Our New Old House

Thursday  in mid-afternoon  Mystie

Well, we are in. We’ve had a whirlwind of a week so far and it doesn’t show any signs of letting up.

Thursday and Friday of last week saw me packing like a mad woman, although sane enough to attempt to get like things packed with like, packed in boxes that would get them to at least the correct level of the house, and pack away bags and bags of stuff to charity. “I moved this twice, it never got unpacked, do I really want to move it two more times?” No! Friday afternoon the press was on and organization had to be left behind. Tonya came to help and packed most of the kitchen with me Friday evening. Thursday and Friday Matt was working furiously on the house, although he wasn’t installing the new kitchen cabinets as scheduled because Home Depot’s computer sabotaged our order. Matt was back Friday evening with the big truck for the big day.

Saturday was moving day. Marji picked up the boys, who were off to spend the night at her house, at 8 in the morning. Matt had left around 7 for doughnuts and I had two pots of French Press going constantly from 8-10: the two opiates of the masses to appease the appetites of our faithful friends who came to help us move. I continued to pack those things that appeared from under moved furniture and in closets after the clothes were gone. The men left around 10 with their loads and I still had 6 doughnuts and a pot of coffee, so after loading the clothes that were on hangers carefully into the car that I was left with, I called Diane — who lives only a few blocks away — over to help consume the remaining comestibles. She and two of her children, 16 and 10, not only helped with the consumable items, but with packing up all that miscellaneous junk that the main moving push leaves behind. In an hour and a half we had every single item in that house out and ready for the men’s next round. That was accomplished with boxes, bins, and laundry baskets that Diane’s 16-year-old ran back to their house for — and drove them back to us, because all our boxes were in use.

The men arrived back at the rental at 11:30 and I was off to pick up Papa Murphey’s pizza for the few, the proud, the ones who saw our move to its completion — and the stragglers that came late and became the second wave. To my chagrin, the oven at the house did work after I plugged it in — if it hadn’t, then I would have been assured a new range with the new kitchen. But, no, the range worked and I was able to back three family-size pizzas before the guys — who were obviously dragging — were finished. But finish they did and we had pizza and beer — and hard cider for Mr. Robinson.

Once we set the crew along their own ways, overwhelmed by the chaos, I took a nap. When I woke up it was time to get ready to go to an office party that Matt’s manager had been trying to schedule for over six months. She was determined that everyone would be there, so we could not disappoint her. Besides, she was providing free dinner and drinks.

So we crashed at home just after 10. Daylight brought us Sunday and I had prepared enough to have our Sunday stuff at hand. I did, however, walk out the door without applying lipstick and without the bag which contained a spare. After church Tonya had us, which now once again included our sons, over for dinner and allowed us to relax and rest while she and her family put the finishing touches on ham, potatoes, salad, and cream puffs with strawberries and whipped cream. It was delicious.

After the boys woke up from their naps, I took them grocery shopping because we had no cereal, no milk, no bread, no eggs, and no kitchen. So we bought essentials for camp-living — without buying products that have corn, so that included milk, cereal, tortillas, cheese, and various crackers to eat with peanut butter.

Monday the boys went to Nana’s house. But Nana and Papa had abandoned their family in this hectic week for a life of all-expenses-paid luxury in the Bahamas. So the boys played with their aunts and uncles while I spent over 6 hours cleaning the rental. But what did that 6 hours accomplish? All the walls and baseboards and windows washed, the laundry room completely cleaned, the fridge cleaned out — which took an hour and a half alone, the oven self-cleaned, and the bathrooms completely cleaned. What did that 6 hours **not** accomplish? The kitchen and the doors still needed to be cleaned, the garage and the patio still needed to be swept, and the smoke detector needed to be hooked up. But it was 4:30, I had a load of cold things that had to get to our house, and Aunt Lanie had to be elsewhere at 6, so I left off.

That night after a dinner of tacos, Matt noted that only he could hook up the smoke detector, so he would go to the house and finish the cleaning as well. I felt terribly guilty about not finishing my job myself and having Matt, who has been working tremendously hard for two weeks, finish it for me, not to mention a little nervous about what a “clean kitchen” might be to him versus myself. He was at the rental from 7 to 11:30.

Tuesday morning was the final walk-through appointment with our property manager and I showed up an hour early to put the finishing touches on the kitchen. I brought two large rags but I immediately wished I had brought four or five. I managed, however, and the job got done just in time. The walk-through went well, with only notations about the carpet going down against us, and it was yet to be cleaned.

Then we were out to Costco for various items. Between the boys’ crazed running and shouting through the empty rental, their not-to-cheerful journey through Costco, and their apparent out-of-sorts and tired mannerisms, I decided that although it was an official park day with friends, we had better be no-shows. I had, at least, had the forethought to not tell them we might go to the park, so there was no sorrow on their part. In fact, though it was 10:30, they both fell asleep on the way home. It also began to rain, so it was clear that home is where we belonged.

The rest of Tuesday I spent doing little things here and there that made no ready difference. In fact, I can’t remember what I accomplished Tuesday, just that I did stuff the rest of the day until 3:30, when my mom — tanned and replete — came over to see the spectacle and lend me three tall, muscular brothers to move boxes and things as I directed. So we got some furniture arranged, the desk up, and things that had been left under the carport inside.

Wednesday was play group, and I was able to get half the clothes out and put away and the spare room arranged before 10, so I decided we could go. First we had to pick up a package that the post office was holding hostage for postage due because it had to be forwarded, then we had to go to the City of Richland’s office to find out just how exorbitant it would be to get a large dumpster for all the old kitchen parts that are currently under the carport. Very exorbitant, was the answer.

Wednesday afternoon I finished putting away clothes and did other little things. Meghan had called that morning and invited us over for dinner and we willingly took the excuse for escape. It was a very pleasant evening spent in a new house in which everything is lovely and functional, as opposed to our very old house in which everything is in chaos and only barely functional.

Today is Thursday. I have put some order in the office, done some laundry, and had a plumber come through the house to tell us just how much a whole-house replumbing jobbie would run us. He talked to me about it for awhile after looking everything over, but said he wasn’t able to take on such a large project at this time and gave me the number of another guy to call — which I need to do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Lady of the House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.