The Big Move

Ashley and I spent the days prior to the BIG MOVE packing, painting, and...panicking. Oh, and more painting. Ashley spent most of her time at the house, sanding and painting the kitchen cabinets, while I spent most of my time at the apartment, packing the place up!

 The little painter that could!!

We were a bit sentimental about packing up our apartment.  The apartment housed not only 3 1/2 years of great memories, but also the enrichment of our relationship. Our last night in the apartment was filled with last minute packing, but we took a break towards the end of the night to reflect on the end of this chapter in our lives.

We woke up the next morning around 7:30 and what to our wondrous eyes did appear, but...SNOW. Yup. It hadn't snowed all of December until moving day!!! We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to the house to attach the painted kitchen cabinet doors, lay down some sheets to protect the floors, and shovel/salt the driveway and walkway. When we got back to the apartment, we packed some more and picked up the Penske truck. To make a long story short, I accidentally booked the moving truck for Friday, not Saturday. I discovered the mistake Thursday night, made the switch in my reservation, called to confirm, and was told all was well. Unfortunately, I got a call on Friday that a truck wasn't available. I spent 40 minutes calling over 5 companies and NO ONE had trucks. Finally, they had one that was 30 minutes away. Originally, I was going to have to drive to get it, but a half hour before I would have had to leave to get the truck, I got a call that a local Penske operator had a 16 foot truck available. WOOHOO!!

Snowy apartment

Our friends showed up at noon. SEVEN people came to help us move and it went sooo fast. Dan stayed in the truck and organized everything we brought down to him. I was nervous about getting the couch and loveseat downstairs, but we got it outside smoothly.

Moving the couch...Whoops, I guess I should've helped more

Dan rockin' the truck organization...and the cool hat he's wearing

Everyone was impressed how fast things were moving. Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize we had an attic filled with boxes.  For those of you who don't know, Ashley and I love Christmas. Like, really love Christmas. Like, 20 boxes of Christmas stuff love Christmas. I passed everything to Pat who stood on the pull down stairs and he passed it off to Melissa. The jokes about my Christmas village were endless (Pat: "Here comes Christmas village box number 3, containing the Christmas prison, Christmas strip club, and Christmas firehouse) and we were laughing so hard! Quite honestly, I think we were laughing every minute of the move.

Christmas box #59 coming down

We started at 12:15 and ended at 1:30! Super, super fast. 

Had to fill some cars with boxes too!

Brendan's elves, or reindeer. On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, now Vixen!!

We got to the house around 1:40ish and loaded everything into the main floor. 

WE DIDN'T GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO CHAT...GET MOVING!!! :)

Move that bus!

Dan and I handed everything off to everyone.  The boxsprings were challenging to get upstairs to the bedrooms, but they made it work. The loveseat easily fit into the family room, but the couch was another story. The family room is in the back of the house. We brought it through the living room and kitchen, but the hallway was too narrow to get the couch into the family room. So, we went back through the house and around back and literally pushed the couch into the family room from the sliding glass door. We got the remaining items from the cars and finished at 2:30...under an hour!! God bless that synergy!

Living room, or as I like to call it, Box Land

Thank you to our coworkers who lent us sheets...we sure did need them

Ashley and I were sooooo thankful for our friends helping us out!! We saved a good chunk of money by having our small army assist us! Ash and I ordered pizza and wings for everyone and we enjoyed some soda and beer as we toasted our new place!!

Pizza and wings make physical labor somewhat bearable.

The gang headed out around 4 after many funny stories were shared.  In the meantime, Time Warner was at our house due to a last minute opening and hooked us up with cable and internet. Goodbyeeee, productivity.  

All smiles

For the rest of the day, Ash and I put together our bed, organized a few things, drilled the legs back on the couch and loveseat, and grabbed a few things from the apartment.

Git 'er done!

Speaking about the apartment, the day would have been FLAWLESS except for one minor incident that occurred as we were leaving the apartment. Ash's students collected money for a fundraiser and she needed to deposit the money. She handed me the box and as I walked to the car...I tripped. This is what resulted: (Keep in mind, this is at 6:30 at night in complete darkness.)

Show me the money!

Money. Everywhere. It was like when Scrooge throws money out the window to the poor children at the end of A Christmas Carol.  Ashley was laughing so hard she couldn't even pick the money up. After several minutes of crawling around the street with a flashlight trying to locate every penny, we were successful and headed home.

Home.  Our new home.  

Our new chapter began with many laughs, great friends (certainly characters!!) by our side, and some brand new memories already. I know that the pages of our book will continue to fill with all of those things and more.

Zonked out in the family room!