Lost In the Shuffle

It seems that when something gets interrupted, even for a while, it's sometimes hard to pick it up and continue where you left.  So it has been with our blog. 

Let's see where to begin......

So we did end up moving.  John left around the middle of March of 2008 because the company wanted him to start work the following Monday.  It was extremely hard having him leave and me not being able to go with him.  Fortunately I had Leah, Ellone, Robert and Jessica to keep me company.  It was nice having them there with me since they could be working on what needed done to the house while I was at work and then we all would work on it after I got home......or so that was the plan.  However, things often just don't go as planned.

John and I had made a list of the things that I needed to have done before we could put the house on the market.  Among those things was to finish stripping the wallpaper in the master bedroom and paint it.  Take out the desk we had built into the closet in the office, finish texturing the wall in the entry way and various other improvements.   To help me out John and I decided that he should work on the things that I wouldn't be able to do once the movers had taken everything.  Among those things was the ladder.  The most challenging of the projects was the front entry.  With having a 15' wall to texture, we decided that he would do the part that I couldn't reach when standing on the floor with no ladder.  He textured the wall from the ceiling down to about 5-6 feet from the floor.  The rest I could reach.  Now in theory it was a good idea, however we hadn't thought about the fact that when one person textures and stops and then another person takes over, the 2 sections are not going to match.  So it was with the wall.  Try as I might I could not get the bottom part to look anywhere near the top.  I finally got them to look at least a little bit alike and figured that was a good as it was going to get.  I was lucky to get them as close as I did and even with what I did it took about 3 days of working at it before I was willing to say it was good enough. 

They say hindsight is better than foresight and so it is very true in large moves. Hire someone, don't move, do it before you leave, anything.  It's too hard, both emotionally and physically to do all the odds and ends of home repairs/ improvements if you are the one who has been left behind.  Save your life, save your marriage and save your sanity.  Hire someone or make sure it's done before they leave.  A word to anyone contemplating a cross country move that has a house that needs to be sold......DON'T!! 

7 Days and Counting

Well the movers have come and gone and the house is now almost totally empty with the exception of my air mattress and blankets, painting supplies for getting all of the projects done and various other small items scattered here and there.

I will be getting some pictures in the next few days to show the whole process and various shots during the day. It went very well and they packed and loaded all in one day. They are supposed to arrive in Chandler at our new home on Thursday, April 3.

The Final 3 Weeks

Well having successfully found a new place in Chandler about a week ago, we are now down to the last 3 weeks.

We had a great trip and absolutely love Chandler. It's a nice, clean town with lots of shopping malls, and most everything we'll need within about 3-4 miles from our new home.

We found a beautiful 2053 sq. foot, 4 bedroom house in a very nice subdivision so there is plenty of room for all of our family and friends to come and visit. John planned out his route to work and it should only take about 20-30 minutes for him to get to work. Of course he is spoiled because his drive time here to work is only about 10 minutes, but of course Chandler is slightly larger.

The movers come this Wednesday to pack our house and then they will load on Thursday. They expect to arrive in Chandler April 1-3 to deliver our stuff to our new home.

After the movers have left, the work will really begin. I don't think it will seem quite so bad once everything is out of the house. Then I will be able to see exactly what needs done in each room and do one room at a time and get it done as fast as possible. Right now it just looks very overwhelming.

I will put some pictures up as soon as John has internet connection and can upload some pictures.

The Before and After

Wow, I can't believe the time is drawing nearer to the time that John leaves for Arizona and I get to finish up the last few details of getting the house ready to put on the market.

Today was gorgeous and suprizingly warm so we took advantage of the fact it wasn't raining, snowing, sleeting or just plain freezing and got out and worked on "curb appeal" on a budget.

We made a trip to Lowes and picked up 6 or so plants of various kinds. Something to give some color to the flower beds. John had worked this week putting red bark on the front beds and we did the back bed last weekend when it was 72 degrees.

