I think the most complicated thing about this move was the timing of everything. It took a lot of planning, even though things didn't exactly play out like we thought they would (they did work out for us in the end, though). When we received an offer on our Shiloh house back in July, the buyer stated that he wasn't able to close until September 30th. We had been told by our builder and his superintendent that we had about 8 weeks of work left on our new place. What this meant for us is that a closing date of September 30th would be perfect timing to move directly from our Shiloh house to our new place, even giving a week or so of wiggle room with getting our new place finished up. We lined up childcare for September 29th and 30th, as well as October 1st. We had everything (water, electricity, Internet, mail, etc) set up to transfer from our Shiloh house to our new place on September 30th, we had a new washer and dryer scheduled to be delivered to our new place on October 1st, and we had rented a Pod that was scheduled to be moved to our new place on September 30th.
Our plan was to close on our Shiloh house on September 30th, then turn right around and close on our new place. We really needed to close on the Shiloh house first for financial reasons, so doing a back-to-back closing on the same day was ideal.
You can probably guess what happened next, haha. Everything was in place and going perfectly until Wednesday, September 28th when we got word from our realtor that the Shiloh house closing had been postponed. At that time, we weren't given a new closing date. We were just told that closing would *hopefully* happen some time the following week. This was very unsettling and certainly complicated all of our plans! We really needed to move on September 30th as that's when we had childcare and help for moving available (in addition to all the other stuff I listed above).
We had heard that our builder was great to work with families in situations like ours, so Chris gave him a call. He gave us permission for early occupancy and agreed to postpone the closing of our new place for one week. We just prayed that everything with our Shiloh house would go through before we had to close on our new place on October 7th. During this time, we were also having some issues with our homeowners insurance, but thankfully we worked through all of that and forged ahead with moving on September 30th!
Even with stress levels a little high, we were super excited to finally be able to occupy our house on Summit Trail!!!
On Thursday, September 29th, we spent the day packing our last few boxes and loading our Pod! My Dad came down to help us load the big things, Tia came over and helped me pack the last few boxes (and provided lunch), and my Mom and sister watched my kiddos. The Pod was stuffed to the max, and this didn't even count the stuff we had in our storage building we had rented when preparing our Shiloh house to be put on the market. We also loaded down our truck and a trailer we had borrowed from Ross and Tia with our lawn equipment and outdoor things. There's nothing like moving to truly reveal how much stuff you have! Eeeep.
After getting everything loaded up, Dad had to head home and Chris and I went out to dinner. We rarely get to go to dinner without the children, so we really enjoyed ourselves. My sister and mom had taken our children to my sister's house for the afternoon/evening, so after dinner we headed over there to pick them up. On the night of September 29th, we slept at our Shiloh house for the last time. All of our furniture was loaded in the pod except for our mattress and our refrigerator. I made pallets on the floor of our bedroom for the big kids while the twins slept in pack n plays (also in our bedroom). I had packed an overnight bag for everyone with our essentials so we'd have what we needed for the next day and night, as well.
On the morning of September 30th, we got everyone up and ready and took the kids back to my sister's house for the day. Chris and I were planning to take the truck on over to our new place that morning, but he had locked us out of the house by mistake the night before. This added to our stress levels just a wee bit, haha! Thankfully, our builder's superintendent came over and let us in the house by 10:30 that morning, so we could really begin moving stuff in! My brother-in-law, Russ, came over to help us load up the mattress and move our refrigerator, and at about 11:30am the Pod people came to move the Pod for us.
Our friends, Tia and Ross, came by to help not long after the Pod was moved. Ross, Russ, and Chris got our refrigerator all set up for us, then started moving in our living room furniture. Tia and I started unpacking the kitchen and hanging temporary blinds!
Ross helped Chris place most of our big furniture while Russ worked on unloading the Pod. He was great to place things according their labels so I didn't have to really move any boxes around at all.
Russ was a machine! He just kept unloading and unloading that Pod! It was very warm this day - so he was covered in sweat - but he just kept on going.
At about 4:00, I asked Chris and Ross to assemble the kids' beds. I wanted them all to be able to at least sleep in their bed that night.
My bed assembly team!
I sent these pics to my mom to show the kids as we were getting their rooms somewhat set up. I wanted them to be excited to sleep at our new house for the first time!
Bren's room
Brianna's room
Things were going well and moving along great until it came time to put the twins' cribs together. We couldn't find the hardware needed to assemble them anywhere! We called my dad and my mom to see if they had any insight, and nobody knew where it was. Ugh. SO frustrating! Chris and Ross spent a chunk of time looking for it, and we finally gave up on it. Then, I ran out into the garage to get something and just happened to look over in a plastic bin and there they were! It was a huge relief to find the hardware, and Chris and Ross immediately got to work setting up the cribs.
Brooke and Brecklyn's room
By this time, it was getting on in the evening, so Russ and Ross headed home. Chris and I were too tired to set up our bed, so we just moved things around our room enough to lay our box springs and mattress on the floor and make our bed. I sent this pic to my mom to show her that I was DONE for the day! Haha.
We went and picked up the kids from my sister's house and I think my mom and sister were just about as worn out as we were, haha. The kids were beyond excited to see our new house and sleep there for the first time. I think it really helped that we had taken them there all throughout the building process and talked to them about which room would be theirs and that we would live there one day, etc. We expected that the big kids would do okay with it, but the twins were even totally excited and went to bed with no problems!
On Saturday, October 1st, we awoke to Brianna running in our room excitedly telling us that we just HAD to come see the sunrise. She was right . . . it was spectacular!
We hit the unpacking hard again on Saturday morning, and this time Mom and Lisa came over to our new place to help with the children and unpacking. Our friends, Joy Lin and Brant, also came to spend the morning helping us, and Russ-the-machine was back, as well. We were truly blessed with so many helping hands and it made the process MUCH less overwhelming!
Lisa (helping get the children lunch)
Mom (also helping with lunch)
Joy Lin helping me in the twins' room
Brant and Chris unloading a trailer full of boxes from our storage building
Chris and Joy Lin hard at work
Part of our crew taking a short break in our living room
Sunday morning, we had intentions to go to church but awoke to the sound of a child puking instead. There's nothing like breaking in a new house with puke, haha! I ended up staying home all day with a sick Brenson while Chris took the girls to church.
Chris had taken off an entire week of work for moving, and I was thankful to have him home for a few more days. We had all of our things moved (albeit still in boxes) to our new place, but there was one big thing left to bring over - our playhouse! Chris was on the ball during the move and had already made an appointment with a small building mover to come and move the playhouse for us on Monday morning. At 7:30am, the mover called and said he was ready! He loaded our playhouse onto a truck, drove it down the road to our new place, and unloaded it all in less than an hour!
Pulling the playhouse up onto the truck
(We still need to paint the playhouse . . . we wanted to wait until after we moved so that we could match it to our new house.)
It's up! Eeeeek!
Driving the playhouse down the road to our new place
Pulling down our street
Placing it in our new backyard
Setting it down in its new home!
As far as everything with closing on the houses went, we were able to close on our Shiloh house on Wednesday, October 5th. It felt great to have that all settled!
Of course, it took us several weeks to get everything unpacked, settled, and decorated. I'm still working on it to some degree, but we are truly enjoying our new place. I mean, just waking up to these sunrises every morning is pretty amazing!
October 4, 2016
October 6, 2016
October 9, 2016
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