I’ve moved around quite a bit. However, I have been a pampered and spoiled mover. I’ve heard that moving is supposed to rank right up there with the most stressful things in life. It wasn’t the case for me as I moved from country to country around the world. You see, when you work with international schools, they pay to have your things packed up and they cover most of the costs of the move (depending on how much stuff you have collected on the journey). So, my moves have been relatively easy.
The same story was true when I moved from Belgium to Ohio. It was painless. And, I had everything arranged, placed, hung, and stored in my condo in three days. Piece of cake!
Alas, that wasn’t the case with my most recent move.
I knew I had a lot of furniture. My condo was rather spacious and filled with my treasures. Then, when my brother sold our family home and moved in with me, I found places for eleven more pieces of furniture. It was like a puzzle to figure out where to fit everything, but I like puzzles. On top of that, I’ve gathered a lot of cedar/treasure/storage chests along the way. I use them to store the egg ornaments I continue to create every year for my Christmas tree. And, I always bring something home with me when I travel for my murals.
So, I have stuff. Lots of stuff.
I called three different moving companies for estimates. One gave me a bid that was way out of my range. The other two were in the same ballpark of price range. However, when my HOA messed up and delayed my new home purchase by two weeks, one of the estimators, Austin, said he’d pray for me. It sealed the deal for me. I was going to have College H.U.N.K.S. move me.
Remember how I said that my previous movers packed up everything? I didn’t realize that the service was at $300 to $400 an hour. I’d already packed up my most fragile display pieces. But, when I heard about that rate, I decided to save as much as possible and pack up my own bathroom, kitchen, office, and closets. I foolishly assumed it might take perhaps five or so boxes to do this.
Silly me!
I ended up going to my local Kroger grocery to collect boxes from the produce section. Banana boxes were especially wonderful, and I gathered close to forty of them over the course of my packing! By the time I finished, there were aisles for me to stroll through my condo instead of the grocery.
I was blessed with several people who said they would help me transport my more fragile items in caravans. To fit everyone’s schedules, we did this over the course of three days. All in all, it was about ten vehicles making their way to Mt. Vernon. And, it’s a very good thing that we did this. On moving day, a very large truck with three sweaty College H.U.N.K.S. showed up to transport my treasures. When they were done loading up my goodies, they couldn’t get everything in the truck. It still required three more carloads on my part.
Now, seriously, who has too much stuff?
I will never know how I sorted through my condo and set everything up in three days. That certainly wasn’t the case this time. It has now been three weeks! In this amount of time, I have sorted through all the banana boxes and assorted totes and other boxes from friends. Most items were stored around my dining room and upstairs bedroom that was my official junk room. It has taken all this time to unload, recycle boxes, reload some totes for the basement, and display all of my goodies. I was very spoiled in my condo. I had a wall of display casing in my living room. In my new place, there isn’t so much area for display, and I didn’t downsize at all in this move.
As if the actual moving process wasn’t stressful enough, there was the whole process of selling my condo and finding a new home. It took 19 days for my condo to go under contract. Not bad at all when you consider my home in Belgium took about nine months. That’s when I packed up my fragile goodies. And then, eleven days later, the buyer backed out. Because of that, I lived for two months with my home packed up as an empty shell.
My realtor said it would be good to take the condo off the market for a month so it could be considered a new listing. We did that. Then, after I was gone from the place, my condo would be repainted ($4000) and staged ($1500). My realtor assured me that “pretty sells”. I have to admit, the clean white walls and elegant furniture didn’t look anything like my home. And, it was pretty.
In the meantime, I tried to find a place in Mt. Vernon for me to love. I’m picky. No surprise there. I wanted an historic home in the city center. Those homes are over 100 years old. And, I found a lovely Victorian home that I loved. I placed a bid on it contingent with the sale of my condo. When my sale fell apart, so did my contingency.
At that time, I’d never heard of bridge loans. But, I know about them now. It’s a loan to carry you over between the sale of one place so you can afford another. It sounds wonderful, but if the place doesn’t sell in six months, they buy the home for a drastic cut in market price that would be just devastating.
Anyway, I got my bridge loan and found another historic home that is perfect for me. The style of the place is called Four Corner architecture. It was built as a cheaper home than a Victorian, but it still has its charm. My antiques look lovely in it. However, I have learned a thing or two about old homes. They don’t have closet space like I’m used to. The downstairs doesn’t even have a closet for coats! But, at each entry there are hooks for hats and coats. I have them filled and more go in the bedroom closet.
Currently, I’m paying condo fees in Columbus as well as utilities for both places. My realtor turned on the air-conditioning in the condo so buyers wouldn’t swelter. I’ve not turned it on in Mt. Vernon. With all the money I’ve spent, last weekend I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake, a mistake that was too late to reverse. Of course, it didn’t help that I got a letter marked “final notice” about the loan on Saturday. I stressed all weekend over it.
On Monday morning, I called my loan guy. He told me it was a scam letter. I told him that he was going to be the Number One highlight of my day. Then, I heard from my realtor. The condo went back on the market over the weekend, and I had an offer. Yes, pretty sells. At this point, any offer was an offer that I wouldn’t refuse. My lone guy dropped to Number Two on my list of the best things that happened to me that day. My condo had an inspection. Of course, little things were found. But, at this moment, as far as I know, final papers for the sale will be July 6. That’s very, very, wonderfully soon!
My new home still has bare walls. I’ve not had time yet to hang anything. But, I’m almost ready for that now. And, at that moment, it will finally be Home, Sweet, Home.
