We drove to PA and everything was fine. Our stuff arrived on time and the movers were great. We are living happily ever after.
Nobody would read our blog if our trip was that boring, so here's the real story.
We were in the hotel in Eagan for 2 weeks while our stuff got shipped to PA. That turned out to work well. The week before we left I stopped to get gas next to the hotel and had a flat tire. I called Andy and his first question was "Well, did you call your dad?". (I'm not even going to in to how much I will miss my mom and dad. That will have to be another post.) So I hung up and called Papa Jim to the rescue. He drove, through rush hour of course, and get to the hotel and immediately found a nail in my tire. He had the stuff to plug it and has an air compressor that plugs into a wall. We brought my newly plugged tire (and the flat spare that he told me to check 6 months ago and I never got around to) up to the hotel room and got them both filled with air. Done and done.
Thursday, 2 days before we leave, I went to the house to do one last load of laundry. When I hear it stop and go to put the clothes in the dryer, the washer is FULL of water. Spin cycle = not happening. After a bit of panicking I finally get a hold of a repair man who shows up within the hour and fixes the latch on the door. Don't get me wrong, we paid a ridiculous amount of money to fix something I will never use again, but it's fixed.
Friday we had dinner plans with my parents. We were going to walk through the house one last time and load up the truck with the last couple of things. I'm saying goodbye to my neighbor forever and putting things in the backseat when I see a silver thing on Andy's tire. The top of a screw. A big screw. You have GOT to be kidding me. It's so lucky that the way the tire stopped the screw was on the top and I could see it. The tire wasn't flat yet so Andy took off to Firestone while I waited for my parents at my empty house. We walked through together one last time to say goodbye. I suggested that all of us touch NOTHING because with our luck the house will explode.
The house did not explode, dinner was wonderful, and we said our goodbyes. On Saturday we picked up Lisa and Nick and got on the road by 7:30am. We drove to Chicago and had lunch with some really, really generous friends. They let Deb play with all of their dog toys and made us an awesome meal. We stayed a couple hours and then drove to the Cleveland area. When we got to the hotel and unloaded our overnight bags we spent a LOT of time looking for Lisa's overnight bag. After looking for a largish bag in a smallish area, we realized that her bag had not made its way into the car. It was neatly packed and sitting safely in their bedroom. Lisa and I decided to go on an adventure to the 24 Walmart and saw everything you would expect to see at 11pm. After too much time, we decided that she would pick up some necessities and we would visit Target the next morning to pick up a new wardrobe for her.
The next day we did just that and then got on the road again. After a very uneventful but beautiful drive, we got to Glen Mills, our new city, around 4pm. We checked into a hotel near the new apartment and went out to dinner in West Chester, which is a fun college type town about 10 minutes from here.
Monday - Moving Day! But not really. We got to the apartment at 9am to our keys. We had to wait a half hour because the key didn't work and they needed to fix it. We were told to do a check of scratches, nicks, marks on the walls so that we didn't get charged for it when we moved out. We walked in and the place was not ready for that checklist. There were chunks of dry wall missing and it wasn't completely painted. The microwave wasn't set up, there were lights that weren't installed yet. It was 95% done. The General Contractor walked in apologizing profusely saying that they messed up somehow and the place wasn't quite ready. Obviously. He told us we could move everything in and they would work around us to get it done immediately.
During this time we were waiting for the movers who were to arrive with the first trailer of stuff at 9am. 9:30, they call to say they're on their way. 10:30 they call to tell us they are having car problems. 11:15, they call to tell us they are on their way. 12:30 they call to tell us their car is fixed, kinda, and how far do they have to drive. I told them not to bother and cancelled immediately. They had to drive 3 trailers back and forth full of our stuff, 20 minutes each way. Yeah, I'm not letting you put our stuff on the back of your car that "kinda" works. We got our hotel room for another night and got on the phone to find new movers. Two Men and a Truck to the rescue! They could get us in the next day which turned out to be better for us since the apartment wasn't ready. Note to all: Just go with Two Men and a Truck to begin with.
Monday afternoon Lisa, Nick, Andy and I go to Andy's new office to get a tour of the new offices and factory. Andy and I saw it when they had just poured some of the concrete so it's cool to see it with people and machines working. We did a low key night of dinner and hanging out at the hotel.
Tuesday turned out to be ACTUAL moving day. We brought Lisa and Nick to the airport (sad) and picked up the first trailer full of stuff. Andy ran the U Boxes back and forth while the movers moved everything in. The guy at U Haul said that our movers were in his parking lot for 7 hours the previous day with water pouring out from their engine. Good thing we cancelled. That being said, movers are worth EVERY PENNY. It was really really great to be able to organize a few things and start unpacking while not lifting a single thing. Everything got in, nothing that I've found yet is damaged, and the unpacking has begun.
So now, we organize. I have not been to Target in 2 days and I feel like that's a win. Especially since I can see it from my living room window. I'm trying to be very mindful of what I buy, knowing that I will just be packing it up again in a year or two. We will be in the apartment for a year for sure, but might consider another year. That's TBD. The apartment is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The kitchen and dining room/living room is open and the tall ceilings and loft make it feel like there is so much space. Pictures to follow.
What I learned: You can't expect everything to go as planned. Sometimes other plans are actually better so just because it doesn't go as you expect doesn't mean it will be bad. We are happy, healthy, and safe.
Up next: Training Deb to not bark at EVERY SINGLE PERSON she sees in and around the apartment building.
