Moving Day

Our moving day turned out so nice; the rain had held off all week (no mud!) and the tempetures were just right…for once:) We had a lot of things to wrap up Saturday morning and a rather long list of to do’s before we could say we were done with the “old” house.

Getting two families up and ready for the day went quicker than I thought it would :) and having the Campbell family up from Duncan was a big help. Lisa made sure to get everyone breakfast and then started wrapping breakables. We still had all our everyday dishes that had not been wrapped up; I was at a complete loss on what to do with them since we were out of packing materials. Lisa just grabbed some boxes and scrap fabric and wrapped away; before I knew it she and some of the girls had all the dishes wrapped up! Mike stayed up with Dad, Andrew and I working on the house really late Friday; he got all our lights (single socket bulbs) in and got dad and mom’s closet ready for use (our only closet right now). They also were a big help with Ellianna; there were more people to take care of her. I don’t know what we would have done without them up here…even with Mike teasing unmercifully. :)    

Mid-morning people from our church started to arrive with trucks, trailers, skid steer to load bales of hay, and man power. People just kept on trickling in to help; we could not believe how many people showed up asking “what can we do? I have….(van, trailer, etc.) you can load up”. Even lunch was bought in for us; stacks of pizza along with cookies and drinks! I was surprised at everything that got done! We thought we would have to be back over late that evening to finish, but by the time all the loaded vans left, one of the guys unscrewing everything we wanted down, and everyone grabbing just about everything out of the house:) we had hardly anything left to get or do.

These two so enjoyed taping boxes that they finished up all of them.

 

Right after lunch all my sisters, some of our company, and most of my friends headed to the other house to start clearing, and cleaning; all the upstairs was clean but because of the leak, downstairs was still pretty messy. By the time I got there I was amazed at how much they got done in such a short time. Two of my friends spent forever cleaning up the master tub/shower, not only did it come from Lowes a dirt filled mess but when I textured it got all over the shower. It was a big job that for a couple of days I was trying to figure out where I was going to squeeze in. By the time Deborah and Hannah were done it was sparkling clean!

After most people had left, mom had me start dinner; baked potatoes. My first question, where do I wash them? There’s no kitchen sink. Mom suggested the bathroom sink, I emphatically said no way but then thought, what else is there to do everything is packed so I can’t even do it in a bowl. That only left the bathroom sink, so since it is all brand new just installed I got over it and washed the potatoes…

Deborah and I washing potatoes

By 7 o’clock everything was moved over and unloaded, except for the chickens (which were moved later that night) even all the animals were moved. Even though there wasn’t much we still had to clean the other house, it had been such a long day and I was wondering how I was going to find motivation to get that done. Just as I finished my mental wondering; Hannah and Deborah offered to come out and help clean; yet another reminder that the Lord provides everything we need. It didn’t take us long to clean up the house and sweep out both shops, plus it was more fun with friends :) Mom and my sisters left with most of the “leftovers”, Hannah took the rest of our kitchen things in her car, and we packed a borrowed Sprinter van…which was a huge help…with all sorts of odds and ends, chicks and a dog; quite the combination, the latter was in a crate so the chicks all made it alive :) A little after ten I unbelievably arrived home, not only could I not believe we finished that early, but everything was done; besides moving two outside dogs, we had actually done it!! I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time, it was such a huge relief to be done, no more pressure or running!

This made me laugh late Saturday night when I was digging around for kitchen things. There really wasn't 100 or 500 (yes there was a box mark that too :)) boxes for the kitchen but when you leave guys to tape and mark  boxes......:)

We really appreciated everyone’s help moving; we wouldn’t have been able to get it all done by Saturday night without everyone that helped. It meant a lot to Andrew and me to have most of our friends from church come and help, not only did all of them work hard but it made it more fun. Truly all of you were wonderful… between all the building; especially the barn that we wondered a lot on how/when it was going to get done, helping to move, preparing the new house, and cleaning both houses; I had my own personal cleaning crew arrive :) all of you had it covered. Just saying thank-you doesn’t seem enough!   

Many people have been asking “how far did you get on your house before you moved in?”  Depends on how you look at it :) with how fast our house sold (3 ½ months), and taking care of both homes I think we did pretty well. We only had (and still do) one bathroom, no kitchen sink or counters, no shower, and over half the house was not dry walled. It helped having the other house before closing since we would go over there and washing dishes and take showers. Andrew put some temporary counters up Saturday night, finished the shower Monday afternoon, and put the kitchen sink in Tuesday. We’re still working on dry walling and putting in the second and third bathroom, not to mention finishing the outside. Really it hasn’t been as bad as some of us pictured, once we got a working shower and kitchen sink it became like camping; even the former was like camping in a cabin. But since this post is long enough I’ll post on some of our adventures later, really it takes me forever to write one of these. For those that wanted more detail there you have it, but it's only the tip of the ice burg. For me to write on all that took place the last two weeks before we moved in would take many web pages :)