Sunny-side Up

This move has not gone according to plan. To start we hit the road a day late after two very exhausting days of packing and cleaning. Then we unloaded our truck into a cute little house with a great back yard minutes from family only to discover the place is a slum and have to rent another truck, reload it and move all of our belongings in the rain to a one bedroom apartment outside the city. With a third of our belonging still in boxes because we downgraded from a two bedroom in California to a one bedroom here, we made due without setting-up cable and internet because we were waiting for the promised AT&T U-verse to be installed. But on Tuesday after four hours of the techs trying everything thy could, we were told that the signal is too weak and the lines too old. It might seem silly to be upset about having to get cable instead of U-verse, but we had U-verse in San Diego and we loved it. (Keep in mind that we are children of the TV babysitter and we take comfort in watching our preferred shows.) Having to revert back to inferior cable was just one more thing that has gone wrong.


Now we have to figure out what our new Kentucky lives will be like. We are testing out local grocery stores (though I am really upset that Whole Foods shut down Wild Oats), trying new restaurants and bakeries, and driving down roads we've never been to discover whats there. It has been difficult so far and I am sure that more problems will arise, but we are trying to find the bright and sunny parts no matter how small or spread out. And just maybe, AT&T will decide to update their lines.

Our New Apartment

We have left the house of dirt (got all of our money back) and moved into an apartment about 12 miles from the center of Louisville. We moved everything (with the help of my brother-in-law) on a very rainy day last week and are still trying to unpack towers of boxes.
It is a shame that the little house was unlivable, but we will make due with our clean one bedroom apartment. We have lost square footage from our place in San Diego, but we have also decreased our monthly rent significantly. Also on the positive, the community has a lot of trees and walking paths, a fitness center, a pool (for when the weather warms up in Spring) and a maintenance staff.
This relocation has been a very long process and is still ongoing, but for now we are off my brother-in-law's futon, have found the Ikea in Cincinnati, and the bathroom and kitchen are fully functional (the two most important rooms). And in a week we will have internet and I will post more regularly.

The Rental House

We walked into our rental house yesterday and it was filthy. There was dirt, hair and plastic bits all over the floors, layers of dirt and dust in all the vents and even a cigarette butt on the awning in the second floor room. We spend over four hours sweeping, mopping, dusting and disinfecting, and that was only the rooms that boxes were unloaded into. The bathroom, kitchen, second floor, basement, garage and backyard still need to be cleaned before we can start unpacking. The house wasn't even cleaned before the walls were painted and the floors varnished. There was hair painted into the baseboards, and dirt and hair (along with a plastic tag, a screw, a bobby pin and a sticker) varnished into the wood floors. The backyard is very nice with a large shade tree, but it is littered with broken glass, bottle caps, cigarette butts and other garbage. The garage is filled with leaves and broken glass and has a warped-shut old dresser filled with who knows what. However, with a lot of cleaning and hard work this little house might become a nice little home.

Double It

The best advice I can give to anyone moving is to plan out the time and resources you will need and then double it. I gave my two weeks notice a month before the move date leaving me two weeks to spend time with family and friends and pack up the house. In practice, four weeks were needed. I planned one day to load the truck and clean the apartment, but it took two days (and that was with my husbands entire family helping). We leased a 16' truck which was recommended for a 2-3 bedroom house, but we filled up the whole truck with our two bedroom apartment and that was with selling off our washer/dryer, bed frame, coffee table, desk, storage bench and two chest of drawers. Everything I planned needed to be doubled.

Quick Update

In between driving and sleeping there has been no time to blog. The blogging will start up again next weekend. Until then, a quick update.
We left San Diego Monday night after two solid days of packing, cleaning and loading the truck (with a lot of help from my in-laws). We only made it two hours before stopping Monday night but have been doing much better since. We have made it to Oklahoma so far, and should be arriving in Louisville Friday afternoon.
P.S. If you have a dog that gets motion sickness like my little one does, try a little ginger powder. It has worked wonders. He is as happy as he can be on this very long road trip.