Household Goods & Setting Up House

Our Household Goods arrived about a week earlier than we expected them too.  Not only did they arrive early but we only got a 24 hour notice.  Tim got a call Thursday morning, 23 February, telling us they would deliver our goods on Friday, 24 February.  Not such a bad thing, but we were planning on finishing our painting over the weekend so we ended up having to stay up late Thursday night and knocking out the living room.  We figured it would be much harder to paint around all the boxes.

The other problem it created was that we had to call to have all of our temporary furniture picked up.  Tim had received the call from transportation right around 9:20 AM, I called the Furniture Management office at 9:35 AM and the guy was not happy.  Thankfully he wasn’t really angry with me…but he still used some language.  Double thankful that he worked the schedule to fit us in.  Just not any specific time.  So we tried to condense the furniture into a few corners to make way for all of the incoming.

The movers showed up right around 8:30/9AM Friday morning and they were done unloading our things by 11AM.  The last item they brought up was our mattress, but they had yet to assemble our bed, so Tim rushed to get the frame together so they would have a place to put it.  Then we had them help assemble our kitchen table and that was it.  We were left to sort and assemble the rest.  (You have the option for them to unpack everything for you, but I think that would create a chaos that I would not want to witness!)  

Our last movers were really good about sorting the boxes as they came out of the truck by room and then bringing them in the house on the dolly that way.  These guys weren’t.  It made it difficult to direct them which box went where.  For the most part I had them dump around 80% of the boxes in the 4^th bedroom, figuring I’d sort thru them later.  And for those of you (few I’m sure) who have never moved before…I’ve included a few pictures of what it may look like.

 

Tim started putting the boys bunk beds together and I decided to start in the kitchen.  Definitely not the most exciting room to unpack but probably one of the most needed.  I unwrapped about two coffee cups and was already lacking interest to go any further.  I do best when I can see everything that needs to be put away, so I just started unwrapping and setting it all over the table/counters/floor/etc.

 

I had tried my best ahead of time to work it out in my head where everything would go, but it didn’t work out.  I pretty much filled the cabinets with what I could, looked around at what was left, and gave up.  I don’t know what I did next.  Probably ate some chocolate or something….and watched Tim finish the bunk beds.  I didn’t bother touching the kitchen again till the next day.  Once I thought about the arrangement all night I was pretty sure I had figured it out.  I’m still not sure I like it 100%, but it is workable/manageable for now.

It took me a week to unpack everything…for the most part.  Before Tim left for the field he helped get a good deal of the living room, both the boys’ room’s, the linen closet, and our bedroom unpacked.  I still have a few boxes of books, but since I don’t have a bookshelf to put them on, I just figured I’d leave them in the boxes for now.  There were things I put away in one closet then when I unpacked another box I realized that the stuff in that box would work better in that closet...so I did a lot of rearranging.  Still am.  Some things are unpacked and in the closets of the rooms they are supposed to be but they are not organized by any means.  I imagine it’ll take a few months to get back around to everything to organize it how I would like.  The last thing I unpacked was all of our pictures.  The boys helped and thought it was like Christmas getting to unwrap them all.  At this point, a majority of them are still on the floor in the 4^th bedroom. 

There are a few things that we unpacked that made us say, “What were we thinking?!!!”  Things like some old curtain rods.  They are pretty much just tin rods.  I don’t even have the ends or the hangers anymore.  I think they were in the garage and they got overlooked when we were sorting and so they got packed.  We unpacked an empty shoe box.  Again…why?  You think the packers might have asked us about that one before packing it?!  We also packed our Texas Phone Book, our US Road Map, and our Sport Clips "Get 6 haircuts, get one Free!" coupon.  I’m sure all of those will come in very useful over here!!!  

We were also pleased that we came away from this move with only one casualty.  Pleased that it was just one.  But still sad at which one.  Our desk broke.  We kind of saw it coming.  It’s the desk that we just recently refinished; you can view it here.  The leg cracked…almost all the way through, but it was completely bent out of shape.   

Since it is the only desk we have, Tim “mended” it for me until I can find something else I like.  Once I find another desk I plan on taking off the top and cutting it down so I still have a little side table with drawers.  Possibly to go in our bedroom.  

^th bedroom though ‘cause that’s where my sewing machine is!  I’ve been getting a few pictures up a day, but I also came down with a sore throat two days ago; which for some reason leaves me feeling incapacitated.   The boys are just lucky they are getting fed.  And yes, grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and dinner in the same day count.  I’m also on the hunt for a few more furniture items, but can’t seem to find exactly what I’m looking for.  So there’s a slight delay in the process.   I’m picky.  Or I know what I want, but it’s back in the good US of A and they won’t ship it to me.  If I’m going to spend money on something though I want it to be on something I love and that I know I will use/keep for a while.  

I also have to figure out a solution to our curtains.  All the windows have radiators under them, so I don’t think any of my floor length curtains will work…which are pretty much all of my curtains.  I’m going to try and adjust them somehow without it being permanent.  I’m getting tired of having trash bags on our windows!  I’ll try and get pics posted as I finish a room!