! Woot!

Mrs. B

Monster moving van outside our "old" house.

One last picture in front of our "old" house.

Mrs. B and Mom. Don't cry!

Pete at a Red Roof Inn in Hardeeville, SC (about five hours from Durham).

Lucy's an old pro at this traveling thing.

Lily is unperturbed by it all. Time to eat.

Athena was actually not hiding.

Apollo looking handsome with his tag.

Ares. Before he started howling.

Scary!

Looks worse from this view.

Apollo hanging at the Residence Inn in Sarasota.

Time to chill out, Ares.

Lily decided Pete's crate made a nice bunk.

Four of the five (Lily's in the crate).

Happy FL homeowners 8.17.11

Moving Mania!

I knew it was going to be this way as it always is; the final days before a move are totally insane, despite the best efforts to be organized. We've been probably over the top organized this go-around and it's still be a bit wiggy around here. I shudder to think how people who don't lean towards methodically planning things out step by step manage to get themselves successfully moved; e.g., people, pets and possessions all ending up at the correct address.

Here's my recap*, starting with a week ago today:

Thursday 4 August. I had arranged for an "Open Closet" sale from 4-7 in a (futile) attempt to pre-sell some of my clothes, shoes and accessories. A woman came the Saturday before and bought one of my "Italian Outfits". One woman did show up during the actual sale and bought a few things. Although it didn't have the result I'd hoped for, I still think this was a good idea. IF I ever attempt to get rid of more clothes et al, I'd seriously consider doing this again, but with a bit more lead time. Mom came over to help me with the sale (not really needed, of course) so we spent some time put price tags on the moving sale items which were piled all over the garage.

Friday 5 August. Mom and Dad came over to help us get organized for the moving sale. No mean feat, believe you me. Despite the fact we'd already inventoried and priced all the items, we still had to figure out the best way to set up, where to put what, etc. We did a partial dry-run with two long "tables" (really long pieces of wood placed on top of saw horses) out in the driveway, the tools and yard equipment in the yard, etc. Mark and Dad put up the several signs Mark had already made. As we were sitting in the garage enjoying a well deserved lunch of Subway sandwiches, beer and wine, several people drove by, stopped, and inquired about various items. One gentleman wanted to know if we were selling our "cook stove",which I took to mean the camp stove, but, no, he meant our stove-stove, as in, the one in the kitchen! A yard maintenance man wanted to know about the lawn mower (already bequeathed to my brother). A neighbor came over and put dibs on a snow shovel and the wheel barrow. And, the dude who'd placed a deposit on the china hutch (which had been listed on Craig's List) came by to pick it up. While he and Mark prepped it for loading, his buddy bought several items that we'd placed out on a table.

Saturday 6 August. Woke up around 3:30 to the sound of rain. Damn! We both ended up getting out of bed by 5:30 so we could figure out what to do regarding the sale (it was pouring down rain with thunder and lightening). The sale was due to start at 8:00, and Mom, Dad and my brother were coming over shortly before to help us set up per the previous day's plan. Problem was, that plan was now in the crapper. Mark began to put things on the front porch while I went out on a (fruitless) donut run (the Dunkin' Donuts I was searching for did not appear to exist). Long and short (the entire moving sale experience is worth an entire entry or two on its own), the sale went from 8-2 as planned. Even though it rained much of the morning, that didn't stop people from coming, thankfully.

Sunday 7 August. In stark contrast to Saturday's rainy day, Sunday was bright and sunny but just as humid. In fact, probably worse. We had a real slow day; probably a combination of heat and it being Sunday. We switched to "1/2 Off Everything!" mode at 10 which helped sales a bit but not much. By 3 (we stuck it out longer in hopes we'd get some late-comers), we packed it up (literally) in preparation for the remaining items's trip to various charity organizations.

Monday 8 August. I followed up on a few points with our real estate agent. Mark delivered boxes of stuff to charity. I arranged for another charity to come pick up our large furniture pieces that had not sold. I also finalized both our car and homeowner's insurance policies in FL, talked to the alarm company about moving the system once we're in the new house, and a few other new home related business items which I now can't remember.

Tuesday 9 August. I dropped several boxes of books off at the local library. I did a ton of laundry. We each had some personal appointments plus The Kid came over for dinner/to spend the night. We went to a Foo Foo Mexican restaurant called Dos Perros and enjoyed our evening with The Kid (no moving stuff).

Wednesday 10 August. I took two cats to the vet for their annual exams and also picked up sedatives for whichever cats may need it for the drive down to FL. We spent the day organizing for the packers (e.g., moving stuff that we don't want them to pack to an empty room, packing up things we will take with us (e.g., jewelry, cigars, toiletries)). Mark also did some real work. We had dinner with one of his clients at a Southern comfort food restaurant in Chapel Hill called Mama Dip's. Eh, so-so.

Thursday 11 August. Today. Woke up full of fire to get everything else done. As of almost 3, much of it is done, including moving clothes that we will need to take with us into a room the packers won't go into, going to the bank (for something like the 10th time this week), paying bills, putting notes around the house for the packers, movers and carpet guy, clearing out the pantry and putting aside food stuffs that family may want (perfectly good but we can't take it), going through our wine stash, doing a trial run on doping up the cats (with mixed results), and wasting time blogging.

