I moved to my new home a year ago. On the one hand, I am still telling people that I “recently moved.” On the other hand, it feels like O already lived here for half of my life.
This week, the weather finally became warmer, and I biked a lot. The sun rises early enough for me to go for long bike rides in the morning.
Today, the temperature suddenly rose up to 89F, and I rushed to the beach as soon as I could get off work. It was way colder by the water, but still, I could lay down on my tarp, not moving, not reading, not thinking, just feeling the lake nearby.
When Anna and I were out for drinks and dessert on Friday night, I received a call from my realtor.
After the first week on the market, I asked him to bring the asking price of the house 10K down, which he did. All of a sudden, there were way more showings but no offers. After ten days of such development, I texted Mark to the effect of “what we are doing wrong.” The next day he called me with some questions and said that he thinks there will be an offer and maybe two. But again, nothing happened. On Friday night, he finally called to let me know that we have an offer for the asked price.
I e-signed the acceptance on Saturday, and by Tuesday, everything was pretty much settled. Knock on wood; I will close on July 30!
This morning, Vlad and Dylon left for DC. Originally, it was for Dylon’s job, which he starts in September. So originally, we thought that they would be around for most of the summer. That’s where the plans for my move mid-summer were coming from. But then Vlad started to look for a job too, and now they are moving earlier because of him :). Vlad can’t be without a job for long, and now he will be a Beverage Manager for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in DC.
Anna and the girls came to visit me on Friday night, and we and an almost impromptu party at my new place.I also texted my neighbors from the next building I met a couple of days before to come over and meet my family. It was so good! Good having most of the family together, good being around the like-minded people, good to meet new folks like in “before” times:). Vlad ordered a takeout which tasted great, and we finally opened my “Technologist of the Year” champaign and a couple of other bottles I had for years!
When I was packing, I found several boxes of glasses which I didn’t know about!
Oh, and Vlad got all “A” for his classes, so now he finally got his diploma in Classics!
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.
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.
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!
Right there, on the ground level! Since I already knew about that I gave Anna most of my home gym equipment. However, I also knew that there are some things missing, so I brought them in – the TRX, my weighted yoga ball and the yoga ball pumps (and I pumped all of them). Also, an ab wheel. And a couple of rollers.
I also brought my wall mirror, and and talked to the association about the installation.
I can even describe how nice is it to have such a nice gym in your house!
As I already mentioned, the first night in the new place was without the heat, which we all survived. In the morning, Anna went to the Charmer’s Cafe across the street and picked up all the breakfast options she found there :). We all had breakfast around the partially folded dining room table.
Then, John and Kira went back to Milwaukee, and Anna and Nadia stayed to help us with more unpacking and move stuff around. One of the bookshelves had to be delivered to Igor, and empty boxes went to my mom – her move is on May 23. We also asked her to pick up a couple of things from my old house, which we left behind. That ended up being a bad idea, but at that time, I thought we need them. Then the girls left, and Boris and I continued unpacking and finding places for things.
All my new neighbors are exceptionally friendly and helpful. Funny story: it turned out that this lady who “sold” the unit to me by describing the community and how she would never move – she liked me as well! And after our short conversation, she told the other neighbors that she hopes “this nice lady” will buy the place.
We tried to prioritize things that had to be done together before Boris’s departure. That included the things I could not do without him, like assembling a sleeper sofa and agreeing on our “design guidelines.” The only thing we should have done while he was here and we didn’t was hanging one more mirror. With books, we decided that we will just put them on the shelves randomly and will figure out the specific order later.
Most importantly, we agreed on how the living room should look like. I made a point not to insist on something I have in mind but to make sure that that’s what Boris likes as well. For the sunroom, we are still missing the side blinds (this size is out of stock in IKEA for months) and the KALLAX small units (I am almost ready to pay a double price on Amazon, especially now when I realized I do not need three of them, but two at max, or maybe even just one). Anyway – that’s how it looks now:
The yoga mat was there temporarily, I forgot to remove it 🙂This sofa can be converted into a full bedThere is enough space to display everything I want!Boris’s desk and bookshelves My New breakfast place
Boris went back to Finland today, and until the very last minute of his stay, we were trying to do as much as possible of unpacking, organizing things, hanging them up, etc.
Some parts of my house finally start to look like mine :). I will try to post more pictures tomorrow. Now I am tied. I sat down on an armchair by the window of our bedroom and fall asleep. I think now it will be a good idea to go to bed for real 🙂
I moved on Monday, but there is still so much to do that I can’t tell I moved.
The total number of boxes (not counting luggage, bags, etc.) was 155. I am not kidding. One hundred fifty-five. And that’s after tons of things thrown away.
The time window for the movers was from 8-30 to 10, but they came at 11 AM. and loaded the truck till 3-30 PM. When we arrived at my new home, the furnace was not working, and it took me a while to realize that it’s not the ecobee, but the furnace itself. And then, one of our heaters was shutting down the circuit breaker, and then all the outlets in the bedrooms would go off.
Then, the shower in the smaller bathroom stopped working.
But – I moved!!! A million thanks to my family – I don’t know what I would do without them!
Hettie's Reflections 