Another box checked

I finished moving the last of our items out of the old house today.  Last night was a late night cleaning, and today the professional cleaners came to finish off.  I left them the shower and the floors.
I’m generous like that.

Their comment to me, “In 8 years of cleaning, we’ve never been to a house this clean.”
Yay for me!  If the landlord makes even one comment I’ll slap him so hard he’ll have to insert his toothbrush in his ass to clean his teeth.

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving, so food a plenty, Friday will be the carpet cleaning at the old house, followed by inspection with previously mentioned landlord, then hand over the keys, and continue on with my life.

Yay!

Right now though, I’m going to have a glass of wine and have an early night, relaxing in front of the television.

Cheers!

Almost nearly…

The old house is almost a thing of the past.  I spent the entire day there today like a whirling dervish of cleaning.  The entire place smells like a swathe of (mostly environmentally friendly) cleaning products.

I’ve also transported a large majority of the remaining items to the new house, and this evening with the help of Mark we removed the last items from the house.

The only things remaining are in the garage, all securely locked away until morning where I’ll relocate them for what will hopefully be the last time for a while.

I’m also pretty glad that I got the lawns all mowed yesterday when I did, as from the moment I finished until pretty much early this evening it’s rained, and more rain is forecast.  My timing was pretty good.

So that’s about it.  I’ve worked my butt off, literally and figuratively.  All this effort has been in place of going to the gym, I’m not so mad that I’ll do both right now.  Besides, my back is pretty sore, and I think I can safely say that for someone with a herniated disk I’ve sort of over done the physical aspect of things lately.

Oh, I also made a new friend today.  A fellow Aussie, Marilyn, who works for Invisible Fence a company that makes solutions for ensuring your pets stay within the boundaries of your property.

Now though, I’m home for the evening, fresh from a nice hot shower, blogging away merrily with the cat on my lap, monkey pj’s on, and a nice hot cup of tea.  Civilised if I do say so myself.

Until next time.  Hooroo!

Another busy day

I’m still making progress on the unpacking front, but there’s still a few items, such as a majority of our clothes and all the food still at the old place that need to be collected and moved to the new place, and the final clean, and lawn mowing to be done.

It’ll be nice to finally be out and able to wipe my hands of the place.  The landlord is up to his usual “stupidness” again.  This time he’s issued us with a new cleaning list to be performed and signed before we leave.  My thoughts, aside from the fact the house will be clean anyway, as I’m pretty thorough, and have already booked a cleaning team and professional carpet cleaners to come through, is that he can jam it.  Anything he has for us now, is in addition to the lease we signed and not relevant.
We also discovered today that he’s advertised an Open House on the last day of our tenancy without consulting with us.  Admittedly we’ll be out, but technically we’ve paid rent for that day.
We’ve since contacted him, told him it’s unacceptable.  Had it been one inspection, no problem.  But a four hour open house…  No chance.  We’re getting a days rent refunded, although apparently he believes he’s being generous.
I’ll be so glad this time next week when it’s all over.

Back to this house.  I fenced off half of the yard today to ensure the dogs can’t escape through the holes in the fence.  They’ve been bathed, and groomed, their bed washed and bedding replaced, and they’re now happily in residence at their new home.  The whole family is back together.

Better go, have to get some more stuff done in readiness for gym in the morning.  We’ll also finally have the house phone, cable television and Internet connected – YAY!

Hooroo!

Moving day hell!

It’s been a super huge day today.  Despite only moving one street away from my last house, I’m more exhausted than I’ve ever been in any move EVER!

I know why too.  We moved from a five bedroom, 4 living area house, into a 3 bedroom, 2 living area house, and the last house was fully furnished.

It’s been completely bloody insane, getting things in, and deciding on the spur of the moment where some items go has drained all my energy reserves.  I didn’t even have time to stop for lunch.
Once dinner came around though I fixed that.  I behaved though, lots of chicken and salad as a starter before I got to the Pad Thai main, which I ended up bringing home with me.

Now though, I’m exhausted.  I’d kill for a hot shower, and will be having one shortly.

Oliver is here, and sitting on my lap.  He’s a little more settled now he knows where his litter tray, food, our bed and me, his Dad are.  The dogs are spending one more night at the old house though.  I noticed late this afternoon that there’s a large hole in the fence that I’ll fix in the morning.
Then I’m dropping the dogs off to be bathed, and will bring them to the new house all sweet smelling and clean.

