New Home! Sweet Home! New Home!

Well this time I have a very good excuse to my lack of blogging in recent days! I'VE MOVED!! Finally! I closed at the end of June and finally weeks later, I'm in my new house! It's sooo exciting! I have to say it was the smoothest thing (a lot of work but the smoothest process) I've done in a while! Thank God for my Dad who came to help me a little bit. I'm officially all moved in, all unpacked and all the pictures are hung on the walls (and that was by Thursday night!) I am not usually one to brag but this is my blog and so I'm going to do it. I have never been more organized and efficient in my life during this move! We were sooo efficient that basically at the end of Wednesday (moving day!), all that was left was to hang the pictures in my room which was done Thursday afternoon!


Of course I shouldn't puff myself up too much because basically the only reason this was able to happen was because I discovered the best use of money ever. Two words: Professional movers. I'm telling you. It was worth every SINGLE penny! The company I went with, Town and Country Movers, were so incredibly excellent. A representative came by my old house a couple of weeks ago and gave me an estimate of six hours (which equaled a lot of money) but she was so nice and I was a sucker so I signed a contract to go with them. However, in the next couple of weeks, I was motivated to take as much stuff over to the new place as possible to reduce the amount of stuff the movers would take (i.e. saving time and more importantly money!) So when Javier and his two scrawny little dudes showed up on Wednesday morning, all they had to move was all my furniture and the 15 or so boxes of books. They were actually 15 minutes early and literally by 9:05, all the furniture in my first floor was not only on the truck but they wrapped everything in plastic to avoid scratches or rips on anything. They moved sooooo incredibly fast. My dad and I just watched in amazement and tried to stay out of their way. The little scrawny dudes each carried three boxes of books on their back at a time and they were HEAVY!! It was insane. I have a couple of pieces of furniture that are incredibly heavy on their own and I was told not to take the clothes out of the dressers or to remove the stuff in the cedar chest. Those were the only pieces where it required both scrawny dudes to carry. Everything was in place and the movers were completely done (after putting together the beds and making minor adjustments to the location of the furniture) in about TWO HOURS AND THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES! It was crazy!!! It was by far the best money I have ever spent because as soon as they left, my Dad and I went straight to work unpacking and by the end of the day all of the boxes were gone and most of the pictures were on the walls!!


Since becoming a home owner, I have also discovered the negative. And that would be having to deal with a homeowner's association. I've lived in my house for about six days and I've already had two run-ins with them. The first was actually before I moved. Long story short, I received a three page letter in the mail telling me I had violated the constitution and by-laws by having a weed on my patio. The letter came with two pages of pictures of the patio and the said weed and a threat that if I didn't take care of it in the next ten days, it would be a $50 fine. Seriously?!?!?! The amount of time spent putting together that letter and walking it to my mailbox (oh and I got a copy in the mail the next day) was at least ten times the amount of time it would have taken to pull the weed. And I didn't even live here yet! I made my thoughts known to the management office and told them I hoped they could figure out a better way to welcome people to the neighborhood than a threatening letter!!


My second run-in is actually in the process of being worked through so my bitterness level has receded quite a bit. Again, I'll try to make the long story short. But it apparently takes a committee to give permission to put up a dish outside for TV and it apparently takes the committee weeks to decide on cases, even though there are plenty of neighbors already with dish. At first they told me it would be 2-3 weeks but this morning I called again and begged since I sort of need TV for my job. They made an exception and called the committee chair of the property committee and he called this afternoon and I pleaded my case and he gave me the provisional nod. There are soooo many rules and regulations!! And I knew they would have to approve me!! Seriously?!?! Do they have to make things so difficult? But I am truly grateful that the chairman came by my house tonight (of course he was cute, and I was already in my PJs because I have nothing else to do but to go to bed early!! Oh well!) and he gave me some advice of where to tell the Direct TV to put the dish. My life will return to normal about 36 hours from now and I couldn't be happier. I thought I could survive but frankly, I've gotten pretty bored. I played the piano until my fingers hurt. I've napped. I've read. I've talked on the phone. There's just something about vegging in front of the TV that just makes life more normal!!


Here are some pictures of the new place! I hope you enjoy!!