...and she's bound for New Orleans...
Sorry about the lack of posting. Things have been rather hectic the past two days. The movers showed up with all of our worldly possessions on Tuesday and moved the various boxes, pieces of furniture, and other assorted methods of conveyance into the house. Most of it arrived unbroken. A good percentage wound up where it was supposed to go.
Christmas Eve was spent retrieving presents, wrapping same, and attempting to locate where various Christmas-related items might have gotten to in the vast move. Most efforts were unsuccessful. Yesterday went well, far smoother than I feared. Both kids appear to have been placated with a generous amount of electronic goodies (although, don't tell them, they're educational...)
Two more days of work, and then my first weekend in the new house. Saturday is going to be mostly taken up with getting my truck switched over and my VA license. Sunday, I think we might take a break from unpacking to venture out and procure a few last pieces of furniture (we made an executive decision to pitch certain items--like my son's "desk" that we'd had for close to 20 years--before we moved).
Really looking forward to getting everything finished off and then getting back to some semblance of normal...
That is all.
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Showing posts with label Moving Musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moving Musings. Show all posts
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
New Home...
So, later today we'll pass papers on our new VA home. I will officially be a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Virginia. Later this week I'll see about getting my VA license and making it official (as well as making me legal to purchase firearms in VA... *G*) I'll still have to get the truck swapped over (NRA plates; I'm REALLY hoping I can get the custom plate I have in mind...), and then the Harley in March or April when she comes out of storage.
At some point in the next week or so (fingers crossed) the big truck full of our stuff will roll up and we'll be up to our eyeballs in unpacking. Christmas this year is going to be haphazard; most of our worldly possessions are somewhere in NJ, so we're cobbling together bits from here and there to make the kids' first Christmas in their VA home a somewhat approximation of normal if possible. Friends have lent various and sundry pieces of furniture; we've purchased a few items that we were going to need; and a few extras like a second Christmas tree (so they can open presents under it).
Yesterday we went over to the house to perform the "walk-through" to make sure it hadn't exploded in the interim between the home inspection and the closing. As we checked the various and sundry appliances (Gas range! Gas fireplace! Yay!), the kids ran up and down the stairs, checking out the finished basement (where TheBoy is already planning his "mancave", arguing over which bedroom they were going to have (but finally agreeing, miracle of miracles, and generally acting like kids.
It helped that on the drive to the house, TheBoy saw three or four boys his age playing basketball. That will help ease the transition, I think. BabyGirl G. is still a little sad for the friends she left behind and apprehensive about the prospect of making new friends, but I think overall the process will be easier than she realizes. In our old town there was very little "turnover" - there are a lot of townies there that, like me until very recently, grew up in the town and then stayed. Here in Northern VA, though, folks get re-assigned or move on pretty regularly.
Thus begins our new adventure.
That is all.
At some point in the next week or so (fingers crossed) the big truck full of our stuff will roll up and we'll be up to our eyeballs in unpacking. Christmas this year is going to be haphazard; most of our worldly possessions are somewhere in NJ, so we're cobbling together bits from here and there to make the kids' first Christmas in their VA home a somewhat approximation of normal if possible. Friends have lent various and sundry pieces of furniture; we've purchased a few items that we were going to need; and a few extras like a second Christmas tree (so they can open presents under it).
Yesterday we went over to the house to perform the "walk-through" to make sure it hadn't exploded in the interim between the home inspection and the closing. As we checked the various and sundry appliances (Gas range! Gas fireplace! Yay!), the kids ran up and down the stairs, checking out the finished basement (where TheBoy is already planning his "mancave", arguing over which bedroom they were going to have (but finally agreeing, miracle of miracles, and generally acting like kids.