Nobody would read our blog if our trip was that boring, so here's the real story.
We were in the hotel in Eagan for 2 weeks while our stuff got shipped to PA. That turned out to work well. The week before we left I stopped to get gas next to the hotel and had a flat tire. I called Andy and his first question was "Well, did you call your dad?". (I'm not even going to in to how much I will miss my mom and dad. That will have to be another post.) So I hung up and called Papa Jim to the rescue. He drove, through rush hour of course, and get to the hotel and immediately found a nail in my tire. He had the stuff to plug it and has an air compressor that plugs into a wall. We brought my newly plugged tire (and the flat spare that he told me to check 6 months ago and I never got around to) up to the hotel room and got them both filled with air. Done and done.
Thursday, 2 days before we leave, I went to the house to do one last load of laundry. When I hear it stop and go to put the clothes in the dryer, the washer is FULL of water. Spin cycle = not happening. After a bit of panicking I finally get a hold of a repair man who shows up within the hour and fixes the latch on the door. Don't get me wrong, we paid a ridiculous amount of money to fix something I will never use again, but it's fixed.
Friday we had dinner plans with my parents. We were going to walk through the house one last time and load up the truck with the last couple of things. I'm saying goodbye to my neighbor forever and putting things in the backseat when I see a silver thing on Andy's tire. The top of a screw. A big screw. You have GOT to be kidding me. It's so lucky that the way the tire stopped the screw was on the top and I could see it. The tire wasn't flat yet so Andy took off to Firestone while I waited for my parents at my empty house. We walked through together one last time to say goodbye. I suggested that all of us touch NOTHING because with our luck the house will explode.
The house did not explode, dinner was wonderful, and we said our goodbyes. On Saturday we picked up Lisa and Nick and got on the road by 7:30am. We drove to Chicago and had lunch with some really, really generous friends. They let Deb play with all of their dog toys and made us an awesome meal. We stayed a couple hours and then drove to the Cleveland area. When we got to the hotel and unloaded our overnight bags we spent a LOT of time looking for Lisa's overnight bag. After looking for a largish bag in a smallish area, we realized that her bag had not made its way into the car. It was neatly packed and sitting safely in their bedroom. Lisa and I decided to go on an adventure to the 24 Walmart and saw everything you would expect to see at 11pm. After too much time, we decided that she would pick up some necessities and we would visit Target the next morning to pick up a new wardrobe for her.
The next day we did just that and then got on the road again. After a very uneventful but beautiful drive, we got to Glen Mills, our new city, around 4pm. We checked into a hotel near the new apartment and went out to dinner in West Chester, which is a fun college type town about 10 minutes from here.
Monday - Moving Day! But not really. We got to the apartment at 9am to our keys. We had to wait a half hour because the key didn't work and they needed to fix it. We were told to do a check of scratches, nicks, marks on the walls so that we didn't get charged for it when we moved out. We walked in and the place was not ready for that checklist. There were chunks of dry wall missing and it wasn't completely painted. The microwave wasn't set up, there were lights that weren't installed yet. It was 95% done. The General Contractor walked in apologizing profusely saying that they messed up somehow and the place wasn't quite ready. Obviously. He told us we could move everything in and they would work around us to get it done immediately.
During this time we were waiting for the movers who were to arrive with the first trailer of stuff at 9am. 9:30, they call to say they're on their way. 10:30 they call to tell us they are having car problems. 11:15, they call to tell us they are on their way. 12:30 they call to tell us their car is fixed, kinda, and how far do they have to drive. I told them not to bother and cancelled immediately. They had to drive 3 trailers back and forth full of our stuff, 20 minutes each way. Yeah, I'm not letting you put our stuff on the back of your car that "kinda" works. We got our hotel room for another night and got on the phone to find new movers. Two Men and a Truck to the rescue! They could get us in the next day which turned out to be better for us since the apartment wasn't ready. Note to all: Just go with Two Men and a Truck to begin with.
Monday afternoon Lisa, Nick, Andy and I go to Andy's new office to get a tour of the new offices and factory. Andy and I saw it when they had just poured some of the concrete so it's cool to see it with people and machines working. We did a low key night of dinner and hanging out at the hotel.
Tuesday turned out to be ACTUAL moving day. We brought Lisa and Nick to the airport (sad) and picked up the first trailer full of stuff. Andy ran the U Boxes back and forth while the movers moved everything in. The guy at U Haul said that our movers were in his parking lot for 7 hours the previous day with water pouring out from their engine. Good thing we cancelled. That being said, movers are worth EVERY PENNY. It was really really great to be able to organize a few things and start unpacking while not lifting a single thing. Everything got in, nothing that I've found yet is damaged, and the unpacking has begun.
So now, we organize. I have not been to Target in 2 days and I feel like that's a win. Especially since I can see it from my living room window. I'm trying to be very mindful of what I buy, knowing that I will just be packing it up again in a year or two. We will be in the apartment for a year for sure, but might consider another year. That's TBD. The apartment is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The kitchen and dining room/living room is open and the tall ceilings and loft make it feel like there is so much space. Pictures to follow.
What I learned: You can't expect everything to go as planned. Sometimes other plans are actually better so just because it doesn't go as you expect doesn't mean it will be bad. We are happy, healthy, and safe.
Up next: Training Deb to not bark at EVERY SINGLE PERSON she sees in and around the apartment building.
It sounds like the journey is still fun even though there were some bumps along the way, that will make you look back and smile as you tell others, saying I remember when.........
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