Sorry for the cliche. But cliches become such because of how apt they are for so many people in so many situations. It's been much of my last week, and in several ways, many of them totally discouraging.
Our realtor wants the house empty before she shows it. We thought we'd like to stay here a few more weeks, but now we'll be out by the 3rd of March. So obviously I had to get busy. Not just that, but do it juggling everybody else's schedules, including, finally (so far anyway, we're not done yet) the fact that Monday was a holiday and places were closed.
Much didn't need adjusting. Plane tickets are purchased for a couple family members to come down for a week to help finish packing, loading, and cleaning. But with the new hurry-hurry, plans just made had to - or still have to due to the holiday - be remade. Some of that is also misunderstandings.
We get a week of usage with having a dumpster brought in. I'd initially figured we could keep the PODS in the driveway a few more days than how it turned out before it has to go away to make room for the dumpster. There's only one driveway here, after all. They can't go side-by-side. So I wound up calling the PODS people back the day after telling them which day to haul it out, to have them haul it out two days earlier, since they are closed on Tuesdays. (Who does that?) So two fewer days to load it, two fewer days to use certain pieces of furniture - like my recliner and bed. It might have been only one day difference but the company down here handling them is closed on Tuesdays. I would have been happy with having it pulled out Wednesday, giving us a full week to leisurely load it, while taking the most advantage of our helpers. But the dumpster then could only have come on Thursday, and would have only gotten one day for loading. Well, maybe half a day since they can drop it as late as 5 PM, pick it up as early as 5 AM.
But we were paying for a week, right? So getting it for under one day? In addition, we would have to be responsible for any and everything that happened to that dumpster or was put into it with the possibility of very hefty fines. The dumpster has to come out Friday or sit in the driveway until Monday. We wouldn't be here to watch over it if we left Saturday so the house would be empty the 3rd. I wasn't going to accept responsibility without any control over what happened in my yard. So it has to be picked up Friday, the 1st. Perhaps as little as 12 hours to load a 12 cubic foot dumpster? Just Rich on his own, no help? Not gonna happen.
But if the PODS leaves next Monday, the dumpster could arrive Tuesday, the "kids" wouldn't fly back out until later Wednesday, so they could be a big help with loading it, in addition to cleaning, painting, and repairs in the mostly emptied house, leaving still one more day for the last crap to go into the dumpster.
Now the PODS leaving that early changed a bunch of other things. Start with beds. Who sleeps where? What goes north, what stays here to be used until we leave? If no bed is here, who sleeps on the floor? Not us geezers, certainly! Steve can sleep in his lift chair... if it isn't packed and gone in the PODS. Same with me in my chair. But I want my chair packed. I could manage a mattress, perhaps, on the floor because the mattress goes into the dumpster Friday anyway. (I want a different one, changing my storage bed from a queen to a double, easy enough to do with how the bed is put together.) Steve doesn't want the frame for his storage bed, so he can sleep on it after the "kids" leave, then put his mattress in the dumpster very early Friday morning and set the frame curbside to be taken away. But his lift chair won't have gone away in the PODS, so it will have to get curbside also with a pickup arranged for over the weekend also... IF we can! I need to make a phone call. Maybe more.
So deciding my recliner will have gone in the PODS Monday, so I will have a regular chair for the rest of the week, if one can call a steel frame and canvas folding camping chair a "regular" chair. It will at most be something to sit in. Because the sofa and futon and rolling chairs will be also out of the house. The folding chair will travel in the car. It has in the past so I know it fits, but what I don't know is what else has to be sacrificed to make room for it. Clothing? Food? Rear view visibility? At least this time we're not making room for any canine friends so more can be packed in that space.
Anyway, all these things to coordinate, as information filtered in after making other plans, meant more phone calls needed to be made and schedules changed. Depending on when the last things go away, we are even discussing spending a night or two locally in a motel, just to have a bed to sleep on which both of us can get in/out of. I know, $$$ ouch. A friend suggested that Habitat for Humanity, in the form of The Restore, would arrange to pick up furniture set at the curb for them. Maybe even on weekends! I'll have to call to confirm when things open.
That's just one kind of moving target(s). After getting the March 3 clearing out deadline from the realtor (so we can start selling on our schedule, remember) I started calling utilities and services to cancel as of March 4. We can put the last garbage out for final pickup that morning, whether we're here or not, for example. I called the water company to get that shut off, the gas company for a final reading and hard shut off. Our last recycle day will be the 4th Wednesday, and whatever is left after that will go out in the garbage for the 4th's final pick-up. Little stuff still usable but unwanted and unsold will go to thrift stores, which have different drop off days, so one or more is always accepting stuff on weekdays.
I sent an email to our realtor about the progress I was making, partly to reassure her we'd be out as scheduled so she could start work on the listing with confidence of having showings.