It helped that on the drive to the house, TheBoy saw three or four boys his age playing basketball. That will help ease the transition, I think. BabyGirl G. is still a little sad for the friends she left behind and apprehensive about the prospect of making new friends, but I think overall the process will be easier than she realizes. In our old town there was very little "turnover" - there are a lot of townies there that, like me until very recently, grew up in the town and then stayed. Here in Northern VA, though, folks get re-assigned or move on pretty regularly.
Thus begins our new adventure.
That is all.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Christmas in Flux...
Well, unless something *else* blows up, it looks like we'll be spending Christmas in our new house.
Barely.
We're scheduled to close on the new house a week from today. Given that pretty much everything else that has been involved with this whole process has gone wrong, been substantially altered, or otherwise not gone as expected/planned, I am taking absolutely nothing for granted until AFTER it happens. And even then I'm a little on the nervous side.
So, two days before Christmas we'll be moving into the new house. Yeah, doesn't leave a lot of time for decorating the tree or hanging stockings, especially considering that we more than likely won't even have *found* the stockings in the pile of boxes by Christmas. Granted, I'll have the gift I really want - a reunion with my family - but for the kids, used to more "traditional" Christmases, it will be quite the change of pace.
My sister said something to me that really hit home. She was having lunch with Mom G., who confided that she was surprised to see me go. Apparently my sister - a high-powered Boston attorney - is the one my folks expected to leave the area, not me. Still not sure how to take that, either as a good thing, as they viewed me as the more stable, dependable one; or as a bad thing, that they never thought I'd get out of my rut.
In any case, this will be the first Christmas, ever, that I haven't been at my folks on Christmas Day. Mom G. is still coming to grips with that concept, the idea that we'll be calling on Christmas rather than coming over. For the kids, it will also be a much different Christmas; the traditional Christmas feast they've come to anticipate will be replaced by a smaller one. This would be a good time to start some new Christmas traditions, I think.
A good friend of mine called me up a few weeks ago. He'd heard about my new job and impending move, and wanted to congratulate me. He ribbed me about waiting until I was in my 40s to really "leave home", and there's a good deal of truth to that comment. Living in the same town for more than 40 years tends to limit one's world view, and I'm glad that I - and my family - are getting the chance to broaden our horizons.
This Christmas will be different, that's for certain, but I don't think it will be any better - or worse - than previous years.
That is all.
Barely.
We're scheduled to close on the new house a week from today. Given that pretty much everything else that has been involved with this whole process has gone wrong, been substantially altered, or otherwise not gone as expected/planned, I am taking absolutely nothing for granted until AFTER it happens. And even then I'm a little on the nervous side.
So, two days before Christmas we'll be moving into the new house. Yeah, doesn't leave a lot of time for decorating the tree or hanging stockings, especially considering that we more than likely won't even have *found* the stockings in the pile of boxes by Christmas. Granted, I'll have the gift I really want - a reunion with my family - but for the kids, used to more "traditional" Christmases, it will be quite the change of pace.
My sister said something to me that really hit home. She was having lunch with Mom G., who confided that she was surprised to see me go. Apparently my sister - a high-powered Boston attorney - is the one my folks expected to leave the area, not me. Still not sure how to take that, either as a good thing, as they viewed me as the more stable, dependable one; or as a bad thing, that they never thought I'd get out of my rut.
In any case, this will be the first Christmas, ever, that I haven't been at my folks on Christmas Day. Mom G. is still coming to grips with that concept, the idea that we'll be calling on Christmas rather than coming over. For the kids, it will also be a much different Christmas; the traditional Christmas feast they've come to anticipate will be replaced by a smaller one. This would be a good time to start some new Christmas traditions, I think.
A good friend of mine called me up a few weeks ago. He'd heard about my new job and impending move, and wanted to congratulate me. He ribbed me about waiting until I was in my 40s to really "leave home", and there's a good deal of truth to that comment. Living in the same town for more than 40 years tends to limit one's world view, and I'm glad that I - and my family - are getting the chance to broaden our horizons.
This Christmas will be different, that's for certain, but I don't think it will be any better - or worse - than previous years.
