Tag: family

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!” →

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!

Anna Is My Hero!

The past two days were extremely eventful. On Sunday, when Vlad came to clean up the garage, I realized how busy he was with school work and that I shouldn’t have asked him to come, although I had to ask him. I was thinking about asking Anna whether she could come but then decided that she had way too many things on her plate to ask her to do more. But Anna was a hero and figured out our situation, and without me asking her, she announced that she is coming. She also forbade Vlad to do anything for my move until he is done with his school assignment, and she made arrangements with Igor to cover the days when the painters will be in. 

Then she came and cooked lunch to last for three days and took care of dozens of things on my list. 

I can’t even describe what a relief it was. That was the first time in weeks when I could focus on work during the work hours. I was able to complete a week worth of tickets in one day 🙂

Another thing I didn’t do with Vlad was one more IKEA trip – at least I needed binds for the new house. So I asked Anna to go, and a small miracle happened. I already gave up on a smaller sleeping unit, but we chatted with Anna about it, and since I could not find the right one to show her, she suggested we ask the store associate.

This unit was unavailable for weeks and not on display, and when we first asked, the associate told us it was discontinued. But then she clicked and clicked and said that they have one, and what is color covering we want? 

We ordered the color I wanted from the very beginning, and it will be delivered on May 19! I still can’t believe we did it!

We picked several other items which I needed for the new house, including some blinds to try (we were still not sure about the sizes, they are a little bit tricky.

And then we had dinner at IKEA – that was the first time since the beginning of the pandemic!

News, Updates, And Random Thoughts

My mortgage is approved, but unfortunately, the closing date was not moved forward. That means that I have only twelve days between closing and moving in, and all of the painting, appliance installation, repairs have to be done within this timeframe.

It’s a challenge, but it also means that I have some certainty. I finalized my decision on the moving company and put in the deposit. Also, my co-worker recommended the painter, and today, he came to my new place to estimate the painting quote. I hope it will be something reasonable!

The sellers’ agent shared some contractors’ contacts with me, and I am going to start calling to have all appliances serviced.

Now I feel less nervous and agitated than I was for the past two weeks because I am done with all mortgage paperwork, and I decided on the major vendors.

On another note, the situation with vaccines looks better and better. Not to mention that now all my close family members are fully vaccinated, I also received two calls about vaccination options. I do not need them anymore, but the fact that they are coming my way tells me that there is more availability now.
I won’t be able to do any volunteering until after my move, but I was delighted to receive two calls to volunteer at the vaccination sites. That also says that more and more options are open.

Now, I started to pay closer attention to the fact that some people do not want to be vaccinated, and these numbers worry me. I thought that this population is smaller and that it mostly consists of uneducated people. But in the last several days, I ran into several internet discussions, which left me horrified. I can’t comprehend how well-educated people can preach such stupid things! How they can seriously think that the vaccination is a plot of (all??) governments against (humanity??)

I am not sure what to do with the potential mom’s trip to Russia. The last time she was in Russia was in September 2019. Then she was planning to go in April 202, but then COVID happened. She wanted to go that September, but I urged her to go earlier because nobody knows whether the current shot’s protection will last longer than six months. If it weren’t for her credit card expiration, I would tell her not to go at all, but they do not reissue credit cards without an in-person visit in Russia. Her Visa expires in September, and without it, she won’t be able to use the money she receives as a pension.

When I told her about six months, she got scared, and now I am unsure whether she wants to go at all. I am fine with her not going, but she might lose access to her money entirely. In any case, nothing is going to happen until the end of June, and after that, we will see how the situation will change.

Junk Removal

Yesterday, I had my first experience with the junk removal service. Several very old pieces of furniture, which I could not even donate, had to be recycled. It is not cheap, but I had to do something fast because I needed these pieces to be out of the way. It took close to two hours for two people to remove this junk: two old beds, one big dresser, two desks, a table, an old vacuum cleaner, and an old steamer. 

Vlad and Dylon came midday to take some Vlad’s stuff and throw away lots of other things. They helped me a lot, but I am frightened to observe that the work volume decreased insignificantly. I still have o idea how I will finish all I need to finish in time!

Moving Progress: Mom’s New Apartment

Once again, not “too many things are happening at once,” but way too many! 

I was not posting anything for several days, and now that I carved ten minutes, I do not even know where to start.

