Moving, part 2

Part of the drama of closing was the actual closing date.  The previous owners have not lived in the house for well over a year, so at the beginning, we were hopeful that once we got bank acceptance on our offer, we'd be able to move in quickly (quicker than the normal 30 days).  The problem was that the owners had been using the house as a storage until.  They still had random things all over the house, and the garage was full of junk.  I thought for sure that once we put an offer in on the house that they would start moving their junk out.  That was not the case.  I thought for sure once the offer was accepted that they would move their junk out.  That was also not the case.

As I mentioned on the previous post, our bank was very efficient and very fast.  They pushed really hard and got all of our financing done well before the 30 day normal.  We asked the sellers for permission to close early.  But, guess what??  They hadn't moved their stuff out.  We were beginning to sense this would be an issue.

It was written into our agreement that we would close by no later than November 29th.  We asked the sellers if we could move in the Saturday after Thanksgiving- not even a week early.  They said no, because they needed Thanksgiving weekend to move all their stuff out.  We were disappointed, but understood that a holiday weekend, with days off work, was a good weekend to move stuff out for them.  (Can I mention that they have had over a year to move out?)

They promised we could close and gain possession of the house the Monday after Thanksgiving instead, the 26th.  We were bummed, as moving on a holiday weekend would have been good for us as well, but decided it was as good as we were going to get.

We packed up more things on Thanksgiving weekend.  By that Monday, the 26th, our house was starting to look this this in every room- boxes packed up and stacked all over.

Monday came....and went.  And no closing.  We were shocked.  And frustrated.  

Our biggest frustration on not closing on the 26th was because weeks ago, I had scheduled a carpet cleaner and professional house cleaners to come in the next day, Tuesday the 27th, and clean the new house prior to move in.  We were promised that we could close on Monday. 

Monday night, our relator had to call the sellers and gain special permission for us to get in the house Tuesday  morning and get our cleaning done.  They very reluctantly agreed.

When I showed up on Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. to let the cleaners in, I could see whey they were reluctant...

Not only were they still not moved out at all, but they had made a bigger mess in the process and their was junk everywhere.  Above is the family room, covered in their stuff.

The kitchen was full too.  Garbage, ugly decorations and junk. 

This decorative Santa was in the entry way.

This chest freezer was left with rotten food in the bottom.

To make matters worse, we found out the house had been winterized just a few week prior which was bad news- that meant there was NO WATER in the house.  The carpet guy and the house cleaners would both need water.  I was seriously about ready to blow a gasket.  The cleaners started without water, bless their hearts, and Ben and our agent frantically called the water company to see what could be done before the carpet guy got there.  We were told that since the previous owners still had a lien on the house (from not paying their water bill for quite some time), that they could not turn the water on for us until that was paid. 

Finally, our agent found a loop hole in the system- the water company told him that the water turn on was located on the property and that for a $60 fee, we could turn on the water ourselves for a few hours to clean. 

 We quickly agreed to that and were just in the process of turning on the water when the carpet guy showed up at 9 a.m.

I went with a new company I have never tried before for the new house.  I have a regular guy that I love, but with a bigger house and with us paying to get the other house cleaned as well, I browsed around for some cheaper options.  Trick or treating on Halloween night, I came across a van advertised for an entire house carpet special, no square foot limit.  It was a great deal and to save money, I booked with the new company.  He came up lacking, big time.  He cleaned the new house in less time than it took for my regular guy to clean a house half the size.  At one point as I watched him, I swear he was just using water. 

I'm sure he got some dirt out and thankfully the carpets were in really good shape to begin with, but I was disappointed.  My regular guy scrubs the carpets with a buffing machine.  This guy didn't scrub the carpets at all- he just sucked them with a machine that sprays wet stuff.  My regular guy scrubs each stair individually, spending about an hour on the stairs.  This guy breezed through the stairs in minutes.  I was really kicking myself for not spending a few extra dollars and having my regular guy do this house as well.  Oh well.  Next time we get the new house cleaned, the extra money it takes will be totally worth it.

Before the carpet guy got there, my agent helped me move all the junk off the carpet in the family room.  The house cleaners were so sweet to just move stuff in the kitchen and clean under it.  They had to do that all over the house.

