Home » Uncategorized » A Dustland Moving Tale

A Dustland Moving Tale

So, the day after our move and we survived the night between learning the strange sounds of the heater coming on and the plastic sheets over the doors blowing in the warm air. Apparently you can hear the cats eating very clearly in the master bedroom and the lights from the church across the street are very bright.

2014-03-08 12.56.04

Moving day!

The move itself was fairly straight forward, same as any other move. Packing the last minute stuff in the morning, waiting on the movers, and drinking as much coffee as possible. The movers came and went with Dad following them to the house while Mom and I stayed behind with the cats and cleaned. Ahh, the post moving cleaning. I frickin hate that part.

So as for the house, here’s where we were at.

Bedrooms. Ready for painting but not yet painted so you couldn’t really unpack anything on them because they were going to be painted soon. Also, the bedrooms had no doors. There are two doors into the master bedroom, the one in the hall and the one that’ll eventually lead into the bathroom which isn’t walled off completely yet. Mom and Dad made do with heavy sheets of plastic. If you wanna know how well they liked that, Dad’s goal the next day was installing their bedroom door. I just used one of my curtains and a spring rod because my door wasn’t even picked up from the store yet.

2014-03-09 11.16.26

Door to the master bedroom installed on day two.

Kitchen. Put together for right now, though it’d taken us all of three meals to start stocking the upstairs with some silverware and snacks. We’ve already stared the process of “Oh, you’re going down to the kitchen? Can you grab me _______”

2014-03-09 09.27.57

Temporary downstairs kitchen.

Also, in regards to the kitchen, we have a lot of coffee mugs. A lot, of coffee mugs.

2014-03-09 09.27.45

Downstairs temporary kitchen by the basement door.

Floors. Covered in super fine drywall dust crap. Honestly, there’s dust everywhere. I say this while sitting next to a tissue box at my desk. I’m starting to think the sanding process of wall creation is my least favorite simply due to the mess. Dad broke the shop vac and nearly broke the vacuum cleaning it up.

Bathrooms. Cold, but put together for the most part. The upstairs bathroom is warmer but the shower isn’t installed yet for the claw foot tub. There also isn’t water to the claw foot tub so that presents another problem entirely. Anyway, the upstairs bath is what I dealt with that morning, lining the shelves and putting my stuff away. Right now it’s my happy place since it’s the only place unpacked at the moment.

2014-03-09 11.17.21

Upstairs bathroom.

While I worked upstairs Mom worked on the downstairs getting towels and stuff put away. Downstairs is where the only working shower is so we’re all sharing that right now but it’s also the first place Mom’s been working on staining so the wood is looking nice and rich.

So, that’s what we’ve got (plus a totally awesome new washer and dryer). There’s still a huge to-do list though so it’ll be awhile before we’re not living in a work in progress. And then of course we still have to get the elevator raised to the second floor so we can take down the “Keep the cats from falling down the elevator shaft” lattice.

 

Some people seem to think the cats might fall down the shaft. This is only temporary.  Until I can have an "Elevator Raising Party" to get the elevator up to the top floor and secured.

Some people seem to think the cats might fall down the shaft. This is only temporary. Until I can have an “Elevator Raising Party” to get the elevator up to the top floor and secured.

The lady bugs are still attacking. We’ve found them in the sink, on the dish rack by the sink, on the dining room table, on the living room windows, on the windows on the landing, and in the bathroom. We’re pretty much just accepting that we’ll forever be living under a siege from these guys. Could be worse though, they could be flies.

On the bright side though, the heater does work. I mean I still slept under enough blankets to smother a small ant colony last night but there’s a huge difference between the upstairs and the downstairs. Plus my fingers aren’t frozen right now. The store’s still freezing though, doesn’t help that we keep the door between it and the rest of the house closed of course. Well…that and there are at least three holes in the windows of the store thanks to some not too kind pictures of humanity who decided a vacant house should have rocks thrown at it. But those have been there since we first saw the house, we’ll get them replaced one day. You know, when we have doors to our rooms and stuff.

Oh! And we have a friend. Clyde, Mom’s half blind dog friend is very, very friendly. A few weeks ago Mom had left the side doors open to let the warm air in and as I came downstairs later, Clyde was down in the kitchen and by the stairs just walking around like he owned the place. He wasn’t done either, the day we moved Dad had left the truck doors open while he unloaded. When Dad came back outside, there was Clyde, sitting in the driver’s seat. Apparently all places are his places.

And finally, our excitement for the day. Mom measuring for curtains and getting the measuring tape stuck at the top of the loose window pane.

2014-03-09 09.34.36

Dad helping Mom get the measuring tape free from the window without pulling the pane loose.

2014-03-09 09.34.44

He got the measuring tape free and looks like he lost his head in the process.

Oh, and also, the store looks really awesome all lit up in the dark!

2014-03-08 18.41.07

All lit up on our first night in the house.

Leave a Reply

21
%d bloggers like this: