The Move

Thankfully, December 17th was dry and around 50 degrees which was more than we could have hoped for. We rented a big truck, bribed friends with coffee, muffins and a spaghetti lunch and by 2PM had everything moved over to the new house. Amazing! So much to do, but I had prepared myself for the chaos and mountain of unpacking that would be mine to climb over the next month or more. Payge's birthday party was the next day, so we focused on survival the next 36 hours and hoped to find what we needed in our piles of stuff. I tried to mark and keep tabs on the boxes with Christmas and birthday gifts, but it sure is amazing how you think you mark things so clearly before you move them. Monday morning was rainy and the kids were playing amazingly well, while I tried to unpack a few more things. My first big project was to do the girls room and get some laundry done. I set out to do both of those things, but found that one of the girls had inadvertently locked their bedroom door and we had failed to realize it was a real lock, like, needs a real key kind of lock. My attempts at picking it were fruitless, but none the less there were plenty of other things to keep me busy. As, I stepped into the laundry room to move the clothes to the dryer I also stepped into a puddle of water. Another project on hold until Spencer could come home to help me get the cover off as I prayed that it would be an easy fix. I thought of a few things in our basement that I needed to bring upstairs. We knew their had been a leak down there for the previous owner, but there was an inch of water in the basement and there was water dripping down onto my carefully stacked boxes from the laundry room. Ugh! This first business day of home ownership, was not looking good. As events continued to unfold the washer was broken, well the drum was cracked, but thankfully the previous owners had left a washer that we could use. A cousin down the street helped us move things around so I could finish our laundry, we were leaving in a few days for Iowa and worse case I was prepared to pack dirty clothes and use the mother-in-law's washer. An uncle who lives in Lee's Summit happens to own a lock smith's shop and for some cake and ice cream picked open the girl's bedroom door (in record time) and recommend we change that handle asap. The basement was still an issue, as we went to bed that night and we continued to have torrential rain that was to continue well into the next day. There was now at least an inch of water in the basement. Turns out it wasn't just our leak, but a clogged water line. A plumber service (too bad no family close by in that business) the next day came out and cleared out the line and within minutes our 6, yes six, inches of water was gone. Poor Spencer had attempted to clear out the water with a shop-vac, but every flush of the toilet and use of any source of water was causing it to rise faster. That's when we called the listing agent on the house and he reminded us he had bought us a homeowner's warranty. We've heard some well know financial people say it is a waste of money, but in that moment it was gold to us. Just a few of my sentimental boxes fell into our "flood", but considering what could have been, I was just relieved to have our issues fixed without us having to call the bank and explain why we couldn't make our first month's mortgage payment. Mayhem left us for the most part, except the next day was dry and warm so as we played outside I thought I should sweep up our leaves. Myles, thought he should help me, but as he was next to me sweeping, he fell back into our uncovered window well, the one thing I said we needed to do before we moved in (ahem). My little man came out unscathed, but I was thankful we were going to be visiting the Chiropractor in the family in a few days. I did buy a cover that night. Payge's birthday was fun, Spencer's birthday was great and then we had an early family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning and then hopped into the car for Iowa. I was almost relieved to be leaving our new house. In-spite of the craziness of the first week, we are so grateful for this incredible blessing that the Lord had given us. I still am in awe every day.
Okay, okay, now for some pictures that I know you are dying to see, but really, come out for a visit! We have plenty of room now. I will post more, especially as we make changes or have since I took these. If you click on these, they do get bigger.

The great room

Some of my favorite things