Movin' On Up

Well, we moved.

I can honestly say that I couldn't have asked for an easier and better moving experience than the one we had.

Well... except for the little problem that happened 4 days before we moved out of the apartment.

I had a collage of frames on Henry's wall that I had taken down and packed several days prior. I was at the point in packing where I was going around the apartment pulling out nails and putting spackle on the nail holes (as a courtesy to our apartment people; we absolutely loved living there). There was a particularly difficult nail that wouldn't come out of the wall with ease (meaning I couldn't pull it out with my bare hands). I remembered that nail being tougher to nail in the wall, but I assumed I had nailed it into a stud and didn't think much else of it. When Dustin got home, I had him get the hammer and pull it out and I was standing behind him armed with the spackle and putty knife.

When Dustin pulled the nail out of the wall all hell broke loose. Yes. It. Did.

The nail was not nailed into a stud.

It was nailed into a PVC pipe that supplies water to the sprinkler system in the building. Yes, the whole building.

The second that nail came out, so did water at a freakish pace. 250 pounds of pressure, to be exact. It a matter of seconds the drywall was gone around the hole and water was shooting out of the wall. The next 10 minutes were a blur. I was screaming. Crying. Freaking out. Hysterical. We got every towel and blanket we owned to try and sop up the water so it wouldn't run down the wall/carpet and ruin our downstairs neighbor's apartment. I ran to a neighbor's apartment downstairs and she frantically called the after hours maintenance because I wasn't having any luck getting through. We turned the water off in our apartment, but it didn't do anything because the water that is supplied to the sprinkler system can only be turned off by a valve in a locked closet downstairs.

Water was shooting out for about 15 minutes by the time Bob, the maintenance guy showed up.

He was calm. I was not. He chuckled a bit and turned the water off downstairs. He kept telling me it wasn't a big deal.

I'm sorry, but this looked a lot like a big deal to me.

 

I was doing the mental math on how much this was going to cost us... four days before we moved. You know, because everyone has tons of cash laying around when they're getting ready to buy a house. 

Bob ended up just sticking a screw back in the nail hole and turning the water back on. The screw held and he left. He couldn't just keep the water off because it's a major hazard for the other 7 families that lived in our building, and the 8 other families who live in the building that has a connecting corner. Two days later he had contractors come out to fix the sprinkler pipe (because it's a fire issue, not just any idiot can fix it). 

The whole time I was holding my breath waiting for the bill to come. The contractors had to cut a 5-foot long hole in the drywall to get to the top and bottom of the pipe. I was dying. 

I finally summoned the courage to ask Bob the damage and he said, "N othing. Tom's not gonna charge you for this!"  (Tom is the owner of our apartment complex.)

I was stunned to say the least. 

They never did charge us a dime. And you know what? They had the nerve to send us a check for our security deposit back! That's right, they gave us $300 back just a week after this incident. Can you even believe it?!

So anyways...

Back to the move.

 

We lucked out with the most amazing truck driver.  Dave has been working with United Van Lines (the parent company of Mayflower) for 30 years. The other guy who packed the truck had also been moving for 30 years. The three other guys helping (the muscles of the group) were all great. Two younger guys and another middle-aged guy. They were excellent around Henry, who was constantly in their way.  

We were a little behind in packing and they didn't give us crap that we were still packing boxes as they were doing their inventory and trying to move stuff out. Mayflower tells you specifically to make sure you are done packing before the movers show up.

We had a HUGE list of things we wanted to take with us in the car because we were told it might be 9 days before our stuff arrived. In addition, there's a list of things they won't allow you to move on the truck. When it was painfully obvious we couldn't fit everything in our cars, they were nice enough to let us add stuff to the truck at the very last second. 

Dave told me that he had one other load to transfer onto his truck and that he would actually be delivering our stuff on the very first day of our available window, August 3rd (just two days from the day they loaded up). I was totally shocked because my move coordinator said they hardly ever hit the first day of the window. We told Dave we couldn't move in until around 1pm that day (because closing was at 11am) and asked him if it was possible at all to deliver us the next day, August 4th instead. He switched his route for us and dropped off the other family first and then told me he'd be at our new place at 8am on Saturday, August 4th. 

I am dead serious when I say that the truck pulled in at 7:58am. The man is punctual. 

There was not a single thing damaged in the move. It was so wonderful that they set up each of our beds -- including putting the crib and toddler bed back together. After a long night of unpacking, it was nice to not even have to worry about the beds being ready.

Even though it cost a lot of money it was worth every single penny. (It also helped that Dustin's new job footed the bill!) 

In between Wednesday, August 1st when they loaded the truck and Friday, August 3rd when we stayed at the new house, we spent Wednesday night in Columbus at my mom's apartment, and Thursday night in a hotel in Aberdeen, MD. It was a good way to break up an otherwise lengthy drive with two kids, two parents, one grandmother, one great-grandmother, and two packed cars. I mean, PACKED cars. 

Abby: our cars were so packed, you couldn't fit a jelly bean in them anymore! 

The highlight of the trip would have been when Dustin's grandmother was taking her turn with me and the kiddos in my car when Dustin slammed on his breaks in front of me because the car in front of him hit the car in front of them (did you get all that?) and I yelled, "SHIT!" super loud. Dustin's poor grandmother. I'm sure her sweet ears started bleeding. I thought Dustin had actually hit the car in front of him as well, so it freaked me out. The last thing we needed was to be in a car accident the second we passed into West Virginia. The accident literally happened on the bridge crossing the river from Ohio to West Virginia. Thankfully he did not hit the car in front of him and thankfully Lulu Belle did not smack me in the naughty little mouth.

The previous owners left us a very thoughtful list of things they thought we might need. They knew we were moving from a long distance. The list included things like the nearest hospital, the pediatrician they used (they have three young boys), and the best local places to eat.

Dustin signing the papers for the house.

Thanks for buying me and the kids this rockin' house, honey. We love it!