On the positive side: we finally secured an apartment for mom. It was real teamwork; Vlad picked several places and went to see them. He asked the manager to send us videos, and we all watched them. All of us (Vlad, Igor, and I ) had the same favorite; the challenge was to explain to my mom that that would be the best location for her. It took us a while, and I am not sure whether we convinced her or she just gave up:) But honestly, if my house would be at the same location as her apartment, I would like it more :).

It took a lot of back and forths to finalize the process. My biggest accomplishment was that this time mom is a renter, not just a tenant. I still had to be her co-signer, but her name is on the lease.

One big hurdle was the fact that since I am in the process of getting my mortgage, I could not have my credit report pulled, and that would be required for the lease.

My loan officer emailed me a recent copy of my credit report. First, the leasing company didn’t even want to look at it, and Anna volunteered to co-sign with mom. But when they saw the actual report, they called me and said it was almost too much information :). 

And the last challenge was to have my mom sign the lease over the DocuSign. I had to come to her place and help her, but now we are all set!

That was one of the big items I crossed off my list. 

Move Progress

The painting of my current house is finally done! It took almost three days, and that was just one floor. Now I am scared to think how long my new house’s painting might take, mainly because the windows need to be sanded and painted, too.

The folks whom I hired did a great job, and they were also very careful with everything. I paid them a little over what they’ve asked because their bid was pretty low, yet they went above and beyond. I might hire them to paint my new house if they agree to travel that far and agree on the price.

That’s how everything looks now:


Also, look like we found an apartment for my mom. Vlad looked at three apartments on Friday and sent me the videos from the leasing agency. All of us, Vlad, Igor, and I, loved the one which seemed to be the furthest away from me. First, I thought that that’s a deal-breaker, but when I looked closely at the map, I realized that it is very close to the CTA, within walking distance to the local grocery store, and after all, not that far from my place.

Then I went to mom, showed her the videos, and spent almost two hours convincing her :). I explained that being closer to me (one of these apartments) will bring her further from the grocery store and further away from the CTA, and the surroundings will not be so nice. I am positive that we made the right choice for her, and I hope that she will realize it later. If my new place were at her new location, I would like it even more 🙂

One and a half items crossed off the list:)

A Week Ago

I can’t believe it was just a week ago! Eight days, to be exact, but still. Our real estate agent sent us a list of four potential properties. Vlad and I looked through them. First, I didn’t think I liked either of them too much but thought that a couple of them is worth looking at just for the sake of looking. 

When we went over the list with Vlad, I told him about the second property on the list: this one is not going to work, there are only two bedrooms. Vlad replied: Mom, you should look at that house! Remember my old house which you liked so much? I did remember. I liked the place which Vlad rented with two roommates so much that I thought about buying something like that. And I agreed with him that we should take a look. 

We decide to look at two listed properties: that house at Jarvis station and another close by. 

We entered a courtyard and saw outdoor furniture and balconies, which seemed to be a vital part of the community life. Then we entered the apartment. It was huge but in severe need of painting and cleaning. We walked through, looking at all the details and the condition of all appliances. 

Then, we walked to the next house, and o the way there, Vlad and I realized that we didn’t check the fitness center and the bike storage. So after seeing the second house (which we didn’t like), we asked our agent whether we can come back one more time to see all these facilities. He said – yes, and after we looked, he asked whether we want to come upstairs and see the apartment one more time.

So we went in one more time, and when we were walking down the stairs, we saw a lady unlocking the door one floor below. We asked her: how long do you live here? And she said – from the very beginning, from 2005. And then we asked her: how do you like here? And she replied: I will never move anywhere else! And she went on telling us what a wonderful community it is and how people are together and supporting each other. 

And the way she took time to tell us about the community and the people was that last decisive factor :). I thought that I am going to move to the right place 🙂

***

I told mom about the move and about everything I know so far about the house and the neighborhood. I told her that she would feel better there because there will be sidewalks and people on the streets and parks with benches. However, she kept saying: all that matters is that I will be close to you. It feels really sad. She is saying that she is my fourth child now, and that’s pretty close to reality. I was trying to tell her that all I want for her is to live a happy and peaceful life. But wherever the conversation goes, it comes to the point that she can’t be away from me, just like a small child. The only thing she worried about with our timeline was how long she would have to stay in Palatine after I move.

Nothing I can do about it, but it makes me think that there is a sad irony in this situation. When I was a child, she did everything she could to cultivate my unhealthy attachment to her so that I could not be happy when she was away. And now she feels the same way. And I know that I could even yell at her, and she won’t protest. It does not make me happy. I wish she won’t be such a controlling personality when I was a child and that she would be a happier person now. But it is what it is.