M is for Moving

Moving BLOWS.  JK, it's not that bad. 

 Awhile back, I saw someone on FB bitching about something stupid (like we all do), and someone posted, "first world problems".  I now continue that tradition on FB every now and then.  I also think about it a lot when my life is challenging.

Anyway, we moved!

When we moved from Tucson to Colorado, we moved to a suburb of South Denver.  We rented a house with 3 bedrooms, a basement, and a 2 car garage.  That was November 2006.

September 2009,  Dave bought a different business, and we moved to another South Denver suburb - about 15 minutes from the first one.   We went to a smaller place - a townhouse.  It had 2 master bedrooms w/big bathrooms, a half bath downstairs, a one-car garage, no basement.

After Dave's dad passed in June, we decided to look for a place where Dave's mom could live with us.  Our lease was up in September (though we never actually signed a lease last year).  Last year, our landlord (who is very cool, btw) was making noises about raising our rent, saying he could get $300/month more than what we were paying ($1100/mo).  He didn't do it then, but this year, he did.  It went to $1250 and he said it would go up another $100 each year for the next 2 years.

Early August, I told Landlord that we were looking for a place to move the MIL in with us.  We didn't find a place before September.  I told him we'd stay but that we were still looking and would cross that bridge when it came.  He said he'd bring the new lease over on Monday.  He never did!  We paid the higher rent, but weren't locked in to a year-long lease.  Nice!

Dave's mom on the other hand...
She lives in "luxury" apartments.  Not really by choice - she and FIL aren't luxury-type people.  And they aren't really "luxury" apartments, they are pretty normal.  But it was a price they could afford at the time and it had a garage for their car.  When they moved there 3 years ago, they were paying $800/month for a one-bedroom with a one car garage attached.  It's gone up drastically every year and now it's $1100 a month!!!

I went with them when they signed their lease again in May.  We explained back then that we were looking for a place for them both to live with us but hadn't found anything yet.  The manager explained that going month to month would cost TWICE as much!  He also explained that breaking their lease would be equally exorbitant.  Man, he wasn't lying.  It's costing her $4,000 to break the lease.  Two month's worth of rent PLUS an additional $2,000.

Everyone that loves her (including a relative that talked about it to the lawyers she works for) is telling her to tell the apartment complex to go fuck themselves.  It's going to get sent to collections which is going to ruin her credit score, but she's 83 and not likely to purchase a car anytime soon.

She's determined that they are going to sick a lawyer on her.  She named one of those overly-commercialized ambulance chasers you see on TV - named him by name specifically, as if THAT'S the one they'll call.  We've all explained that they'll just send it to collections and even there, they can't touch her Social Security money or her annuities that she lives off of.  She's not listening. 

ANYWAY...
The new house...

couldn't BE more perfect!!

Five bedrooms.  One is a ground-floor bedroom with an attached bathroom for MIL.  The bathroom even has a walk-in shower which was a request of hers. Come ON!  Perfection!

The other bedrooms are all upstairs.  The kids FINALLY get their own rooms again.  One of the bedrooms is ALREADY set up as an office (cable hook-ups and whatnot).  The Master bedroom?  Oh, bejeebus.  It's quite large.  It has TWO closets.  A normal size one and a larger one (with its own vent AND it's own window??).  Guess who got the larger one?

There's an unfinished half-basement.  One side is for the kids (xbox, wii, etc.).  The other side will have the guest bed, but it also has an entire large corner just for me and my craft stuff! Splee!!  (Only has one outlet right now.  Same with the garage.  Only one outlet.  Weird, but we will change that.)

How much for all this luscious space?  $1595 a month.  Sweet!

We have SO much junk!  We live like freakin' ANIMALS.  Dirty ones.

Years ago (while we were still in Tucson), FIL made the boys underbed boxes.  They are large and blue and side-by-side, they take up all the space under a twin bed.  They have furniture sliders on the bottom and are open on top.   I pulled them out from under the bunkbeds at the old place and JUST those two boxes and whatever else they shoved under their beds filled TWO large black trash bags.

Our room was no better. 

And my books!  I own over 300 books.  I've read about a third of them.  Dave is so funny.  He pointed to one specifically and said, "What about that book?  I KNOW you read that book.  Can you get rid of that book?"    I told him I wasn't going to spend this whole move listening to him nag me about my stuff.

A day later, I told him this:
"I have a deal for you.  It's a pretty good deal and you should take it.  I will move EVERYTHING in this house AND your mom's place except the furniture and the electronics."

He agreed!  I packed the whole house.  Mostly by myself, and mostly so he wouldn't see all my crap! hah!  He picked up some big boxes for me, but other than that - it was mostly me!  I got the hookup at Target with Produce Pete.  Pete saved all the apple and bell pepper boxes for me.  The bell pepper boxes were PERFECT for the books.  I could cram them full of books and they still weren't too heavy.  The apple boxes were so plentiful that my minivan still smells like apples!  (After moving, I did go through the books, and there are 2 bell-pepper-boxes-full going to resale at Tattered Cover.)

The previous tenant was a peach!  Kevin let us start putting stuff in the garage 2 weeks prior to our actual move-in date.  I'm also thankful that he has such good taste in lighting fixtures - they are exactly what I would've picked AND he left them all behind for us!  AND he gave us a fridge!  The place didn't come with a washer/dryer or a fridge. (Oh, did I mention that the laundry room is ACTUALLY on the same floor where the clothes live?  Love it!  I don't understand Colorado's fascination with putting the laundry room 2 floors away from the clothes!) We had a washer we'd brought from Tucson.  It's been in our garage ever since we got to CO. 

THEN we found another ganga!  (And by we, I mean Dave)  He found a women in our town that was remodeling her house and was selling a dryer for $50 and a fridge with ice and water in the door for $100.  Dave doesn't want world peace, he wants ice and water in the door.  The fridge Kevin gave us, while free, was a very basic fridge and was also quite small.  The one we bought is stainless steel and, like the dryer, is worth about 10 times what we paid for them!

Dave's mom isn't in with us yet.  She's having a hard time with the move.  It's really stressing her out, and she wants to make the move nice and slow.  I'm all for that, but it's been nearly 2 months since we originally found this house.  She's having a hard time budging.  Kung fu grip on that one.  She keeps saying that she can only do so much.  We keep telling her that she doesn't have to do ANYthing and we will pack and move it all for her but she's all crazy about it.  I understand.  I really do.  But she has to know that we can't wait until the last minute to move her out of her place!

And she keeps saying "your house."  I keep telling her it's "our house."  Once she moves in... that's when the fun really begins!  She and Dave are often like oil and water.  I've already talked to Dave and said, "I know you don't like her to get away with most of the odd that comes out of her mouth, but when you call her on it, it starts a fight.  You gotta be like me and try to let it roll off your back as much as you can because I don't want the boys living in a house where there's constant fighting."  He's been practicing and is getting really good at it!

We are moving her this weekend.

Let the games begin, Ruth!