As the sojourn of our house comes to a chaotic close, we are almost ready for the heavy lifting of the move. A good time to reflect on the travails to date.
When we started, the house was ridden hard, and put away wet. The interior had some surface warts, including an odd paint scheme in the rooms that look somewhat haphazard, popcorn ceilings that were the rage in the 1970’s, a yard that was overgrown, and unkempt (totally understandable, as I am loathe to do yard work personally), and appliances straight out of the pleistocene.
However, even with this veneer of tired and well worn exteriors, clutter in the yard, and in need of some TLC, we saw a diamond in the rough. The inspection report supplied by the selling agent wasn’t too scary, and our own inspection concurred. This is a house with good, solid bones.
The journey began with a successful offer to buy, a whirlwind of navigating the loan and closing, and finally, transfer of title.
Then we had a lot to do. Some absolutely necessary, such as tenting for termites, some discretionary (painting, plumbing for gas, and fixing all the must do’s from the inspection report).
Here we are, 5 weeks later, plumbing done, painting done, 3 of 4 appliances here and in (the damn dishwasher is the last, perpetually backordered item), floors professionally cleaned, yard irrigation fixed, updated, and the clutter removed, back fence repaired, and I have to admit, it looks fantastic.
There were some surprises, namely the sewer line, and the water supply line, but all in all, we are super excited to get moved in.
We even have a superhero to guard our house…
In early March, I moved most of the boxed items from the storage unit to the garage. Now it is time to begin the distribution, the unpacking, and most importantly, the weeding out of unneeded “stuff”. While we never really filled our Chandler house’s 2,300 square feet, we do have far too much stuff for a 1,400 square feet, especially if we want to park in the garage.
This week we will move en force to the new house. I will be taking off of work from 3/24 – 3/30 to pack on this end, and to unpack and organize at the other end. I hope to have the house livable before I return to the zaniness that is my office life.
While we purposely didn’t unpack too much in our apartment, it will indeed be a struggle to get out of here.
Here are some pictures I snapped before the bulk of the moving activities commenced.
