Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

I Sold My Prius!

The plan always was t sell my car when I move to the city. But with Vlad’s departure happening earlier than we originally thought, it became urgent: I needed one more person to bargain (and drive me back from the selling point).

I still owed a little bit of money on my Prius: the promotional APR was so low that I was in no rush repaying it. But now, when it was time to sell, I was unsure how these things are done.
That was once in a lifetime situation when a sales email was a blessing: I received an email from a Toyota dealer where they offered a trade-in, And I replied: I can sell my car to you. They called me right away, and I told them I would come when I am done with driving 🙂

asked Vlad and Dylon whether one of them could come, and Dylon agreed to take me there. So we made an appointment for Wednesday morning. First, we drove to my old house and picked up the erroneously delivered IKEA items:). Then we picked my car from the train station and drove to the dealership.

t took way longer than I thought, but the car was happily sold in the end. The dealership wanted this car really badly because they had a low inventory, and my car has a very small number of miles on it. In fact, they were so eager to buy it that they didn’t even notice the dent in the bumper :). They only noticed the scratches on the sides:)

So they are paying off the rest of the balance I owe, and they are going to send me a check afterward, just in time before my Illionce sticker renewal is due :).

Hurray! No more monthly payment, no more insurance, mo more nothing! The salesperson said they never saw somebody so happy without the car 🙂 To be honest, this guy told me a lot of weird things, like started to tell me how he lived in Russia for several years and other things.. and he was keeing telling me that I have the most unusual car, and I told him there are more unusual things about me 🙂

Yet Another IKEA Delivery

Everything is in balance. There was this happy air conditioning thing, and also, both of my shower faucets were replaced on Saturday (I was mentally ready to find out that something more than a faucet was wrong in the small shower). In some sense, it was true – the plumber told me that there was a lot of rust and that I might end up needing to clean the pipes. But now everything works, and it took not as long as I was afraid of (my neighbors had to be without the water for just about 30 min).

Also, I’ve assembled the second bigger Kallax unit. 

And now, here comes Monday. I was working from home because I had an IKEA delivery scheduled, and also I thought I would need an AC service. There was no need for the latter one after all, but the IKEA delivery service sent a message that it will be on schedule. The timeframe was set from 1 to 5, and I was ready. 

At about 12-40, I received a text message from my old neighbor in Palatine: Hettie, there are IKEA packages for you eft by the mailbox!

OMG!!! I know exactly what happened! That was when I misspelled my email because I was ordering it on the train and was in a hurry. Then, Chase Vise rejected my transaction, and I didn’t realize why and used a different credit card. And what I am sure did happen was that when I was putting a different credit card, it auto-filled all the fields, including the address! It was before I changed my billing address.

Thank God for the neighbors like my old friend, and it is great that Dylon is taking me to sell my car on Wednesday, so we will be able to stop at my old Palatine house. But HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID! Also, I really needed the things I ordered; I had time set aside to assemble all the new arrivals. 

Air Conditioner

As I mentioned earlier, I spend four days with the assumption that something is wrong with my air conditioner or that my ecobee can’t connect to it properly. Since I could not have a service on Friday because I was helping mom pack, so we agreed with the mechanic that he would come Monday morning.
I’ve managed through an extremely hot weekend, juggling the doors and windows open and close and turning on a portable air conditioner. I went to bed on Sunday thinking about why I had this feeling that the AC just does not turn on, and in the morning, I woke up and realized what could be wrong.

It was so stupid; I can’t even believe I was so dumb! But the first thing I did it the morning was marching to my ecobee and looking at the screen. Yes! It was showing just the “Heat” icon!

The ecobee has three modes: Heat, Cool, and Auto. I had it on auto in my Palatine home, and since I had it for many years, I forgot that you have to switch it explicitly! So I switched, and I turned the comfort setting for cooling one degree down to trigger the AC. It worked!

I left the message for the mechanics that all is good (they called me anyway to double-check), and then I spent the whole Monday with the mixture of joy and regret:).

We Moved My Mom!

On the one hand, it was way easier than moving me because mom only had 22 boxes, not 155, and she has less of the furniture, and both places are on the first floor. But, on the other hand … that was a phycological challenge. Mom did not understand how to pack, and although I told her multiple times that I will pack everything, she was still trying to get things into piles, and then she would get upset when I break these piles. Also, she wanted to take with her all the plastic bags from the stores she accumulated over the past three years and all the disposable packaging she ever had …

Skipping all the details: I was able to pack everything, Vlad rented a truck, Dylan drove me to Palatine, we loaded the truck and unloaded.

Continue reading “We Moved My Mom!” →

Biking Along The Lake

This morning, I finally bike not “to” the Lakefront Trail, but actually “on” it! It’s so beautiful! So many things to explore!