I had these ladies with me that long morning.  They shared the iPad and some toys, and ate plenty of snacks.

The house cleaners were there for 5 hours and did a great job.  The house was still full of junk, but it was clean.

Later that evening, we received word from our relator that the house had officially closed.  We were so excited.  Here was the key to our new house!

After dinner, we went over to check things out.  Of course their stuff was still there (you can see some of it piled by the stairs).  With us officially owning the house, we weren't sure what was going to happen with all their stuff.  We found out soon enough...

Wednesday was our official moving day.  We had been planning on that for weeks.  It was the day we had been telling everyone to come over and help and Ben was taking work off for it.  Even though we still had a new house full of other people's stuff, we figured since it was now our house, they would be at our disposal to come and get it.  

We showed up Wednesday morning with a van full of packed boxes.  Our plan was to move stuff over in our van all day and hopefully have a nice chunk of our stuff over before our help showed up that evening.

We called our agent to ask if we had permission to move all the junk to the garage.  He said yes.  We also texted the previous owners and asked them if that was ok too.  We quickly got a response back from the wife saying, "Why are you moving in?  The house didn't close yesterday.  We aren't moved out!"  What??

After many phone calls, we found out some bad news.  The house had closed, but it had closed without some of the liens being paid by the previous owners.  So it really shouldn't have closed.  The previous owners were not notified about it closing yesterday (remember that bad communication I was telling you about?).  They were very upset- not with us, but with our agents.  What a mess!  She asked us to please stop moving our stuff in and to leave the house.  I left in tears, as did Mitchell.  We went home to keep packing and to await further news.  I also had to send out a mass email, telling everyone who was coming to help us not to come that day, but the next.  What a mess.

The wife called us later and promised that they would come and move the rest of their stuff out that night after they got off work so that we could move in tomorrow.  She said she'd text us that night when they were all moved out.  We received no text message.  

We still had not heard anything the next morning either.  Ben texted her to ask what was going on and we got no response.  A little while later he called her, but no answer.  Ben was banking on a move that day and had taken another day off work, but could not afford to stay home another day where nothing was going to happen.  We were starting to lose it by this point.

Ben headed into work around 10:00 a.m.  I was preparing to write another email telling everyone the move had been postponed again, worried sick that with all these "false alarms" that we would have no one able to help us when we needed it.

We finally heard from the previous owners around 10:30 a.m. telling us that they would have all their stuff moved out by 2:30 p.m.  The move was back on.

Around 2:45, I went by the house with my mom, who had flown in the night before to help us move.  When I walked into the house, there was still junk everywhere.  They had maybe taken 4-5 boxes with them total.  The rest, they left for us.  I was frustrated and happy all at the same time.  Frustrated that they had left behind so much crap for us to have to deal with, but happy and relieved that they were finally done with the house and we didn't have to deal with them anymore.  We had lots of stuff to move, but at least the house was finally ours and we could do with their stuff whatever we wanted.

Ben got home from work around 3:30.  We went and picked up the moving truck just in time for our help to show up around 4:00.  The rest of the evening was a crazy, busy blur of craziness.

We had so many friends from our ward show up to help.  It was overwhelming how many people came- we were so grateful for everyone's help.  We really couldn't have done it without everyone.  (Well, we could have, but it probably would have taken weeks!)

Around 7:00, we broke for dinner at the new house.  There was lots of hungry, tired men to feed.

A few woman from the ward came over as well and helped me start to unpack some of the kitchen, and organize a few other things.  I was so grateful for their help.

I don't remember what time we went to bed that night, but we were all thoroughly exhausted and I was completely overwhelmed.  There were boxes all over my house that needed unpacked, and a garage half full of our stuff and half full of the seller's stuff.  I didn't even know where to start the next day.

Our decision about where to start the next day was solved for us.  There was still a few things left in the garage at the old house, and we needed to be there while my good carpet cleaner was there cleaning.

 More moving!

Ben, Mitch and I loaded up that truck for about 2.5 hours.  It was exhausting work and much slower with just 2 adults.

Then we drove it over to the new house and had to unload it, all over again.  What a process.