So, yeah, it's been a whirlwind week and this synopsis hasn't even included all that Mark's been doing (he has is own Blog!*)

Left to do yet (no particular order): Vacuuming the couches and throw pillows (to remove cat hair) before they all get boxed up/wrapped up tomorrow. Moving the rest of the items that we want the packers to leave alone to a safe place. Vacuuming under our bed once the bed has been removed (cat hide out; you can imagine how much fur must be under there). Re-setting the AC for something that won't break the bank since we won't be here to adjust it. Lowering all window blinds. Removing the beach towels that we'd stuffed under one of the kitchen cabinets when we got Pete and Lily (to keep them, and later the Littles, from climbing in). Getting Lucy's (never used) dog house to my brother. Having a family get-together here Saturday. Make sure the neighbors know to not park their cars on the street or in their driveways Monday or else they'll get creamed by a moving van and/or won't be able to get OUT of their driveways. Secure the pets on Monday Moving Day. Load the cars. Leave for our new life.

WHEW. No wonder I'm exhausted!

Mrs. B

Hunk Oh Hunk Of Burning Stress

"They" say moving is one of the most stressful things a person can do in life; it keeps company on the list with getting married, divorced, starting a new job, being laid off or fired from your job, buying and selling a house, having a child/being a parent and having someone you are close to die. I've had experiences now with all but one of these and some more than others.

Probably the all time humdinger was in June of 2000 when FIVE occurred at once: I got divorced, we sold our house (while we were basically estranged), I moved from Colorado back to California (I had to leave my cats in Colorado for about three weeks; thankfully, I had a wonderful friend who went over to the house and checked on them every day), I started a new job where I had a lot to prove (or at least I thought so then) and I bought a house (and had to live almost three months in a Residence Inn until that process was complete; juggling what to do with Nigel and Clyde when I had to go out of town on business trips (please, maids, DON'T go into the room and let them out!))

When all was said and done, the entire change was crammed into roughly three months. Oh, and in the middle of all of this, my dad had a heart attack and my youngest brother also went through a nasty break-up and divorce (as an aside, our divorces were final within one week of each other; mine 7/24 and his 7/31, something I'll never forget).

Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't go totally bonkers because I was doing much of this by myself (although I did have incredible support from family and friends and certainly managed to have some fun along the way (thanks, Nathaniel)).

Anyway, it's eleven years later and the circumstances behind the move, although not 100% happy-happy joy-joy, are positive.

Still. Still. Moving IS stressful. And time consuming. And complicated. There are so many balls in the air at once and you really cannot drop any of them. Not only that, I feel as though I have to watch everyone else involved to ensure they don't drop any balls, either. I have a huge Excel workbook with multiple sheets in it, each one with a ca-zillion "to dos". Mr. B and I have assigned who is doing what and so far that is mostly working, with the only real problem being every time I strike one off, I seem to add five more. Mr. B tells me every day, "We're getting stuff done!", and, he's right, we are. In fact, frankly, I think we may be overly efficient as at times we're sitting around waiting for other people to do what they are supposed to and it seems mighty slow. I have to work hard on curbing my ex HRD persona and riding herd on those who don't return phone calls or emails as quickly as I feel they should OR who don't behave the way I believe they should. Mr. B sighs and probably wishes he could keep me half-snookered all of the time so that I'd chill out.

In my defense, it's extremely difficult to chill out when it's 100 plus degrees with high humidity such that it feels as though it's 115. And, this is likely one reason why things don't move along as quickly as I'd wish; it's hard to move quickly, period.

So, some of those most stressful/sad (for me) things about moving et al this go-around (including the fore mentioned aspect of people not having the same sense of urgency that I do) are:

Identifying and selling roughly 1/3 of our furniture. Or, hoping to sell it; whatever doesn't sell gets donated and written off. Although we opted for a smaller house, it's still somewhat sad to have to part with some of the things we've both had for many, many years.

Preparing for a moving sale. Wow, what a hassle! At times, I've found myself wondering if this is really going to be worth the effort.

Getting the current house ready to go onto the market/selling it. I've bitched enough about this so I won't go any further.

Having to leave the current house empty while we bop off to FL. I know I can't wait to get to FL, but, I feel "bad" for this house sitting here all by itself.

Worrying about the pets, well, really the cats, as we travel to FL. They've never had to deal with being in the car longer than 1/2 hour, let alone staying in a hotel room for several days.

Fretting about ALL the pets and how they'll adjust to their new home.

Money. Moving is not cheap. Everything requires money! You know it going in, but, after several weeks of writing checks for this or that, it wears on the soul.

Ok, enough negative crap. Across the miles, I can hear my Father saying to me as he reads this, "No crisis before its time, Christina!" And, my former Executive Coach just commented on one of my pissy Facebook status updates and reminded me that I am the Captain of My Soul and not to let things ruin my day.

I think I just needed to rant a bit, and, frankly, remembering that move back in 2000 really did help me appreciate how much improved the move circumstances are now compared to then.

Mrs. B