Hooroo for now!

Here today… Gone tomorrow…

That’s pretty much the gist of it.  The movers are in packing up our house today, it’s chaos!

I’m at a point now where I just don’t care what’s packed and what’s not, as long as it all ends up at the same place tomorrow.

That could possibly mean that when we go out tonight to see Kathy Griffin, that I’m either wearing the same clothes I’ve had on all day while packing, or that I’ll rummage through a box, or buy something on the fly.

I can’t begin to explain how glad I’ll be when this chapter of my life is over.

I’m off to have my breakdown now.

Cya!

Closed

As of 9pm this evening, we’re officially home owners.  We signed all the papers on Monday, the numbers were all recorded this afternoon, but due to some stupid process, despite officially owning the house earlier this afternoon, we’re not officially allowed to enter the property until 9pm.

Bah!  We were in at 7.30.  Just for a look, and to discard a few items left behind by the previous owners, such as 2 ironing boards, a plunger and an old mop.  We have our own thanks!

I had hoped to have had been able to utilise the whole day to clean the new house, and start moving a few things.  Oh well, at least I got the garden done at the old house today.  I’ll mow the lawns in the morning, and then that’s one more thing done.

I’ll be glad when this is over. 🙂

Stupid fool!

As some of you may know, Mark and I bought a house recently here in Washington state.  A move based primarily on an 11% rent increase on our existing home.  It seems that our landlord felt that $2200 per month wasn’t enough, and that $2450 was more appropriate.

We didn’t agree!  Hell, why pay his mortgage, when we can pay our own and for a whole lot less.

So that’s what we did.  We close/settle next week, and will be moved in before the end of November, so this will be our 4th address since we’ve been in the country.  Since August 2006!  Argh!

As for the fool part…  We were outside tonight picking up some leaves that I raked up during the week, when a car pulled up outside the house, and it’s occupants stared at the house.  The same car then turned around, stopped again, and stared again.  This immediately got my mind to thinking that our landlord was already advertising the house for rent.
No drama, if it was mine, I’d want to advertise it as soon as possible too.

Out of interest though, we checked out the same website that we initially found the house on.  Lo and behold, there it is.  Not only is our landlord still using photos of the house while it was furnished by it’s previous owners (not sure they’d be too impressed), but he’s advertising it a full $150 cheaper a month than he increased our rent to, and it seems is advertising the back deck inclusive of OUR BBQ!

I DON’T THINK SO!

I’ll be very glad when WE and our BBQ have moved into our very own home, where the only landlords we need deal with, are the ones we wake up with each day.  Us!

I’ll be so glad when this next chapter of my life is over.  Roll on November 30!

Grey skies are gonna clear up

Put on a happy face…

The day started out pretty grey and miserable today.  No sun, dark clouds, and drizzling rain.  Not exactly the sort of weather anyone really looks forward to.
Especially not if you’re moving house.  Which a friend of mine was doing today, with my assistance.

Fortunately by the time we picked up the truck and started loading it, the rain had finished for the day, and by the time the truck was loaded, and we’d stopped for lunch, the skies were clearing.

Now it’s after 7 in the evening and the skies are blue and the sun is out.  Nice!

I didn’t get a chance to ride my bike today though.  D’oh!  That’ll teach me for putting it off yesterday in favour of today.  I completely forgot I’d offered to help with a move.

Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

That said, I’m off to enjoy a nice hot shower, and settle in for the evening.  It’s a gym and physio day tomorrow, I’m going to need my rest.

Hooroo!

Another room finished

Finally our new house is starting to resemble a home.  The upstairs lounge room is just about finished, I’ve FINALLY found the cutlery.  The second couch is finally in the house after the removalists left it in the garage…
I know…  Go figure.  Couch in the garage, as you do!  Duh!

So it’s been a pretty busy day, complete with helping a friend; Jeff move house as well.

I swear, if I never see another moving box…

But that’s enough for now, going to head off and enjoy the evening.

Cheers!

Home Sweet Home

Well, for now anyway…

Tonight is the first time we’ve been home before 7pm in weeks.

We decided to have an early night, lit the fire, and settled in to catch up on some television watching, and it could have been more relaxing.

I’ll say one thing for the new house, even filled to the ceiling with boxes, it’s more comfortable and homely than the last one was.

We can finally feel settled, even the pets are more relaxed.

Right now though, it’s time for bed.

Cheerio.