This is not on the Lakefront Trail, but very close to my house. I still have to internalize the idea that I can take a 30-minute breal at the beach 🙂

Traveling In The Opposite Direction

Because I was so absorbed with my move, I didn’t even tell anybody about Boris’s visit – the first time after November 2019.

He technically could come through all that time as a spouse of a US citizen. But first, there were no flights. Then, it was really bad here, and I didn’t want him to come and sit inside for a week. Later, it became possible for me to travel, and you know the rest. Boris said he didn’t want to get sick outside Finland, which I could understand.

Long story short, he felt comfortable traveling after his first dose (In Finland, due to the vaccine shortage, they have a twelve weeks interval between two doses).
Like when I traveled to Finland, he has to present the papers twice more than the number of borders he crossed. But unlike with me, one situation became very serious.

He checked -in for both flights on the way to Chicago, but just when he was about to board the plane in Frankfurt, they didn’t let him on. An official told him that B1 travelers from the Schengen zone are not allowed, and “if he were traveling from Russia, it would be fine.” Boris pleaded with him that in his case, he could travel, and in the end, they reissued him a boarding pass, and he boarded – the last passenger on the flight.

He had no problems passing the border control here, and the officer, as it often happens, was amused with our family arrangements :).

He also had to take the test on the way back, and it turned out that the only way he could do this was to come to the airport yet another hour earlier. It all worked fine, and there were no more issues. However, Boris is still bitter that the Biden administration didn’t do anything with this ridiculous situation when people can’t travel from the Schengen countries but can travel from Russia. And I agree 🙂

And Now I Need To Move Mom!

Another day off work spent on packing my Mom/s stuff. I left my house at 7-40, Got to mom’s house at 10 AM, and found that a) she didn’t turn her air conditioning on and was wondering why it is so hot inside b) her shower faucet broke the night before, and she didn’t email me (her landlord accepts service requests through their website only).

So the first thing I had to do was to open my laptop and send a service request. And then I started packing, which mostly involved taking her stuff out of the bags and the small boxes and putting it into moving boxes while she was whaling that I am breaking her order of things.

hen we sat down to eat, and simultaneously, my real estate agent called, and the maintenance worker knocked on the door. I managed to sort it out :), and then I took mom to her doctor’s appointment, and while we were there, her shower was fixed.

Then, I did more packing, and very son the everything which was on the surface was packed 🙂 Next, mom said she does not remember where her mailbox key was…. I stopped at the ACE Hardware to make extra mailbox keys and then drove back to the train station. And then I had to meet with Igor to check on mom’s new apartment.

And then I had to go to the grocery store.
And the air conditioner is not fixed.

Well, life will be better!

And Did I Mention The Lake :)?

Making It My Place – Work In Progress

This week, I somewhat “returned to work,” and it turned out that there is a lot of work. As a result, I feel completely exhausted by the end of the day every day. Also, I continued to unpack and make small improvements, like hanging things on the walls. Also, things keep falling apart:)

I scheduled faucets replacement for Saturday, and fingers crossed, that will be fixed.

I finally installed a new toilet seat instead of the one with the paint partially off:).

I unpacked all of the boxes! Dylon took some of the boxes to my mom. My neighbor from downstairs, who is moving in a month, took almost all the rest. 

I managed to catch when two kinds of KALLAX units were available at IKEA and ordered both. The bigger ones were delivered on Friday, and I assembled one of them, which is a great achievement. The others are scheduled for delivery on Monday.

Another IKEA purchase, a sleeper unit, was delivered, but they left it downstairs!!! Fortunately, Dylon was a hero, and he came and brought it up. 

I learned to operate my new washer/dryer; it works much better than the machines I had in Palatine. 

And just when I thought that things are getting better, it turned out that the air conditioner is not working after all of the repairs!

I won’t have mental resources until Monday to call for repairs 🙂

And also, none of the ceiling light fixtures work.

And since several people asked me for more pictures – here are some

Kitchen
Continue reading “Making It My Place – Work In Progress” →

Unpacked

I unpacked almost everything; the only box which is still waiting to be unpacked is the box with winter boots. Granted, many things are not in their right places yet, but the rearranging can be done later.
I am still waiting for several deliveries, and I am still trying to catch the blinds of the correct size; and I need to figure out the cabinets for the dining room, but my new home already feels like home. I love it.

And I have the nicest neighbors. And a new cleaning lady is great. I never had the hardwood floors everywhere, and I was really impressed with how she mopped them!

And the lake! I biked in the morning, and I took a walk after work (the work is crazy, BTW), and I can’t even tell how much i love it being by the water!