House Diaries - Week One Recap

Our first week owning the house was spent almost exclusively painting, cleaning, packing, and moving. I took half days for most of the week, and Friday off entirely, but still didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to.

First thing Saturday morning, ChemDry came and cleaned the carpets in the bedrooms. He did a fantastic job getting out all the awful stains we thought were a lost cause. When I could look at them without getting the creepy-crawlies anymore I realized how glad I was we didn't skimp on that.

Scott explored the attick and found quite a collection of Mexican porn and a lungful of fiberglass insulation. He also found a whole bunch of cockroaches and saw a few blackwidows.

D&S Termite came to do the chemical treatment required for our loan. At first the guy thought we were selling the house and he offered to caulk up the termite evidence: "so the buyers would never know". After we explained that WE, in fact, are the buyers, he became more than helpful. He showed Scott how he could do the same kind of chemical treatment himself with a 3/8 drill bit and some WD40, and he even sprayed our cockroaches at no extra charge. The rest of the day turned into a packing extraveganza and wild goose chase for a rental truck.

Speaking of which, I definitely recommend Penske over Uhaul- they were much better prepared to handle our needs (even without a reservation), the truck was brand new and easy to handle-- (I got to drive it down the block) ^_^, and the prices were good. We rented a 16', and figured we more than saved in time/gas what we would have spent moving in Scott's pickup. It was well worth it.

Sunday was our BIG moving day. Scott and Bryce got all of our furniture, clothes, and most of our belongings over. Wrestling the couch into the living room turned into a far greater challenge than originally anticipated, moving my aquarium was an entirely separate debauchle, but the day closed with no real incident and we were able to pass our first- exhuasted- night in our new home.