That is all.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Homeless...
Yes, the casa del G. is no more. Yesterday, around noon, we sold our house. The structure we built (well, paid someone to build) starting more than 15 years ago is now under new management. We close on our new VA home in 11 days, so for the next week and a half we're homeless. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. I've been having a devil of a time trying to figure out where to have Amazon shipments sent...
It'll probably hit me hard the next time I visit my folks, and there's someone else in "my house". Then again, it might not - when I was home over the last weekend for the final round of packing, it no longer felt like "my house" - it was a structure only, a place to sleep and little else. The elements that made it mine had been removed; although the most important part was still there of course. But they'll be with me in VA. I'm looking forward to that after two months apart.
I honestly thought that it would get to me more - and maybe in a while it will - but right now I'm entirely nonplussed at having sold my house. As I've stated before, I hate leaving my neighborhood and my town, but I am quite excited to get out of Massachusetts. And I'll be a VA resident before McAuliffe takes over, too... I'm excited - and a little nervous - to go cruising the VA gun shows with a completely and utterly unrestricted list of what I can own... That'll ease the sting somewhat I think...
We managed to time it right, though. The kids will have their last day of school in MA on the 20th, and will start in VA after the holiday break. The only way it could have worked better would have been if they could have started in September, but we weren't going to wait that long. The transition is going to be difficult, but coming back after the winter break will be better than just showing up on a random school day. Plus, in Northern VA this close to DC there's a fair amount of turnover, so the schools are pretty used to new kids.
All that's left now is the unpacking. What's going to help is having movers - we figure about 90% of the boxes will wind up where they're supposed to go, and all of the furniture pieces will be within shoving distance of where they're going to stay. It's going to take some doing to get the kids squared away, but we're hoping that with a little judicious prodding they can get their rooms set up to their liking in less than a decade.
And, Wally will be happy, I've already established a corner of the basement for my reloading efforts...
That is all.
It'll probably hit me hard the next time I visit my folks, and there's someone else in "my house". Then again, it might not - when I was home over the last weekend for the final round of packing, it no longer felt like "my house" - it was a structure only, a place to sleep and little else. The elements that made it mine had been removed; although the most important part was still there of course. But they'll be with me in VA. I'm looking forward to that after two months apart.
I honestly thought that it would get to me more - and maybe in a while it will - but right now I'm entirely nonplussed at having sold my house. As I've stated before, I hate leaving my neighborhood and my town, but I am quite excited to get out of Massachusetts. And I'll be a VA resident before McAuliffe takes over, too... I'm excited - and a little nervous - to go cruising the VA gun shows with a completely and utterly unrestricted list of what I can own... That'll ease the sting somewhat I think...
We managed to time it right, though. The kids will have their last day of school in MA on the 20th, and will start in VA after the holiday break. The only way it could have worked better would have been if they could have started in September, but we weren't going to wait that long. The transition is going to be difficult, but coming back after the winter break will be better than just showing up on a random school day. Plus, in Northern VA this close to DC there's a fair amount of turnover, so the schools are pretty used to new kids.
All that's left now is the unpacking. What's going to help is having movers - we figure about 90% of the boxes will wind up where they're supposed to go, and all of the furniture pieces will be within shoving distance of where they're going to stay. It's going to take some doing to get the kids squared away, but we're hoping that with a little judicious prodding they can get their rooms set up to their liking in less than a decade.
And, Wally will be happy, I've already established a corner of the basement for my reloading efforts...
That is all.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Now *I* Can't Go Home Again...
The movers are coming to the Massachusetts house today. Ideally, the house will be all packed up and devoid of our belongings by nightfall; realistically it may take through Tuesday morning (we have a LOT of stuff). There's a cleaning crew scheduled to come to the house on Tuesday, and the closing is Wednesday. As of about 1:00 PM Wednesday, we will no longer own the house we built some 15 years ago.
