Thursday, August 29, 2013

Adventures in Moving Around the Corner

If you think moving around the corner is easier then moving across a couple of states you would be wrong.
When we told our landlords that we would be moving they asked if we would be willing to let people come and look at the house.
Sure. Seemed easy enough. Plus we wanted to be helpful.
It was awful.
That sounds dramatic...I know. But for 3 days straight I had to be gone from the house from pretty much sun up to dinner time. Evidently, realtors don't care whether or not you have 4 kids that want to eat lunch, and play with their toys.
We kept the house spotless for 3 days. Also quite a feet for a family with 4 kids. But it paid off because the landlords got an offer and accepted it on the 3rd day. 
As soon as we were done with that then we started packing. It was slow going because we were working on the new house, but also because we were getting boxes for free from KSL.
Some of them also came pre-labeled for easy use.
There had to be a careful balance between packing and also keeping out stuff that we use on a daily basis.
We planned to move stuff as we went. 
Only problem. 
The garage at the new house still had the previous owners things in it.
Sure he had made a significant dent...but there was still a long way to go.
(This is what was Left in the garage the day we actually moved in. Prior to that the garage was PACKED.)
Finally we realized that a moving truck was the only way to go.
We got the biggest one there was.
With a bunch of guys from our neighborhood it still took 3 hours and 2 trips.
But we did it.
I told Blake that I never want to move again and that we are going to die in this house. 
Dramatic much?
With the whole house moved there was still a couple of odds and ends to move. One of them being the trampoline.
Blake called me one day to tell me that they were going to roll the trampoline down the street and that he had called some of his buddies to help.
I kept saying..."this seems like a bad idea"
but he thought that taking it apart seemed like a waste of time.
Lo and behold, our friend had the idea of putting it on top of his truck and walking it over.
Also seemed like another bad idea...

But who am I to argue with three engineers.
Rest assured. The trampoline made it. With no scratches on the truck.
I was wrong.
It was a good idea, they just looked silly doing it.
The rest of moving was uneventful.
Save for a few. 
We cleaned the old house, and locked the doors. Granted a hiccup with the landlords ended up souring a good relationship that I thought that we had had. I suppose that when you are paying someone money they are far kinder.
The beautiful thing?
We are our own landlords now.
Adios old house. Hello old new house. 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Summer Summarized

This summer mostly revolved around the new house and moving.
There was a lot of down time for the kids, that didn't involve a whole lot of anything. But we did get a few things in here and there. 
We went on hikes.
We climbed rocks.
We pet imaginary dogs.
We ran.
We were happy to play, then mad that it involved being away from Mom.
We were half a Spiderman.
Half a butterfly.
We had a hand "death grip" our heads, 
All in the name of pretty painted faces.


We watched Star Wars in our friends backyard, while Mom read a book.
(you would figure that at some point I would actually watch Star Wars, but I am still firm. I am too old to give in now.)
Penny potty trained herself.
Gavin went to Scout Camp and came home filthy...
and with a light saber. Makes sense.
We got scratches. 
Lots of them.
Some scratches ended in Mom playing doctor.
We got dirty.
We played with friends.
We got new hats and glasses.
Then proceeded to wear them EVERYWHERE.
We enjoyed the sun going down. 
We made a fort in the bathroom. 
Mostly because it is clean and practical.
We saw a 3D movie at the Planetarium about butterflies.
The glasses were entertaining. 
The movie was evidently "boring."


We "saved" a bird that Mozzy had caught. 
The bird was eventually put in the bushes to
--according to me--
"go back to its family"
Translation: Die.

We replaced the dead birds with balloon ones 
and then made fun of them.
We expressed our individuality via clothing choices.
We spied. In a completely non creepy way.
We swung.
Some of us higher then others.
We were happy.
Well...most of the time.
Mostly, we were happy for the change to the new house.
We were ready for the jump.


Want to follow our house progress?
You can find our new blog here: paintcanfixit.blogspot.com