Posted by kelley on Feb 28 2008 |
The house is redolent with the smells of industrious men with rollers and brushes. The painters have moved in to help our bedroom look more buyer neutral. Currently, it looks more like someone maniacal took after it with a sponge full of yellow. I don’t know what the fascination was about 10 years ago with yellow sponge painting, but the last two houses we’ve been in have had prominent rooms thusly decorated. Last time it was the kitchen and we, thankfully, had it painted before we arrived. This time it was the master bedroom and once your in, it’s very hard to move out, even for long enough to get a decent color on the walls.
Oddly, after a while you just start to ignore problems like this. Until someone points out that the playschool style mural on your son’s wall might not be the best thing to show to potential marks buyers, you don’t really think about it. We looked at it when we moved in and thought, “Okay, Aidan is a little old for that. Maybe we’ll paint over it after we get settled.” That was two years ago.
Monday the carpet guy arrives. Carpets are another one of those ‘yes, it really matters’ issues in moving. The carpets are definitely well-used and there are stains in places, but again, we didn’t really notice until someone said, “ewww”. So by Tuesday we’ll have a very tidy, attractive bedroom with new paint and carpet. If I didn’t know we were moving to Europe, I’d be moved to tears.
Posted by kelley on Feb 17 2008 |
Yesterday we had the first of (supposedly) two garage sales to try and shed some pounds before shipping out. It rained. It was cold. The misery of sitting in the garage, watching our stuff not sell, while running back and forth with tarps was heavy. We did sell some things. Sam let some of his tools go (the current/plug thing) and there was a bit of interest in books and electronics. But, all in all, we actually got rid of very little beyond the stuff we were giving away for free. We posted to austin.craigslist, saying we would be there again today.
Today was sunny and warm. So warm that I had to keep going indoors to shed layers and finally ended up in a t-shirt and jeans, barefoot. We put everything out, Sam went and replaced signs around the neighborhood, and we waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing. It seems that not being in the paper, especially as we live rather far North, is tantamount to not existing on the garage sale scene. We shed a few more freebies and about $.50 worth of toys. The rest we packed back into an admittedly cleaner garage. We’ll try again later.
In previous moves, we’ve done our best to organize and then said, “Screw it. We’ll sort it out when we get there.” However, moving across country is a bit more forgiving of this attitude than moving across an ocean. International movers figure your move by volume (how big a container you will need) *and* weight (how much time it will take to pack and how much space will be needed to truck it to port). Now, as it turns out, our move from Austin, TX to Leeds, UK will end up costing us a bit less than it cost us to move here from California. Yep, you read it right. It’s going to be cheaper to move overseas. And it’s not because we’re going to sell everything we own and eat off a card table when we get there. It’s because international shipping rates aren’t regulated the same way as domestic shipping rates. Therefore, it’s an extremely competitive market. This is very good for the family moving, as long as you follow some simple guidelines (and I’m not claiming to know all of them). One - Don’t deal with anyone not willing to do an in-home estimate. Two - Get at least three estimates and make sure and tell all of them who else you’ll be talking to. Three - Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. Door-to-door service. Packing services. Port fees. Custom fees. Damage insurance. There are a lot of factors and everyone who you talk to should be willing to answer all of your questions and come up with a few for you as well. I went so far as to ask for each companies US shipping license number, references from previous international clients, and how long they had been handling international moves. If they balk at any of those, walk away.
The first man who came was extremely nice, very professional, had an extensive moving brochure for me with checklists, and was generally willing to talk to me for as long as I needed information. He went through each room of the house with me and asked what we would be taking and what was staying. He made suggestions as to how we could get more in a smaller packing space, etc. He also noted that he would return, closer to the move, to reassess the amount to be moved, as he knows we’re in the process of sort and sell.
There are two other companies coming to bid this week. Then I’ll email everyone with everyone else’s bids and see what happens. It should be interesting to watch.
:)k
Posted by kelley on Feb 12 2008 |
Yesterday, our real estate agent Brandon told me he would like to start showing the house, off-list, in a couple of weeks. This sent me into a frenzy of tidy up and toss. It’s stunning how many little piles or containers of ’stuff’ there are around a house with a family of four who aren’t really very tidy to begin with…
At one point, I found myself wandering around the house with a pocket full of marbles and a hand full of lego bits, completely at a loss for where the containers were for either one. Having finally tracked those down, it occurred to me that by the time I have this place organized enough to show, I’m also going to have it pretty well organized to move. Two birds and all that. However, the getting there may tax my sanity.
