The first major complication hit on Friday, when I got a text confirming our noon pickup for our U-Haul the next day. The only problem was that I had set up an 8 AM pickup. We had church members coming at 8:30 to help load up the truck, church members meeting us at our new place in St. Louis to help unload the truck, and the Charter Internet guy coming to our new place at 3 to get us set up for internet. So I called U-Haul, and the ever-so-helpful U-Haul rep explained that 8 AM was simply my preferred pickup time, but the actual pickup time depends on when the trucks are returned and when one can be available for me. I explained our situation and said that we had to be at our new place by 2, and I asked how anyone was expected to plan a move if they can't tell you when you can pick up your moving truck until the night before, but he just repeated the same stupid thing. He was so helpful. And super understanding. (That's called sarcasm.)
Anyway, three calls and three U-Haul reps later, I spoke to someone who actually was helpful, and she located a truck for me to pick up in Fulton, which is a 40 minute drive from Columbia. SO not ideal. But definitely better than not getting a truck until noon and not having anyone available to help load and then unload our things. So we all woke up at 6:45 on Saturday (the kids were super happy about that one), hopped in the car, and drove 40 minutes to pick up our U-Haul. We almost lost our way, but thanks to the handy GPS my parents sent me, we got there right on time at 8! And the place was closed. So we sat in the parking lot until 8:10, when we finally called the guy, who said he was just getting ready to leave his house. Frustrating, especially when I had even called the place on Friday after U-Haul changed my reservation to make sure that they had received the info and knew we were coming. So they had even spoken to me and confirmed our 8 AM pickup. But we did eventually get our truck, and we made it home by 9, which was WAY better than noon. But we will not be using U-Haul in the future it we can avoid it!
Only 2 guys showed up to help Jacob load the truck, so that was disappointing. I had expected that we'd have more help than that. But they knew what they were doing, and they got all of our stuff to fit! (Although we used every single nook and cranny in that 20-foot truck!)
For the kids, Saturday morning was rough. They were super tired, they had no toys, and we had to shut them in their room so that they were out of the way. Naomi really wanted to help, which means she was running around after the men, trying to carry things, or look at things, or run into the truck, and I was so scared she was going to get clobbered by heavy furniture. Which is probably what was going to happen. So we played in their room, but everything was boxed up. For a while, they jumped on Aleta's crib mattress. Then Naomi found Easter baskets & a box of Christmas bows in her closet, so they were entertained with those for a while. Both girls hit a point where they decided they were done with being shut up in their room, and things got really bad until I realized they were starving and I got them bowls of Fruit Loops. Also during this time, I was trying to help carry boxes out, and vacuum all of the rooms once the guys emptied them, and sweep the floors. It was really really hard. The next time we move, I will beg, plead, and maybe even offer money to any wonderfully kind souls who are willing to watch the kids while we are packing up & cleaning. My friend Jess even offered that morning, but she had already done so much to help me, so I didn't take her up on the offer. Plus, I really thought I'd be fine. Silly me! Now I know better.
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| playing with bows |
With all of the snags in our plan, we didn't get out of Columbia until two hours later than we had hoped. But as it turned out, that didn't even matter. Because when we arrived at our new house in St. Louis, it wasn't finished! And by "not finished", I mean there weren't any carpets, or tile floor in the kitchen, or cabinets, or a fridge, or an oven, or a million other things that should have been done. And our landlord apparently didn't think we needed a heads-up because he never called to tell us that our place wasn't ready, even though our contract said we would be moving in August 10. I maybe had a bit of an emotional breakdown, I am not proud to say.
So we weren't able to move in on Saturday, but our wonderful next-door neighbors and friends let us stay with them, so we weren't completely homeless. And then a ton of people from church helped us unload the truck on Sunday so we got everything into the house pretty quickly. We don't usually do that type of thing on the Sabbath, but this was a unique situation.
So we're moved in! Finally. Our house is still a major work-in-progress. We didn't get any window blinds until Monday morning, and we still have 3 windows without. We didn't get a fridge or oven until Monday. We still have gaping holes in the ground where vent covers are supposed to be, and two of our sinks are leaking, and one sink isn't attached to the wall, and we have no closet rods to hang anything, and almost none of our doors close, and some don't even have doorknobs. But we are moved in! And the workers are here, working super hard, so things will hopefully be done soon! I have a major love-hate relationship with our place right now, but more on that in another post!
1 comment:
Holy crap! I would have had several meltdowns if that had happened to me! I'm glad you lived but I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that!
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