Thoughts about Massachusetts aside, this is a pretty big deal.
It's even bigger when you realize that I have lived in this small town my entire life. College and graduate school were elsewhere, of course, but once I secured my first "real" job out of graduate school we started getting ready to build our house and put down roots. We received our land some 16 years ago; 15 years ago we spent several months poring over plans on the internet and looking at new construction homes for ideas. 14 years and nine months ago we moved into the home we are now vacating.
Like I said, it's a big deal.
The past two months have been a roller coaster for all of us. I've been relying on the kindness of friends down here in VA so that I didn't have to find (and pay for) temporary housing. We close on the VA house two months and two days after I started the new job, and to think that we've coordinated everything this close is pretty amazing. It took a lot of doing to pack up 15 years of our lives, but after today/tomorrow, all of our worldly possessions will be loaded up in a truck and waiting for arrival in VA.
This is the true new chapter in my life. The past two months have been a whirlwind, with the new job (new career!) being everything I thought/hoped it would be and then some - but with my family some 500 miles away, it's been a hollow victory. As much as I like the folks I've been staying with (both sets!), coming home to my family is eminently more satisfying and rewarding. The dream job loses something when I only see my kids every other week.
In two weeks we'll be closing on the VA house. In a little less than that, the family will be driving down to join me in anticipation of the closing. Two weeks from today, we'll be official VA residents. I intend to have my VA license as close to that point as I can (and will be filing my VA CHL paperwork as soon as I can, natch). Then the fun *really* begins... The kids start their new schools after the winter break, where hopefully the "new kid" aura won't be quite as bad. We'll get our lives back into some semblance of "normal" soon. I hope.
I do suspect we'll be unpacking boxes through the summer, though...
That is all.
Thoughts about Massachusetts aside, this is a pretty big deal.
It's even bigger when you realize that I have lived in this small town my entire life. College and graduate school were elsewhere, of course, but once I secured my first "real" job out of graduate school we started getting ready to build our house and put down roots. We received our land some 16 years ago; 15 years ago we spent several months poring over plans on the internet and looking at new construction homes for ideas. 14 years and nine months ago we moved into the home we are now vacating.
Like I said, it's a big deal.
The past two months have been a roller coaster for all of us. I've been relying on the kindness of friends down here in VA so that I didn't have to find (and pay for) temporary housing. We close on the VA house two months and two days after I started the new job, and to think that we've coordinated everything this close is pretty amazing. It took a lot of doing to pack up 15 years of our lives, but after today/tomorrow, all of our worldly possessions will be loaded up in a truck and waiting for arrival in VA.
This is the true new chapter in my life. The past two months have been a whirlwind, with the new job (new career!) being everything I thought/hoped it would be and then some - but with my family some 500 miles away, it's been a hollow victory. As much as I like the folks I've been staying with (both sets!), coming home to my family is eminently more satisfying and rewarding. The dream job loses something when I only see my kids every other week.
In two weeks we'll be closing on the VA house. In a little less than that, the family will be driving down to join me in anticipation of the closing. Two weeks from today, we'll be official VA residents. I intend to have my VA license as close to that point as I can (and will be filing my VA CHL paperwork as soon as I can, natch). Then the fun *really* begins... The kids start their new schools after the winter break, where hopefully the "new kid" aura won't be quite as bad. We'll get our lives back into some semblance of "normal" soon. I hope.
I do suspect we'll be unpacking boxes through the summer, though...
That is all.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Being Away...
One of the downsides of being apart from your family is that you feel utterly helpless when something happens. Got a call from Mrs. G. yesterday that BabyGirl G. fell in gym class and hit her head - she's fine, but had a possible concussion so they needed her to be picked up. I think we could have made the case that, no, if she wasn't delirious or otherwise showing deliberate signs of concussion that she could stay, but Mrs. G was off yesterday and picked her up.
