Honey, I'm HOOOOOOME!!

I was just about to post on my upcoming blogging and internet outage, when our internet access turned off at our old address; but I don't imagine it took any of my regular readers by surprise, given that I was moving.

So, here we are, in our new house. Brief synopsis of events:

Saturday
Friends arrived at 8 am to load the truck. Our good friend C--- had kindly offered to drive his very, very large truck with a 20' trailer to help us move. We had talked about whether it would take one load or two; he seemed to think it could be done in one load, but I had my doubts, since we already had a 10'x20' storage unit that was mostly full, and the house STILL looked crowded. I went ahead of the truck in the minivan with the kids. We arrived at the house. Then I explained to Sonshine for the fifteen millionth time why Princess got her own room and he didn't.

The first load arrived about 1 pm. We offloaded it, mostly into the garage. FH and C--- went back for a second load, leaving about 4 pm and returning sometime around midnight. We offloaded the truck until 2 am and crashed. There was still enough for a third load, but it'll have to be done this coming weekend. Thankfully we still have the storage unit rented.

Our "renters," who still hadn't given us our deposit money, finally surfaced and said they had been delayed because the husband had gone to jail. We were not thrilled with this development, but you can't break a lease because you discover you don't like the renters. They promised to bring the check by the house that very evening. FH was there the whole time, and they didn't show. That, you CAN break a lease for. This was the third time they'd promised to bring the deposit and didn't show.

Sunday
Didn't bother trying to go to church. The house was a complete wreck. I had been unpacking as many boxes as I could while the guys went back for the second load, and I had all the really important kitchen boxes located, but then they offloaded at midnight and stacked everything on top and in front of them, two layers deep, so I spent a good portion of the day re-locating those boxes. FH took the seats out of the minivan and went back up to Logan to pack everything else up. My dad helped him and he stayed the night.

The automatic sprinklers went on, but they didn't turn off. They ran all morning and started to flood the yard. I couldn't reach my dad for help because he was over at my old house, so I had to call a plumber. It was just as well because we were about to call a plumber on Monday to see about getting a gas hookup for our dryer. The plumber showed us how to turn off the sprinkler lines in the fall, and told us of the existence of the necessary tool to do so (which, inconveniently, the former owners had NOT left with the house).

Monday
The "renters'" supposed move-in date. FH worked his butt off cleaning and getting everything ready for them. They were supposed to come at noon, but they never showed up. Also, we discovered they had not arranged for utility hook-ups, but they have been receiving mail there, so we suspect they never intended to move in at all, just to use the address for some nefarious purpose. I reported them to the Post Office and asked that mail sent there for them be returned.

The kids and I went to run some errands. We couldn't do much shopping because we were all crammed in the little white sedan, but we needed some groceries so we went to the grocery store. The plumber came and installed the gas hookup and put in the Utility Sink Of My Dreams next to the washer. He also installed the dishwasher; FH had insisted on trading the existing dishwasher for the dishwasher in our old home, which has this little button called "Sanitize" on it that he thinks somehow makes the dishes cleaner. As it turned out, though, he was right to do it, since upon installing the new dishwasher in our old home, he discovered all sorts of non-dish-like things stuck inside it. We had the same problem with the dishwasher when we first moved into that old house too-- it was full of mop strings and things like that. It makes me wonder if we are the only people on earth who attempt to wash only dishes in our dishwasher. He also brought us one of those sprinkler tools, and threw in the Sunday call for free.

Tuesday
FH went to work at his new location. I offloaded the van (including the rooftop carrier). FH had not labeled many of the boxes, and those that were labeled were cryptic. One box labeled "Taki Bk" began playing a radio station when I set it down.

I went to register the kids for school, but as I went into the fire safe to get their documents out, the key broke off in the lock. Thankfully I was able to get the broken piece out with a pair of very fine pliers, but I still couldn't get to the documents until FH came home from work with the other key. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get an oil change and new tires for the van, both of which had been desperately needed before we started making all these four-hour round trip drives. We sent a certified letter to our "renters" notifying them that we were terminating our lease contract for non-payment of deposit. After lunch, we went off to Salt Lake City to do some shopping.

So that's what I've been up to. Things are starting to stabilize. Although my house is still a mess and everything is stacked high with boxes, I can cook dinner and do laundry now.