We had already planned on putting the red back down this spring anyway, but this just hurried us up a little, and we don't even get to enjoy how it looks, not for very long at least. I have included two before and after pictures of the back of the house that shows some of what we got accomplished. Of course it always looks better in person, but since nobody we know is planning a trip to Missouri in the next couple days, pictures will have to do.

Wanting to get the things done that I can't reach, like painting our 12' entrance, John has been working diligently all week getting the priorities done before we leave on vacation/house hunting on Tuesday. We'll return the following Monday night at around midnight. Since our flight is leaving from Kansas City, it will take about 3 hours to drive home. I have Tuesday off so will spend that doing John's laundry and we'll be getting his stuff or the stuff he will be taking with him ready to go and packed in his truck. He will leave Wednesday to make the drive to Arizona.

I don't think it has sunk in yet for me. I'm not excited, sad, weepy or any of my usual emotions that accompany knowing that I will have to be separated from my better half. This will be the longest and furthest we have ever been apart. I have come to the conclusion that this whole move hasn't hit me yet. I am just walking around, carrying on as usual and am afraid it will hit me about the time John pulls out of the driveway. I told John that my adrenalin will kick in after he's gone and I will be like a women on speed trying to get all the stuff I want to get done so I can leave.

Well that's it for now. I will post again after we get back from our trip to Arizona and show everyone our new place and some gorgeous Arizona pictures.

The Countdown Begins

Well today was John's last day at his current job. It was a little bittersweet for him as I know it will be for me when the time comes. You put your heart and soul into your job, become friends with some and even better friends with others and having to say good-bye brings about mixed feelings.

Now John's job will really begin. Because the weather is not cooperating with our plans for landscaping and outside work, he is having to, as they used to say, "make hay while the sun shines". This weekend is supposed to be in the 60's which is much welcomed after the stretches of bitter cold we have had. Of course then it is supposed to snow again on Tuesday so the weekend will find John hitting it hard and heavy outside. Most of what he is doing are the things I can't do after he has left for Arizona. My main focus will be on the inside, but there will be some outside work that will still need to be done too. If the weather does what it says it's going to do on Sunday, we'll be working on painting and other things inside.

The outside work will consist of cleaning out flowerbeds of last fall's plants, putting down red bark and hopefully before I leave, planting some nice colorful flowers. We also have a composte pile that we will use in some of the flowerbeds and that will make the back look a little nicer.

The company John will be working for agreed to pay for whichever mover we wanted so we chose United Van Lines. They were the company that moved us from Arizona to Utah in 2001 so we are familiar with their work. We negotiated a little and they came down in their price by $450. As of today they will be coming to pack and load on March 26 & 27 and they will deliver our stuff to Arizona between April 1st and 3rd. I know by then John will be happy to have a real bed to sleep in.

I will post a picture of our finished outside work when it is done. I am excited to see what it looks like. It always seems like you never get the things you want to get done, done until you are ready to sell a house.....I wonder why that is.

Thursday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Well we got the 3rd and final estimate from the moving companies on what it was going to cost to move. Prices have changed alot in 7 years. Of course figuring that gas prices have increased and the distance we are moving is further, it is no wonder. Now the ball is in the new company's court. Since they are paying for it we will let them decide.

Hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day and doing something extra special for that special someone in your life. Make every day with them count because life is too short not to.

Not again

In January of 2007, Springfield, Missouri had the worst icestorm they've had in 25 years. People were out of power anywhere from a few hours to 3 weeks. We personally were out of power for 8 days. We lost trees and a freezer full of food including our extra holiday turkey. If we had known we were going to be out of power for so long we would have moved everything outside where it was below freezing.

I had just gotten out of the hospital from having surgery and with no power at the office it gave me a chance to recouperate more than just a weekend.

Well now a little over a year later we are having another icestorm. This one doesn't look like it's going to be as bad, however as of last night's news about 5,000 households were without power. Not nearly as bad compared to last year where it was about 75,000.

This storm makes us extremely glad for the opportunity to move back to where it's warm and the worse thing you have to deal with there are the monsoons.