When I heard the message that she had fallen, and it dawned on me that I was completely and utterly unable to be there for her, that was an extremely bad feeling. As it turned out, she was okay - and even went to swimming last night, so I suspect it was just a good old fashioned bell ringing - but had it been something more, well, things certainly would be more difficult for me today.
Needless to say, the Mrs. and I are redoubling our efforts to find a house. I'm heading up to Massachusetts Friday after work, and we're going to spend Saturday frantically packing and making more moving arrangements. We're hoping to dovetail the closing on the MA house with a closing on a VA house so that we can minimize the time we are between houses (obviously). Ideally, we'd like to be moving in before Christmas if at all possible.
I know, I know; if you want to make G-d laugh, tell him your plans...
That is all.
When I heard the message that she had fallen, and it dawned on me that I was completely and utterly unable to be there for her, that was an extremely bad feeling. As it turned out, she was okay - and even went to swimming last night, so I suspect it was just a good old fashioned bell ringing - but had it been something more, well, things certainly would be more difficult for me today.
Needless to say, the Mrs. and I are redoubling our efforts to find a house. I'm heading up to Massachusetts Friday after work, and we're going to spend Saturday frantically packing and making more moving arrangements. We're hoping to dovetail the closing on the MA house with a closing on a VA house so that we can minimize the time we are between houses (obviously). Ideally, we'd like to be moving in before Christmas if at all possible.
I know, I know; if you want to make G-d laugh, tell him your plans...
That is all.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Sorry For The Ice Cream Shortage...
Things are getting a little crazy here. The packing is going well - when I can actually get to packing. We had a bit of a disruption in our plans in that we had intended to make a few quick cosmetic repairs and then get the house on the market, but as it turns out, we'd stand to lose quite a bit of money doing that. Given the recent housing downturn, we've lost a substantial portion of the house's value in the past 14 years. Our town has thoughtfully passed tax increase after tax increase, so we never noticed a ~ 25% drop in value - we saw taxes continue to climb and foolishly believed our house was worth roughly what it was when we bought it...
I told you all that so I could tell you this: Selling a house *SUCKS*. Real Estate agents don't really work for sellers; they work for buyers, plain and simple. When they're working with you to sell your house, they're really representing the buyers who may be interested. If they can sell your house at a lower price and turn it over faster, they're more motivated to do that - they might be out a few thousand dollars, but if they can turn the house over in a couple weeks rather than a couple months, well, they'd rather sell a bunch of houses for below value than one or two at value in the same three month time...
So, rather than fixing the vanity in the master bath (don't EVER put a heavy box down on a cheap faux-marble vanity top. Just don't) and patching a couple cracks here and there, we're doing all that plus putting in new flooring, rebuilding and repainting the farmer's porch, repainting the entire house, and putting in new plumbing fixtures in every bathroom. Rather than having three weeks to pack, I've had two days to pack and the rest of the time to run around between contractors and Home Depot...
I may have to buy something with a suppressor to make up for all of this work...
That is all.
I told you all that so I could tell you this: Selling a house *SUCKS*. Real Estate agents don't really work for sellers; they work for buyers, plain and simple. When they're working with you to sell your house, they're really representing the buyers who may be interested. If they can sell your house at a lower price and turn it over faster, they're more motivated to do that - they might be out a few thousand dollars, but if they can turn the house over in a couple weeks rather than a couple months, well, they'd rather sell a bunch of houses for below value than one or two at value in the same three month time...
So, rather than fixing the vanity in the master bath (don't EVER put a heavy box down on a cheap faux-marble vanity top. Just don't) and patching a couple cracks here and there, we're doing all that plus putting in new flooring, rebuilding and repainting the farmer's porch, repainting the entire house, and putting in new plumbing fixtures in every bathroom. Rather than having three weeks to pack, I've had two days to pack and the rest of the time to run around between contractors and Home Depot...
I may have to buy something with a suppressor to make up for all of this work...
That is all.
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