We have officially moved in to the beach house! And the whole experience was...adventurous. It started with the house not being quite finished when we rolled into town. But ready or not, the movers were on their way. We were moving in anyway. My brother arrived into town late Thursday evening. His plan was to sleep on the floor at the house, but when he talked to our contractor, he was thrown a little kink in the plan: the hardwood floors had just been sealed that afternoon and couldn't be walked on. Ruh-roh. Luckily, our contractor had a friend that had an available carriage house and, long story short, my brother suddenly had a place to sleep. I guess in the end, that kink wasn't so bad since he ended up with a bed instead of a sleeping bag on the floor.
Doc and I had driven late Thursday night and made it more than halfway. We woke up bright and early Friday morning and headed to Pensacola so he could have a quick work meeting. The meeting didn't last long and we were quickly back on the road. We were in town meeting up with my brother shortly before noon. We were just as surprised as Nick as the lengthy list of things still left to do. At least people were there working away.
The construction cleaning lady was there tidying everything up. She did everything from vacuuming up sawdust to wiping down surfaces to scraping stickers off the new windows.
The painters were also at the house working on the stair rail.
Feeling good about the progress that was being made, Doc, Nick and I headed out to grab some lunch. We took our time since there really wasn't much we could do at the house and we definitely didn't want to be in anyone's way.
I wish I could say that when we arrived back from lunch, everything was spic and span and the house was complete. Instead, we arrived back to a completely deserted house. No workers and an empty house. Nick had picked up a couple of bikes from Target that morning, so we killed time by cruising around the neighborhood. We were in constant contact with my parents who had left their house early that morning and would be arriving sometime that afternoon. The moving truck (and two movers who we affectionally named Frick and Frack) had also left that morning and the main office put their estimated arrival time between noon and 2pm. After traveling all morning with no calls from Frick and Frack, my parents finally got ahold of them around 1pm and found out they were at least an hour behind them. They (my parents) wouldn't make it to town until around 3, so we weren't banking on seeing the moving truck before 4. We settled in for a long afternoon wait.
A few months ago, we purchased a table from World Market and, since our house wasn't ready at the time, our contractor offered to store it at his office until move-in day. That got delivered around 2:30 so Nick and Doc finally had something to do. They got to work putting the table, benches, and chairs together.
I'll admit that at one point in the afternoon, I got so bored that I grabbed my snuggie and went upstairs to a carpeted bedroom to take a nap. You can only wander around an empty house for so long.
Shortly after my parents arrived, a big moving truck turned down our street! Only it wasn't the moving truck. Rats. This one was a delivery truck from a local furniture store where we'd purchased a tv armoire. We'd scheduled the delivery for Friday and they were right on time.
This piece actually came from a second-hand furniture store that my parents found when they were at the beach before Thanksgiving. This was my first time to see it in person and I was more than pleased with their purchase.
For anyone keeping score, it was now around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and all we had was a dining table and tv armoire in our unfinished house. Not winning. Our neighborhood association only allows moving trucks in the neighborhood until 6pm during the week, so we started scrambling to get permission to move-in after hours. The head of the HOA understood our delimma and gave us the green light to do what we needed to do. With still no Frick and Frack in sight, we treated ourselves to some dinner.
The guys were so hungry they couldn't even stop eating to take a decent picture.
After scarfing down pizza, my mom gave up on the movers and left to go get groceries for the weekend. As luck would have it, they pulled up right after she left! 6:45pm and our furniture was finally in town. The guys were more than ready to get this show on the road, so they hopped on the truck, grabbed some furniture, and got to moving.
I stood at the door and pointed everyone to the right location for whatever they were carrying in. From my vantage point, I can safely say that my dad, brother, and husband definitely double-timed it compared to the two movers. What were they doing after taking their piece of furniture upstairs? This was no time for a break!
The living room was the catchall room for things that didn't have a set home. It filled up very quickly.
And it was a good thing we'd already had dinner because there was no longer any room for eating in the kitchen.
The mattresses and box springs were at the very back (front?) of the truck, so we knew as soon as they came off, we were almost done. Here they come...hooray!
It took the movers 3 hours to load the truck up the night before, and with the help of my boys, it all came off in 45 minutes flat. This is what real furniture movers look like.
Poor Doc was battling a bad cold too and did not feel well at all. I felt really bad for him because you know he can't halfway do anything.
Even though we were exhausted (and it was barely 8 o'clock!), we unwrapped the couches, unrolled the rug, and semi-set up the living room so we could collapse and finally sit (on furniture!) for a few minutes. Guess who was the first to try out the new love seat? This guy.
Yep, my parents brought ol' Henry along for the trip. (We left Lolli with some friends.) Henry had stood guard and barked and whined at the movers the whole time, so we was pretty worn out too. He gave the new couch and love seat his seal of approval.
With no blinds (ordered, but not in yet) or curtains on the windows, we knew we better go to bed soon. We'd be up with the sun the next day. Showers were necessary since we were so stinky. I'm sure my parents thought they were lucky by getting the master bedroom and bath, but considering the bathroom has two large windows in it and backs right up to our neighbor's house, they found themselves in a bit of a situation. Especially since my mom is a bath-taker, not a showerer, and one window was right beside the bathtub. I'm pretty sure the neighbors weren't home, but waving to them from the tub was not a risk she was willing to take. Her solution? A bath in the pitch dark.
Originally, our rental company was going to drop linens and towels off at our house on move-in day. Because the movers were so late, they rescheduled to bring them the following day. Doc and I (and my brother too) were completely prepared for this. We brought our own towels and a set of sheets (Nick had his sleeping bag and a blanket). My parents? Not so much. They didn't bring anything. Doc and I were very generous and gave them one of our two towels to use, although the thought of them having to drip-dry after their shower/bath in the dark would've been pretty funny.
They didn't have sheets for their bed but we did have the mattress pad, blanket, and quilt. We made them a pallet on top of the mattress and they said they'd be fine. My mom reported back that by the time morning rolled around, my dad had managed to get under the mattress pad and slept on the bare mattress. Only my dad.
I didn't intend to drag day one out this long, but what's done is done. I'll try to go through the next days a little more quickly and I promise that a home tour will be at the end of it all, so stick around!