Thursday, May 3, 2018

THE MOVE

Yep, THE MOVE deserves to be in all caps because it was kind of a big deal for us.

Move out day happened on Thursday, 4/19/18. We had been packing and preparing for weeks and the actual move out was relatively low stress. Our movers were wonderful and when I saw our trucks, The Tajh and The Deshaun, pull up, I felt like it was a good omen! We cleaned and did last minute prep while the movers filled up the trucks. We had one whole truck full of boxes and then one whole truck full of furniture. Then we had to go get a small U-Haul for a few things that wouldn't fit on the 2 trucks. Oops!

This is getting REAL

The Deshaun

The Tajh

Serious business - from bottom to top

Not one inch to spare!

Last time with our sweet neighbor, Janice

Empty house

Dining room 

Kitchen and den

Estimated move out time was 4 hours and it ended up taking 6 hours with 4 guys, so I guess we have a lot of stuff! Anyway, everything went really smoothly!

After the movers loaded everything, we had a professional cleaning crew come in to get the house spotless and they did a fantastic job. It was so strange to walk through the house totally empty! We then had to go over to our new house for a walk through to check on the repairs. Let's just say that we were there for about 2.5 hours (had planned on 30 minutes or so) and eventually had to leave to pick the boys up from school. My plan was that we would get them early, check in to the hotel (we stayed at Embassy Suites for the night to make it fun for the boys!), let them swim, grab some dinner somewhere and get into bed at a reasonable time. Instead, we picked the boys up at 6 pm, ate a speedy dinner at Wendy's, went to the hotel, unloaded our stuff, and then had a rushed swim session because it was so late at that point! Even though it was rushed, late, and not as planned, the boys had fun! Ryan stayed out with me watching while Stokes, William and Thomas swam in the pool.

So excited!

Swim time

Ryan and I watched!

William and Thomas

Happy boys
It was about 9 PM (past bed time!) by the time we got everyone bathed and in bed. It was a really long day!

Ryan slept in our bed


Stokes and William were on the sleeper sofa

Angel baby sleeping

We knew that it was a big transition and weren't sure how the boys would handle the changes and whether they'd be nervous about the moving trucks and seeing a different house. We figured that doing something fun, like staying in a hotel with an indoor pool, would make it a fun and exciting time instead of a scary and uneasy time. I think they really enjoyed the hotel! The next morning, we had to eat breakfast in a hurry because we had to meet people at the houses first thing. Side note: Embassy Suites has an amazing breakfast selection! It was great!




Closing day on both houses was Friday, 4/20/18. The movers held all of our stuff on the trucks overnight and we had closing on our old house at noon, and our new house was supposed to close at 3. The movers were going to show up at 4:00 and the move in could begin.

On Friday morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we took the boys to school, and Thomas went to our new house to meet some repair guys there for some estimates while I went by our old house to do a final walk through. I wanted to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything and just to really confirm that everything was clean and ready for our buyer. The house really looked fantastic. It was so bittersweet and emotional. After Thomas met the guys at the new house, he came back by for our final goodbye to our old house. 

Thomas and me at our old house

Last pic here

We're doing to really miss this house!!!!!

That was the house where the boys came home from the hospital, where they learned to do so many firsts, where we had therapies, and lots of visitors! It was time to move on, but this was a fantastic place for us and will always be in our hearts. 

We left the house and went to the closing and signed away our old house and left the lawyer's office with just our memories. *tear

In the meantime, we had a few hours to kill before closing on our new house. We met up with Carole and went over what all was happening. Suffice it to say that it was a stressful day and did not go nearly as smoothly as everything with our old house. Our move out and closing on our old house was a breeze, but we weren't sure IF we were going to close on our new house, due to some repair issues and crazy things that popped up at the last minute. Carole even said that in over 30 years of doing real estate, she hadn't ever experienced what happened with us that day! Also, Carole was a ROCK STAR and basically took care of everything needed from our side and from the buyers side. She was working so hard all day long.

After being up in the air ALL DAY about whether we would close on our new house, it did finally end up happening. After closing, we went to our new house where the moving trucks had met MaSha to begin unloading.

Time to move in!

So many trucks!

Boys coming to their new house for the
FIRST TIME

They loved the moving trucks and wanted
to "help"

Beautiful new house

Lots of work to unload

The movers stayed until close to 9 pm unloading all of our stuff. Our incredible realtor (superhero of the day), Carole, got take out and brought it over to feed us - as if she hadn't already done enough! MaSha was clutch, too, with helping to unpack and keeping track of the kids so that Thomas and I could help direct furniture to the correct rooms.

Dinner time, courtesy of Carole

So many boxes!

Stuff was everywhere and boxes were piled high in every room, but we managed to get beds made and slept at our new house all together as a family that night. The boys were so excited to explore everything and see all the rooms. I wasn't sure if sleeping in a new place would scare them, but they did great! 

That weekend was full of unpacking, organizing, sorting, etc. That was several weeks ago and while we are functional now, we still have A LOT of work to do! Major shout out goes out to MaSha, for essentially camping out over the weekend and unpacking the entire kitchen (!!!) and Carole, who continued to assist with unpacking and feeding us. 

We met several of our new neighbors that first weekend and had some friends from the neighborhood that we already knew stop by for visits. It was such a warm welcome and we could feel the hospitality from the get go, which is such a great feeling!

sweet friend, Ginny Lynn, and family
stopped by and brought gifts!

After a busy and full weekend,  had to take a picture of the boys before school on their first school day in the new house. p.s. it was raining that day. :(

First school day in the new house

Different set of stairs to take all our pics on now

As I mentioned, we have a lot of work to do and some updates that are going to be on our list, but we're so happy with our new house and pray that we'll have lots of great memories here, too!

Friends and family, if you're reading this, feel free to come by and visit! We'd love to show you our new place!

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