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Friday, November 02, 2007

Moving Made Harder

My advice to you is, when you buy a house, don't wait a month to move in. Unless you have to. Unless, in your excitement the day after closing, you tear up all the carpet and linoleum to refinish the hardwood floors, and you rip down all the ugly paneling in the "den" and frame a wall to put up new, modern drywall (as opposed to plaster, I guess), and moving in would mean not finishing the floors. Because you really ought to finish those damn floors before you move in.

I guess waiting a month is rough, because instead of the house being a home, the house is a project that you carry with you to and from work and your real home. It wears one out, I think. But we didn't know that until we'd done it. No one offered any advice, really, and if they had we probably would have told them hush up, we know what we're doing.

Also, if you're not living in the house, it's real easy for a dripping bathroom faucet to turn into a gushing fountain that could potentially flood the entire basement. What? Oh, yeah, yeah, that happened to us. But see, we thought the dripping faucet wasn't anything. We thought the puddle of water in the basement was from the toilet. Later that night, we figured out it was the sink (turned off the faucet, everything dried out).

The next day, when we stopped by to put up drywall, the toilet had flooded and the basement was a mess again. It was the tank, see, it never stopped filling. We turned off the valve to the toilet, but the next day it had flooded again (ghostly? The valve WAS turned off). Three days in a row. It's like a sign from God or something. He deals in threes, you see.

If we'd been living there, those enormous water problems wouldn't have ballooned like they did. We would have caught them at the trickle stage, right?

So, we moved in all the way on Wednesday. Or rather, we moved everything out of the apartment and into the house. We were up until 3 am on Wednesday night doing all that, you know, vacuuming the apartment before we left so they didn't think we were quite so piggish when they came to clean it up for the next tenant.

Something that took longer than we'd expected was moving the cats. They were very frightened. We only had one cat kennel, so we held the other two in our laps. Well, Bastet rode in my arms, Sobek rode on Stoker's shoulder. He really loved riding in the car. Sobek did, that is. (Stoker likes riding in cars, too.)

Bastet is pretty good at riding in the car with me because she's so well traveled. She's been from Mesa, AZ to Salt Lake, and from Mesa to Nashville. She's also ridden on a plane with us. She's a jet-setter, that cat. A hippo jet-setter (I don't know, something about her screams hippo. She's a hulking creature. Beautiful and hulking). Polly (short for Neopolitan, like the ice cream) rode in the kennel -- she's still quite skittish.

The cats hissed a lot in the house, at first. The previous owners had cats who left behind lots of terrible smells. So I think the cats were waiting to be jumped by enormous tom cats or something. That or I'm right about the devil room and there ARE ghosts in the house. Cats can see ghosts, don't you know?

Anyway, it took us longer than we thought to calm the cats down, and even when we left they weren't calm. When we returned from buying new cat litter, Sobek was burrowed between some pillows on the couch. He was like a kid hiding from thunder (I used to hide from thunder under the velvet throw pillows on my mom's couch, so that's how I can make that comparison). When Sobek saw Stoker, he ran into his arms. It was like a Kleenex commercial or a Cat Fancy sponsored music video for "Reunited." It really tugged at the heart strings.

The cats are doing better, the odd thing is that suddenly they're all sleeping on our bed with us and so I can't move at night, lest I kick a cat off the bed. Bastet has successfully rubbed against every possible object, to claim them, as the supreme cat in the household. I think she worked herself into such a frenzy from marauding about the house, shooting out her scent, that now she has a cat cold. Her little eye was a bit oozy last night, poor thing. I told her to rest today. Get some sleep. Recuperate.

Anyway, moving was the most horrible thing I've had to endure for a long time. I thought the glue-scraping was rough, and it was. I thought the sanding was a burden, and it was (especially the devil room. I NEVER thought we'd get through all that black tar. And it WAS tar. I've had it confirmed by several sources). I thought filling the nail holes with stainable filler was rough, and it was. But moving stands as the number one shitty thing a person has to do in their lifetime.

It could have been worse, I could have been 8 months pregnant with a two year old, two cats and a dog, and it could have been from DC to Miami, or Southern California to Miami, or Miami to Denver. Take your pick. Luckily it was from one side of the circle that is Nashville-Davidson, to the other side.


P.S. The floors look excellent, and who can complain about new appliances? Especially a side-by-side fridge when all you've had your entire adult life has been the top-freezer monstrosities apartment complexes offer. The beasts!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's weird is my cat used to love car rides. When she was a kitten it was like her favorite thing in the world. Now she hisses when she even approaches the car. I'm sorry you had to go through the crappy experience that is moving. I'm going to have to do that soon. And I will be downsizing so who knows how I'll fit all my crap into a small apartment. I will be hiring movers though. I'm not even going to try to move my piano without movers. Tell Stoker I said hi!

Dani said...

Yeay for Nikki & Stoker!!! You made it through, now you get the pleasurable task of settling in. So much fun. Remember to celebrate this most momentous of occasions, even though it is a huge pain, it's your first home, you are among the world's wealthiest.

And yes, moving from Miami to Denver with 3 month old twins, a 3 year old, 2 cats and a dog was a huge pain! Luckily we flew, and also had someone else move our stuff.

cassi said...

You never told me you kept/named the stray cat you picked up! Man, Nik, I'm hurt. Cut to the quick. I mean, if I got another cat, you'd be the first I'd tell. It's really just unbelievable that you neglected to tell me.

Anyway, congrats on getting moved in. Sorry about the flooding. Although I found it quite humorous. YKM. Someday soon I'll come see the new place.

And Dani, way to take the easy way out with moving. You and Jas are just a couple of moneybags, paying to have someone else do your dirty work. Haha. Just kidding. But really, you are moneybags.

Nathan Marx said...

Sounds like you guys need a vacation. Just think about the end result though! Plus I always feel that I get great satisfaction out of the DIY projects.

I know the black stuff seemed like tar but I am sure it was just vinyl adhesive. It sure acts like tar! I have heard it called tar plenty of times before ussually with choice cus words before it. I can imagine the pain that was.

Can't wait to see some photos of the house! I bet it will look totally awesome! How is the dry wall project comming along? I think I may have confused Stoker more than I helped him when you guys called about dry wall. Dry wall can be really difficult to get to look good. My jobs turned out horrible. When I start looking carefully I want to pull down the walls and start all over using the little bit of experience that I have gained they would turn out so much better!

Wish I was closer so I could come help out! To bad all the family moved away!

Bad family! Bad!

Nicole said...

Erica -- sell the piano! Get a new one once you're all moved. I'm sure it's cheaper to simply buy a new one rather than pay movers.

D -- I'm never moving again. Sorry. Looks like we'll have to stay in Nashville. We'd never be rich enough to afford to pay SOMEONE else to move us.

Cas -- You're a liar. Who NEVER tells me about her happenin' lovelife? Hmmm. Name begins with a C, initials CBG and that's not Christy Baugh Girl. Anyway, yeah, couldn't give up the kitten. She needs us. She's real precious.

I'm painting the guest room (AKA, Cassi's room). What color do you want it? Fluorescent green?

Nathan -- Don't be a know-it-all. ;) JK. It was tar.

Dry wall sucks. Hopefully our friend Joey will help us, he's an old pro, or so he's led me to believe. Yeah, too bad the family can't help out. Where's the family when I need them?