She almost freaked out! I got a very prompt email reply, sent before she even finished reading all my email. Turns out I can't shut off the utilities just because the house is empty. So long as it's for sale and until a final inspection is held, they must be functioning! Electricity, water, gas, all have to stay on. So I still have to pay for them. I can't shut down the power at the breaker box. So I have to call those companies back and admit being a fool, canceling the shut-offs. Yes, I can stop garbage and recycling, and we can (will!!!) let the wi-fi go back to the owner. Steve pays that particular bill so we found out how to do that - just still waiting for the address for a drop off. We can and will turn off the lights, keep the water heater on low, and I have finally secured our realtor's blessing to turn off the thermostat inside so long as power is still on. It can be turned on/off, switched to AC and heat, just to prove it works. She promised to check to make sure nobody left the furnace turned on or the AC turned way down. March and April are mild climate season anyway, so no frozen pipes to worry about, etc. All those things have to stay on while the house is still for sale, both for the people walking through so they can make sure all works as it should, but also for final inspection. Somebody apparently made it a law, even down here in we-don't-need-no-damn-stinkin-laws Arizona.
Our satellite TV company had the best news. We are to pack our DVR and move it with us. They will suspend our account for up to 9 months, giving us time to settle in to a new address, and we don't pay for it. As soon as we find a location and set up, they'll service it there and make sure our box sends the right signals to the right places so we can watch the same things we watch now. Our contract starts up again after 9 months even if we have no place to set it up, and we finish out our two (contracted) years, or go longer if we choose. You know, if the competing company doesn't have a better offer by then.
Work on house repairs haven't exactly followed the original plan either. I'd called an electrician our realtor recommended. The carport outside light with motion sensor finally works again, thanks to his visit. Rich had made enough (unrequested) alterations to the original that nothing worked. As a result he ran an extension cord out under the door to power a different set-up. It also let bugs and outside temperature in, and kept the door from solidly locking most of the time since the weatherstripping resisted making room for that sturdy cord. Objects "mysteriously" disappeared from that room on a fairly regular basis. Today the cord is gone, the door locks, and best of all, the light fixture works, including the motion sensor! It just wasn't the electrician I'd called last week who came and did it.
I called the number given by our realtor as a referral, and the man who answered agreed that it was his name and he'd be out Monday morning at 8 AM, the same time, incidentally, as our bathroom restoration people, now already set up and making incredible noise. I needed to run an errand which would enable me to do more packing. By a bit after 9, he hadn't showed, so I called asking for his ETA so I could plan my timing.
He'd never heard of me! His name was different, but he had heard from my realtor that I was having him do the job and was hoping I would follow through. When could he come over? We agreed he would come right over, I'd run my errand, my two guys would point out what/where he was needed for, and I'd be back to pay him. I left wondering whether I'd have two electricians here when I returned, fighting over the job, or whether I'd been punked. Or if he had. Anyway the work was great, the price reasonable, and I still had a single check in my check pad to pay him with. (He didn't take credit cards, but Venmo??? LOL Cash? OK then, a check.) Anyway, the rest of my checks are packed, so it's actual cash, credit card, or online bill paying from now on. Once north, and an address to use, I can get new checks which I'll need anyway now that my credit union merged and has a new name. FYI the first check written on that check pad was in '20! Long time in use, eh?
The bathroom remodel won't be offering us a shower today as planned. We'll have to wait till Thursday, early morning. It seems that four of their customers have their shower doors on back order. Good news is all else will be functioning, the toilet is seated properly again - already! -and water back on till the next bit of plumbing. The shower enclosure is gorgeous! And the slight delay actually gives the shower adhesives more time to dry and strengthen. They can pick up the doors at 5:30 AM and be here by 6, when I assured him we'd be up and moving, before they hit their next job just a few blocks away. We still will have the other shower functioning, so it's just a matter of scheduling who gets it when. With two toilets working again, we can figure it out even with 5 people for a week.
Richard is enjoying his budget from the moving sale. He has a place to go to for a week at least, once we're gone, funds to rent storage for a few months so he doesn't have to lose all his belongings, or at least not right away.
And even with all the rescheduling of plans, one thing was done well for timing. Steve and I changed our addresses to start on the 2nd. We might be here or have left late on the first. But the mail will be heading north. We won't miss any because something came after we left. And after a discussion, Steve and I may even leave Friday the 1st - after mail delivery - to get a head start on our trip out. We plan to stay a couple days with his brother, and the more of that which is on a weekend, the more we'll see of him and the kids who are mostly still in school, than we would on, say, a Monday and Tuesday.
But a good friend just reminded me of the old saying about when you make plans, God just laughs.
No comments:
Post a Comment