Today, I started on the master bedroom.
Wow.
I focused first on the “linen” closet. There was also a row of shelves with cloths I wanted to empty.
Part way through, as I pulled items down from higher in the closet, I was perplexed by the sound if things hitting the carpet, like rain. I eventually clued in that it was mouse shit.
Joy. I guess I should have been wearing mask and gloves.
Feels like a long day today… and it’s not even 7pm as I start this.
We did a whole lot of water heating this morning to be able to wash up. I dug around a cupboard and found a stock pot. After cleaning out the dead bugs, it was a big help in getting decent quantities of water heated.
It’s actually a good pot. Part of a newer set. A cannibalized set, seeing as how there seems to be only one lid, and I’m not even sure that’s part of the set.
I now have two pots to cook with, along with the frying pans my husband and daughter bought. Yay!
There have been some other finds along the way. We have generally been avoiding the kitchen cupboards as much as possible. My older daughter spotted this today.
We have ghosts in a jar in our cupboard?
We managed to all make the trip into The City today. Unfortunately, my husband misunderstood our breaker issues and didn’t realize it wasn’t on anymore. He showered. The water got so cold, it was painful.
Growing up in the house, I remember before the New Part was built, and we had no running water. So I can at least appreciate we don’t have to haul water from the pump shack every day. We can easily, if inconveniently, heat water for bathing. Theoretically, we can go to my brother’s place. He has generously offered the use of his shower. None of us are quite ready to travel the quarter mile to infringe on him, though. It would be too difficult for my husband, anyhow. Especially since he has not been able to fill one of his prescriptions for pain meds. There has been a screw up on his insurance and until it gets fixed, we can’t afford it. This makes any outing, like today’s, incredibly difficult. But he got to see his dad. So he was willing. He just stayed in the van for the rest of the trip.
The girls bought their paint and supplies for the upstairs. Some more hauling, patching and scrubbing the walls, and they are ready to go.
We got a Costco trip in, too, so we are stocked up for the next while. I even got more filters for the fish tank. They will last long enough for our 90 gallon tank to get here. During packing, a part of the big filter’s hose assembly broke, so we won’t be able to set it up completely until I find someplace that stocks the brand.
After discussion, we have decided we can be ready enough to have our stuff delivered by around the eighth. Originally, we were thinking the eleventh or so. However, we really need our stuff. One pot cooking and having only one useable kitchen knife – barely – is getting a bit much. Plus, it will be nice to have the rest of our clothing. And our own beds! I’ve been sleeping on the couch lately. My husband is spasming and twitching from pain so much in his sleep, he needs the whole bed.
Meanwhile, I just have to share another cat picture. I fed the outside cars before we left, and they did this.
For some reason, they all crowded around the one bowl and ignored the other. Lol
Now that we have internet, I am going to try and share some video I took in another post. Uploads on satellite are notoriously slow, so if you don’t see the video post, that’s because it failed! 😅
The Re-farmer
I am now posting this using our new internet connection!
The top speed is supposed to be 10mbps, but the guy says average is 6-8mbps. My husband has a speed tested on his phone.
He was getting 14.
Yay!
We still need to be careful, as our plan maxes out at 100g of data per month. So no World of Warcraft. But my daughter will be able to upload her art.
Now we can reduce the extremely expensive data plan on our phones that we were using to connect with (only my husband’s LG phone got a strong enough connection for the WiFi hot spot).
No more waving our phones around in the corner of the living room, trying to get a signal.
I’m so excited! Finally!!!
The Re-farmer
Well, it’s official. I have completely finished clearing one room on the second floor. (My daughter has pretty much finished the entire 3rd floor.) It is now going to hold boxes that are packed and ready for the movers, as well as a few other things. Not the box spring in the photo, though. It’s damaged, and is waiting to be hauled out, along with two others we discovered were broken.
One of the things my mother dangled in front of us to entice us to move was the offer to pay for the movers. She has followed through with that promise, to our great appreciation. It simply would not be possible, otherwise.
The problem is that, because of the shortened time line, things we expected to be able to set money aside for slowly, over several months, aren’t going to happen. What we have is it. There is no more coming in until after the move. Our total of funds must not only cover the cost of the movers, basic living expenses (like groceries at both ends of the move), stocking up on prescriptions until we can get a new doctor, etc, but also the extra costs in fuel for the drive out, travel food, and those million and one little things that add up, unexpectedly. I’ve moved often enough to know what to expect.
Movers charge by weight. I got estimates based on the average weight for a 5 bedroom home, which is about 10,000 pounds. We are going to a smaller home, so I got updated estimates for the smaller size, since we would have to pare things down. Based on those numbers, we should be good. Even including the weight of our heirloom piano, plus surcharges for the piano and the (soon to be empty) aquarium.
Then I got two in home estimates. One by estimated weight, the other a flat rate.
Despite pointing out all the stuff we would NOT be taking with us (almost all the furniture, plus a lot of other stuff we would be getting rid of), we were still told the weight would be 10,000 – 12,000 pounds. When I questioned that, I was told he had been doing this for 20 years and was sure, based on experience. I also asked for the cost of a full pack, which was based on the same weight. The base cost alone was more than we have. The packing fee was completely out of budget.
The flat rate guy was actually a higher base cost, because he factored in the distance, plus packing fees were an hourly rate. And he estimated two days to pack everything.
We aren’t going with either company.
My older daughter and I have been purging like crazy. The only way to bring the cost down is to bring the weight down. Between the boxes and bins and bags we have already given away, donated, shredded and thrown out, I’m a bit surprised by how little is left to pack. And some if it will be going with us in the van for the drive out, not with the movers. We will also be packing as much as possible ourselves, so that if there is anything left for the movers to pack, it won’t add more than a couple hundred dollars.
In my head, I know there is no way this move is going to be 10,000 pounds. I doubt we were ever that much to begin with. We should be fine.
That isn’t stopping me from being in an almost constant state of low anxiety over it.
For the most part, I can look at the explosion that is the current state of our home, and know that most of what we are sifting through is not going with us. Intellectually, I know we will be fine. And I know I tend to over estimate. The last time we had stuff hauled between provinces, I had estimated the weight and figured the cost out to be $1000. The reality turned out to be half that. But in the back of my head is that constant niggling paranoia. Those two high estimates are completely overriding the much more reasonable estimates I got.
In the end, we will not know for sure until the movers go through the government scales, which is what they use to base the final cost on.
And that uncertainty is like a worm, wriggling away in the back of my mind.
All I can do is just keep on purging.
The Re-farmer.
The Re-Farmer 