dianaschnuth

Nine years ago, when we moved from BG to Toledo, I didn’t have my camera with me to document the move. Now, I have a cameraphone — hell, who am I kidding? I have a handheld computer with an on-board camera that kicks the crap out of the digital camera I didn’t own until 2005.

At any rate, I took a ton of pictures this time around, and I’ll let them do most of the talking.

Normal rise time for me. Stupid crazy early for Aaron.

Even Connor thought it was a little early.

We planned this on a daycare day on purpose. NO WAY would this have worked with him underfoot (and without a place for him to nap). Daycare drop-off was smoother than usual, and we were the first ones there after his teacher.

With Connor gone, we had a good hour and a half before the movers arrived. Time for Aaron to shower, us to pack the end of our essentials, and to get Mei shuttled over to the new place (again, to keep her from being underfoot).

By this point, she knew something was up. Sheryl arrived with the cat carrier (and some much-needed Tim Horton’s) at 8am, at which point Mei’s world got seriously fucked.

We left Mei in the main floor full bath for the duration of the move. She was none too pleased with the whole situation, and spent the majority of the day hiding behind the toilet.

Sheryl and I returned from dropping Mei off at the new house (and swinging past Sheryl’s house to plug in her crock pot) to find the move already underway. We jumped into action to finish up the few things we needed to do: put the mattresses in mattress bags, scour the house for things forgotten (like the shelf on the bathroom wall), and eventually set up the light timers.

Break time! As if we actually did any work ourselves. It was mainly standing around and watching the four guys schlep our belongings out to the truck. And staying out of their way, mainly by hanging out in the kitchen and talking.

Our living room. Empty, except for a couple of lamps and a toolbox. Oh, and the three of us.

We all caravaned over to the storage unit down the street, where we kept the furniture that Aaron inherited from his Dad’s estate. I shot this photo of the field across the street while we were all waiting for the two moving trucks to line up and get underway.

At this point, all our earthly possessions were packed into two moving trucks, and about to be driven across town to sit for an hour while we all had lunch. Sheryl and I made one last trip to the old house to snag the rest of the food from the fridge and do a last check that we hadn’t forgotten anything. (Which we did, anyway: the butter in the fridge. Eww.)

By the way? The photo below shows a mark where we kept our TV for eight years. That’s not a permanent black mark; that’s cat hair. (Again, eww.)

Speaking of the cat… this was how we found her nearly every time we checked on her during the course of the day. She had food, water, toys, blankets, litter box… Even so, she wasn’t coming out from behind that toilet.

We dropped off the fridge food at the house, then went to lunch at Potbelly, per Sheryl’s suggestion. I’d never been, and neither had Aaron. We were both impressed with the size and deliciousness of their sandwiches, in addition to the live music.

We hit up Starbucks on our way back to meet the movers at the new house. Sheryl dropped us off around 2:15-ish and had to bail, as she was expecting company that evening. Thanks, Sheryl! You made the morning go more smoothly.

The next five hours or so was spent directing movers to put stuff in various rooms of our new house. Some of the boxes were properly labeled with what room they went in, others with just the contents. Things mostly got where they needed to be, and they mostly got there without incident.

The movers weren’t done by the time I had to go pick up Connor from daycare, so they had to pull out the truck and momentarily block traffic so I could pull out onto the road and be on my way.

Connor had a great last day at daycare, and I got Ms. Allison to let me take one final picture to remember them by.

When we got home, there was still about 45 minutes of stuff-wrangling… which meant 45 minutes of Connor-wrangling to keep him out from underfoot. I mainly kept him in his room upstairs, where he checked out what his crib looks like when it’s disassembled.

Finally, finally, the move was just about done. Aaron went with the movers to swap out the older-model washer and dryer from new house back to old house, and I was left alone with Connor and Mei.

Aaron returned with dinner (Indian take-out from Star of India — seems to be our go-to for major life events lately, as Sheryl brought us the same thing on Connor’s first evening home from the hospital).

We were all exhausted, but Aaron went upstairs and got Connor’s crib together so we could put him down. After we got Connor in bed, we put our own bed together (after a few false starts) and decompressed a little while before my body shut down and I passed the eff out.

The next morning, I was pleased to find that Mei was no longer quite so freaked, and had explored the house enough to find our bedroom and snuggle up next to my legs.

I was also pleased to find that, after I went to bed, Aaron finished setting up the living room — including the large-span baby gate — so we’d have at least one room of the house that wasn’t a chaotic mess of boxes.

As I write this, we’ve been in the house for four full days. The kitchen and dining room are unpacked; the office is usable, if not quite finished, as are the bedrooms; and the family room and Aaron’s game room are still a maze of boxes and mismatched furniture.

It’s going to be a while before we’re totally settled in, but we’re willing to take our time and do it right. We’re also still figuring out our new flow, and re-establishing old routines in a new space. It’s weird, but cool.

And so concludes The Schnuth Move of 2013. You’re invited to come see the place… as soon as it doesn’t look like U-Haul threw up in our family room.