The Great Move

I haven't blogged in a while because the last two weeks have been nothing but preparation for yesterday, which I like to call...THE GREAT MOVE. I know I blogged about trying to decide which apartment to choose, but I'm not sure if I ever updated with the one we picked. We chose the newer apartment that wasn't right on the water and had a pool.

Packing is easy. Time consuming, but easy. You get totes and boxes and fill them with your crap, label them and you're good to go. Moving is not quite as easy. And something I never plan to do again.

Saturday morning Tom and I went to pick up the U-Haul truck and waited around for about 40 minutes before we were finally able to get one. Why U-Haul would staff two incompetent employees on a weekend is beyond me, but whatever. By about 8:30 AM we started loading the apartment into the truck. Somewhere around 9:45 we were exhausted. Around 11:45 we had finally finished loading the truck and our cars. I stuck the cat in the carrier and went to the leasing office to pay our final bill and turn in all of the keys. And then found out that the lady who deals with that was on a two hour lunch. Of course she was. So I turned over what I had and said I would just call to see if I could pay the balance over the phone or if they wanted me to mail them a check.

Finally, we get on the road. Gidget hates the car. She also hates her carrier. Needless to say, she was not pleased about being in either and unfortunately it was a very long drive (in cat time) to the new apartment. Every couple of minutes or so she would give me a pitiful face and cry. I kept talking to her and telling her how much closer we were getting, but it didn't seem to help. She also was quite irritated with me when she had to sit in the car while we went into the new leasing office to sign all of the paperwork.

The first thing I moved into the apartment was Gidget. I stuck her and her litter box in our bathroom and figured she could make do for a while. I kept checking on her, at first she was amused and decided to sit on the bathroom counter. Then she seemed to get annoyed because she kept pacing around on the floor and refused to let me bring anything into the bathroom. I gave her food and water and then a bit later finally remembered to bring in her blanket so she atleast had somewhere to sit.

Even with the help of Tom's brothers, moving in was horrendous. When we moved into the last apartment, Tom lived with his brother and I lived with my mom so we didn't have furniture yet. We bought all of the kitchen stuff and moved it into that apartment a few days ahead of time because we had the keys early. But we really only had to move the contents in our room and some basic bedroom furniture. Nothing crazy.

This time was different. We had an entire kitchen, two desktop computers, living room and dining room furniture, clothes, two bedrooms and overall just a freaking shitton of stuff. By about 4 PM Tom and I decided that we were never, under no circumstances going to move again. We would just pay someone to do it. We'll pack the stuff and unpack the stuff, but the physical labor part of it was just OUT!

Somewhere in the midst of getting everything into the apartment, the Comcast guy showed up. We managed to clear a path for him and even have the basics set up so he could do the install. However, its not perfect. When I scheduled the service, we were supposed to get internet, phone, and cable. The cable was supposed to be in both bedrooms and the living room. For whatever reason, we don't have cable in either bedroom so we need someone to come back out.

People joke that Cecil County MD is referred to as Ceciltucky because of how in the middle of nowhere it is and how country-ified it is. The first example is in the case of Comcast. They do not offer HD or OnDemand in Cecil county. Uh, what? Do these people not watch tv? Now I have absolutely no idea how in the world I'm going to watch the shows that come on at the same time as other ones. Believe me, this has me rather distraught. However, there is one pro to this. The bill is immensely cheaper. In Baltimore county I paid $180 a month to have phone, internet, cable w/ HD and HBO. Here, I pay $85. I did check out the prices with Direct TV just to see and unfortunately, its $188 for just the cable to mimic what we had in Baltimore county. Add in $50 or so a month for internet and that is just outrageous to pay.

Anyway, we unpacked and organized things until about 8PM last night before giving up and calling it a day. It took me until around 6 PM today (not counting returning the U-Haul, going to the grocery store and going to Wal-Mart) to get everything to the point where I feel okay about it. Last night it was just livable, today its 99% organized. We still have a shit ton of totes in the dining room, stacked almost to the top of the 9 foot ceilings and absolutely nothing on the walls. Tom's parents are coming down next weekend and we're going to get that taken care of then.

I like the apartment, although I didn't think everything was going to fit in here once I first saw it. Its an open floor plan, you walk in and the bedrooms branch off on both sides. Heading straight is the living room which is open to the kitchen and the dining room. The kitchen is pretty big. There was enough room for all of my kitchen gadgets! What I can't figure out is how I managed to squeeze so much kitchen stuff into a kitchen half the size. I mean, I have almost all of the cabinets taken up now. We have a humongous pantry too. Ironically, I have that full too. One of the best things about the kitchen is double sinks. Now I can finally defrost meat and rinse stuff off without them being in the same sink! The dining room is bigger than I expected, we have the table in there and a bookcase and there is still room to move around. No more being squished! The living room is kind of small, but everything fits, although the tv is against the wall blocking the door to the water heater.

WE HAVE A WASHER AND DRYER! I can't tell you how excited I am about that. No, really. I'm going to save $50 a month in quarters to wash clothes and never again will I need to wait for the jackass who leaves their shit in the washer or dryer for hours or the one who comes through and opens them when your clothes are in, stopping them mid-cycle. I can wash clothes whenever I want now! I never have to wait again. Its pretty freaking awesome. I did have to learn how in the world to use a front loading washer though. That was a bit of an experience.

Our bedroom is set up almost identical to the way it was at the other apartment, but it houses our desk with both computers now. There just wasn't enough room in the living room to put the desk too. Our bedroom closet is awesome. Its a walk-in and has shelves and racks everywhere! The bathroom is gigantic. I have a floor to ceiling shelving unit for linens, a large under the sink cabinet and then another large cabinet next to that. The tub is a bit smaller but we have a large countertop with the sink which is really nice. The guest bathroom is just as big.

The only real problem I have with the apartment is that it was made for people who are 5'5 or taller. I can barely each the second shelf in the kitchen cabinets. The bar type thing we have is chest-level to me. And the shower head is about 6'5 from the floor. However, the bathroom sink is super low. Like to the point where I have to uncomfortably bend down to brush my teeth. It's odd. The actual shower head is a bit of an issue too. I can't figure out why everything else in the apartment is higher end (large wood cabinets, ceramic tile, modern appliances) and yet the shower head is one of those standard cheap ones that you find in hotels that do better at watering plants than washing people. The spray that comes out of it is pretty damn ridiculous. I can hardly wash the shampoo out of my hair. But, thats just something else that we're replacing when Tom's parents come down.

Oh and the cat! When we moved last time she hid under the bed and refused to come out for two or three days. This time, once I let her out of the bathroom she was walking all around exploring things, sniffing things and getting in our way. WTF? I thought we were going to have the same reaction as last time! But no, she goes where she pleases and acts like she owns the place already!

This is getting long, so I'm going to end it off with our U-Haul return experience.

We woke up early (again) to get the truck back on time. When we picked it up they said there was a location that was about 15 minutes away so we figured that would be the best place to take it back to. Well, Tom is driving the truck and has the GPS and I'm following him. We cross over the main road, take a few turns and end up driving down the main street with cute little shops and historic stuff that just gives you that small town feel. Once we passed that I was beginning to wonder where we were going because ahead looked kind of....empty. So we start heading down all of these narrow, winding back roads, past huge houses with even huger lots of land, a forest (No, I'm not kidding), more houses, and just general nothingness. I was getting ready to call Tom and see if his GPS was taking us the scenic route or if he had entered the wrong address when we turned down a residential street and about half way down was a little Mom & Pop shop with U-Haul's out front. Who would have thought? But honestly it looked like we were driving in the country and were no where near civilization.