The Move

I am excited to report that I am officially a homeowner...again! The closing went off without a hitch, and the new stairs look beautiful! Wait...rewind...I suppose I have to explain that one. The inspection turned up one major issue...the main staircase was not uniform. The bottom step had a 7" rise, the next 10 had an 8" rise and the top step had a 9.5" rise! Not only a code violation, but a significant trip hazard. I'm shocked that no one had done a header down the stairs before. Having just spent the past 6 years of my life working in insurance claims, I could not, in good conscience, accept that kind of liability, so I had to give a hard line demand that it be fixed or I wouldn't buy the property. That required that the entire staircase be taken out and replaced...which they did!

SO...back to the update...the stairs look beautiful, and the place is all mine! I really love it! We closed on Wednesday, and Thursday morning the movers showed up with my stuff. My friend Stacie was generous enough to take the day off of work to come help me move stuff from my temporary apartment, direct movers and be the official record keeper to check off boxes as they came off the truck. HUGE help!!! (she also tried to re-enact the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet off of my front deck, but no one was willing to play Romeo...)

We moved most of my stuff out of the apartment in the morning just in time to meet the movers at my new home. The moving crew was fantastic, and all of my stuff was in the house, set up and unpacked (out of the boxes anyway) by about 12:30pm. They even found a way to get my huge bed and couch up the stairs...well, not really the "stairs"...they sent them up over the back deck and through the back door instead. I chose not to watch...way too scary!

There was still a TON of work to be done organizing and putting things away, but seeing my furniture in the rooms of my new house really made me feel like I was home.

Once the movers left Stacie and I made a trip to the apartment to get the rest of my stuff and turn in my keys, but were met with...let's call it a "surprise". The cleaning staff hired by the relocation company had already been there to clean and had THROWN AWAY ALL OF MY STUFF!!! Clothes in the dryer, Clothes hanging to dry, a full fridge and freezer, a new leather laptop bag (luckily not containing the laptop!), some exercise equipment, a couple of boxes...and the list goes on. How they could possibly think that I had moved out is beyond me, but that doesn't change the fact that my stuff was GONE! The Relo company actually had maintenance guys go look through the dumpsters to see if they could find anything worth salvaging...or at least to help me inventory what I had, but they couldn't find anything. My guess is the cleaning woman didn't throw them out so much as put them in her car. They've agreed to pay me for everything, and I put together an inventory with prices, so hopefully I'll get a check soon.

Once I got over the shock of my "surprise" I headed back home to start the massive job of putting stuff away. Stacie headed back to her family, and I was alone in my home for the first time. Surreal! Several hours later, and a lot of trips up and down the many stairs in my house, I was ready to call it a day...and sleep in my own bed!!

It was about 11:30pm and I was exhausted. A quick shower and off to dreamland for me! Oh, wait...there's no hot water!! I headed down to the water heater to check it out and discovered that the pilot light was out. Good reason. The gas was turned OFF. No gas. Sin gas. Nada Gas. UGH!! I took a very cold shower and headed to bed.

The gas company apologized and told me that the previous owner's order to stop service and my order to start did not get matched up like they were supposed to, so instead of doing a change over they shut off the gas. No one bothered to call me about it, so I didn't figure it out for 2 days. They gladly set me up with a maintenance order and told me that someone would be at my house to turn on the gas "some time between 8am and midnight on Saturday". The tech would call me 20 minutes before he came, and if I didn't answer the phone my appointment would be cancelled. Amazing customer service!!

Anyway, the gas is now on, I have hot water, and I just took a really long shower! Ahhhh...

I love being a homeowner!

For anyone who just read that entire saga and is STILL reading (I'm so sorry!) and I should probably give you a bit of an update on Andrew! He's doing really well! He got out of ICU on Monday and has been up and about, walking without assistance. He should be able to go home in the next couple of days!

Still waiting to hear specifics on when the radiation and chemo will start, but we do know it will be aggressive. He'll have to undergo the treatments 5 days a week, 3 weeks on-3 weeks off, for 9 months. He'll be doing home school because he can't go to school while undergoing the treatments (his immune system will be shot).

Your prayers are still needed, welcome and greatly appreciated!