Our garage- a complete mess. 

The 2 large and very heavy TV's left by the previous owners in the dining room.  We need to haul these away when we have time.

Our very messy kitchen.  Bless my mother's heart.  That woman did just as much work that week as anyone.  Every time I turned around, she had 5 boxes unloaded, or another room organized.  She rarely even sat down and was constantly asking what she could do next.  I really don't know how we would have done this move without her.  Whenever I needed to run an errand, she watched the kids at home AND unpacked.  She was seriously amazing.

Our disorganized family room

Boxes everywhere

Our cluttered living room

Our office that we couldn't even close the door to, or get into with out stepping over things

Moving in is such a process.  Every day we got more and more done.  Every day, my stress was lifted a bit more.  Every night I went to bed completely spent and 100% exhausted.

Mitch loved his new bed in his new room.  He and Chloe shared a room AND a bed in the old house.  Here he gets his own bed and his own room.  He couldn't be more thrilled.

 Chloe had signs up on the door to her room by the end of the second night.  "Do Not Come In" and "Nock Please" (darn those silent K's).

We switched the twins from cribs to toddler beds after a few nights.  They did great, except Leah kept falling out of hers. 

We moved Daisy over to the new house and she has been feeling a little lonely. 

Mitch went down and played with her one afternoon.  Daisy was very confused when we move.  Poor doggy.

Our first Sunday in our new house!

We are loving it!

Unpacking, like I said, is a process.  As much as I'd like, it can't be done in one day.

One day I tackled the office.  Wow!  It can be organized!

Office, 2nd view

My dad flew into town on Wednesday December 5th.  I put him to work right away.

 One of our favorite rooms in the whole house is our storage room in the basement.  We used to have to keep all of our food storage out in the garage, but now have a cool, dark room inside to store it all.  

With both of my parents here we decided to tackle that room one day.

During the day, my dad assembled more storage shelves.

 In the evening, we organized and placed all the food on the shelves.

People have been calling it our "Zombie Apocalypse" room.  

And I finally have a pantry!  Our old house did not have a pantry, and I have always wanted one.

As annoyed as we were that the previous owners left behind so much junk, it has been quite entertaining to sort through some of their boxes.  We've found quite a few gems.  Ben scored a new sport jacket and a good looking church suit in great shape.  We found a huge box of boy clothes in great shape that will fit Mitch next year- jeans, dress pants, button up shirts, tshirts, etc.

 My dad found a sport jacket as well.  He looked good in it!

Benj came across a brand new, still in package Halloween costume.  Frankenstein, anyone?

When Dad wasn't helping with one project or another, he found time to read and play with the kids.

Here are some pictures we took this summer, when things were a bit cleaner.  I love my new kitchen.

Kitchen, back view (our relator in the background).

The front of the house

The back of the house.  Currently, there is no useable back yard.  The entire backyard is on a slope.  You can see the side yard on the left, fenced in.  The basement walks out to the slope.  We hope to one day build a retaining wall and connect our backyard to our side yard.

This summer, we picked blackberries at the "new" house (even though we didn't technically own it yet).  The blackberries are on our property.

This is the view looking out our back windows.  It's so nice not having any neighbors behind us, and really only one on the side of us.

Our basement has a nice play area for the kids.

 And the previous owners left behind this big screen TV because they didn't want to deal with replacing the light bulb in it.  We replaced it for $30 and it's as good as new.

The formal living room was one of the first rooms we organized and set up.

We also like to call it the "reverent room."  No rowdiness in here.

I love the big windows in this room and all the natural light.

It also has a big window at the back of the room that over looks all the trees.

We love our 2 story entry way.

Our dining room is currently being used as a storage room right now.  A table for that room will happen someday, but probably not for awhile.

The family room is off the kitchen.  Glad to have that all put together.

The basement also has a theater room.  The previous owners left a projector and some theater chairs.

2 weeks after the move, we are finally feeling a bit more settled.  There is still much to do, but we have gotten so much done.  We have been working like dogs to get things unpacked and organized.  My sweet mother was here for 10 days and worked her tail end off for those 10 days.  Thank you Mom and Dad for all of your help.