Mormon Monday: Patience, Faith, and Our New House

We are officially moved into our new home. All of our boxes are not unpacked and I still can't find Kevin's bedsheets, but most of the essentials have been found.

Kevin loves the new house!

On Friday the 6th of February, we closed the sale, but it turned out that we couldn't record until Monday, because the seller's papers hadn't been over-nighted on time. So, we were able to sign. However, we couldn't do anything until we found out what the sellers would allow us to do. Often they won't allow you to move in just in case something goes wrong. We had been planning to start cleaning the new house that night, but we didn't hear back about what we could do until later Friday evening.  So, Friday evening we tried to finish packing everything. It was kind of stressful not knowing, but things seemed to be working out, so I had faith. It wouldn't have mattered that much except that my parents were planning on picking up a few things from Idaho and helping us move over the weekend. Not being able to even put anything in the garage until Monday would have really messed up our plans.

However, we finally received permission to clean the house and move a few things into the garage, but we couldn't move anything into the house until the home was 'officially' ours on Monday. We informed my parents.

Saturday morning we had a miracle. We had decided that we were going to have to get an extra day with the uhaul, which the website had informed me would be an extra $40. We decided we would have to be okay with that, since we couldn't empty the truck until Monday. However, when my parents went to pick up the truck, they gave them the extra day for free! That was a huge blessing.

So, Saturday we went to the new house and cleaned until my parents came later in the afternoon with the moving van. We unloaded my parents' old piano, new washer, dryer, and dishwasher that we had purchased, and a few boxes of mine that they had brought from storage. Once the truck was empty, we took it over to our apartment and basically loaded everything up. There were a few things left when we were done, but the van was pretty much full. We had a lot of family help us out. My two younger brothers came, along with my younger sister and her boyfriend. Grig's brother came to assist as well. My grandma and grandpa also helped us out a lot, and cooked some meals for us. Everyone took turns taking care of Kevin.

Our garage full of boxes!

After we fished loading up and bought a lock for the uhaul door, we went to my grandparents' home and had dinner with them. They surprised me with a little birthday party. It wasn't my birthday yet, but my parents weren't going to be there for the actual day, so they had a cake and a present waiting for me. It was a nice surprise.

Honestly, I'd kind of forgotten about my birthday with everything else that was going on.

Happy birthday to me!

Once the party was over and my parents had left to travel back to Idaho, Grig and I were very tired. However, we mustered up some energy and went and shampooed the new carpets so they would be dry when we unloaded on Monday. Then we bug-bombed the uhaul and came back to my grandparents' home. They had kindly offered to let us stay with them over the weekend while all of our belongings were in the uhaul.

We had a nice relaxing Sabbath. Honestly, I think everyone should have a day off between moving. It makes the following day much less stressful. We went to church in our new ward and met a lot of awesome people. We even had a few volunteer to help us move the next day.

Monday, my grandma, my aunt, and I went and worked on cleaning out the old apartment. They were very kind to come and help me with it. They also loaned us their truck to put the last of our stuff in. I worked on the apartment all day, but by 2:30, we still hadn't gotten the go-ahead to move in. I was getting worried. We'd asked for help around 4:30, but if we didn't receive the official word that the home was ours, we wouldn't be able to unpack that day either.

Finallly, at 3:30, as we'd almost finished everything in the apartment, we received the word.

The house was ours! I finished up a couple more things and then drove over to meet Grig there as he got off work. We got the utilities put in our names, and at 4:30, everyone else showed up to help. We had quite a few people from our new ward, my grandparents, and my uncle's family. It went really quickly, and we were sure glad for the extra help when we had to move the piano, entertainment center, and washer and dryer downstairs. Soon, the trucks were unloaded, and we thanked everyone.

Our good friends came with our dogs (whom they had been tending) and dinner. We had a couple of problems with the new gas oven that came with the house, and trying to remove the dishwasher, but we finally quit for the night. We were going to try and finish up the other apartment, but by the time we finished eating with our neighbors, we had to get to bed. Grig had work the next morning at 4. So, we thanked our neighbors and traveled back to our new home. We set up the bed and slept in our new house for the first time!

Tuesday, I woke up at 4 with Grig and started unpacking. Then, at 8:30 a.m., Kevin and I returned the uhaul before it was due. My aunt picked us up from there in my grandparents' truck, and then we dropped her off at her house, and I went and finished cleaning out the apartment. My grandma came after a while and took Kevin, which made it a lot easier to finish cleaning. Basically, all I had left was the fridge and the kitchen floor. I finished quickly, and then I turned in our keys and said goodbye to our manager. She's been great!

Then, I went to my grandparents' home, and they loaded up the ladder and some lunch. We all drove back to our new house and they helped me clean out the rain gutters and install the dishwasher. It took a long time, and we didn't quite finish with the dishwasher by the time they had to leave. However, we got the old one taken out (which we had thought was a gas-dishwasher, but actually wasn't) and had almost finished installing the new one. We were just missing a part, which we got the next day.

The yard looks much better!

Wednesday, we finished the dishwasher and raked a bit. Kevin and Arkhon really enjoyed the backyard. Grig took me out for dinner that night to a place with really good Indian food.

Thursday, I cleaned out the old caulking on the tub rim and re-caulked the tub. We called and scheduled our internet to get set up, and that night we went shopping for a few things that we needed.

The dogs enjoy the leaf piles.

Friday, we had internet again! It was hard to be without it for a week. I hadn't realized how much of my budgeting depends on internet. In the afternoon, my grandparents came and helped us install the washer and dryer. It was sure nice to have appliances that worked! Grig also did a lot of pruning out side. We've had incredible weather this week! It's been in the high 60s. They joined us for lunch and that night we relaxed a little bit and enjoyed our new house. We also watched a movie. Grig has wanted to show me the 1962 version of Manchurian Candidate for a long time, so we finally watched it that night. It was very interesting and well-done.

Saturday we finished up a few more errands and unpacked a few more things. We had some friends come over for a little while too. Grig and I remembered vaguely that it was Valentine's Day, but we're having a dual Valentine's Day/Anniversary celebration soon.

Yesterday we had a pretty relaxing day. We went to our new ward again, and had a great time.

Sometimes it has been a week that has tried my faith and patience, but things had worked out well. I'm so grateful for our new house. We're making some good improvements, and it already looks a ton better! We love it here, and we've seen so many miracles as we've been directed to move here.

Also, we bought a new movie camera! Expect more videos soon!

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