Brandon tells me that you should only have one thing on each counter. Close your eyes and imagine your kitchen, your bathroom, your living room coffee table. Right. No real family ,who actually lives in their home, only has one thing on a counter. I worked it down in the kitchen to mostly one thing on every four feet of counter and called it a night. I was pooped.
The other thing that is happening in this process is that I’m deciding what is going to England and what is going elsewhere. Elsewhere will either be garage sales, friends, charity, trash. We’re having the first of (hopefully only) two garage sales this weekend. Electronics are somewhat useless in an oversees move, as the current and plugs are different. We can get transformers for some and swap power supplies for others, but mostly we’ll just be leaving a lot of the little things behind and some of the big ones for that matter. We won’t take the toaster oven, waffle maker, electric tea kettle, or the yogurt maker. Their too inexpensive to replace and carrying them over would be more trouble and money than they’re worth. We will take the stand mixer, food processor and blender. They cost more and I can probably get one transformer and a plug strip and keep them all on the same counter. This is how the reasoning goes.
Then there’s everything else. Do you really want to take that whatsit? How often do you use it? Will there be room for it in the new house? Do you have another that’s really a lot like it? How many sets of plates does a family need/want? How about tea mugs (many in our family)? What about mason jars? I do a lot of canning in the summers. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get them as readily over there. Priorities become a little round about and strange here. What about the cookie cutters?
This too shall pass and we’ll be that much lighter before we go. I’ll try hard to be honest with myself while not being too sneaky with the children. Some of their stuff will go and they won’t miss it but I won’t tell them we’re selling it either.
Tomorrow…carpets and paint and ‘why didn’t we do this when we moved in?’.
:)k
Posted by kelley on Feb 11 2008 |
There was the blog. Okay, some folks have suggested that a chronicle of our international move might be insightful, hysterical, and possibly garner us some sympathy. I know, I know….a lot of you are thinking, “You decided to hop the pond, knowing full well that you have 14 animals and two small children, not to mention a house full (over-full) of stuff.” Yes, life does what it does and we’re trying to keep up.
In planning this move, there were a whole host of things to consider. As it turns out, it’s a darned good thing that we’ve been talking about this for a year, otherwise there’s just no way we’d be ready to go. There are things that absolutely have to be started 6 months out. I suppose when folks get an overseas job and have to move quickly, the husband goes first and wife-dear gets to stay behind and see to the household. As it stands, that’s almost what is going to happen here and now. Sam has just started a new job with the company that will be taking us over, so most of the onus for the move and all it’s little joys will fall to me.
The first major ‘uh-oh’ has already occurred. I, being the on-the-ball, ahead-of-the-game, super-conscientious person that I am had a list. On the top of that list was buying the tickets to get us to England. Early purchase means lower prices and as it turned out, I scored us a great deal for $531 per person, one-way. There’s nothing like one-way tickets to inspire you to get going and get organized. I was happy and checked the little box next to “tickets” on my list of things to do. Then came the ‘uh-oh’. I called the airlines (having booked through Travelocity) to make arrangements for the cats to fly to England with us. Back in November, I had started their pre-quarantine process here. You can have their shots, etc done ahead of time and documented by a vet and then they don’t have to quarantine in the UK. But it has to start 6 months out. I figured I had jumped the hurdle on that one. Whoops. Getting the flights organized was much more complicated that I’d imagined. Turns out we needed to be in Chicago before noon because the cargo group that will handle the cat’s immigration (emigration?) closes at 2pm. And it would be less expensive to fly Fri/Sat because the receiving office for animals isn’t open on Sunday, so we’d have to pay overtime to have someone there to hand us the cats off the plane. So, I changed the tickets to the tune of $180 per person (ouch), booked the cats in with the cargo company, and called to arrange to get them from Austin to Chicago. Next irritation. The woman on the phone tells me that that particular plane only allows for one animal in the hold per flight. Aaaaahhhhh…I’m trying to not scream while explaining to this woman that we have to find a way because these are our pets and we’re not coming back. She was rather unsympathetic. At some point I said, “Well if only one is allowed in the hold, can I carry the other on the plane with me?” Turns out that that is totally doable. Okay, jack-ass, why didn’t she mention that in the first place. Makes you want to scream and tear your hair. So, finally, the cats are on the flight from Austin to Chicago as well. All of this took around 6 hours on the phone. However, since I checked first with a local service that will take care of all of this for you for a mere $3800-$5000, I felt pretty good about saving over half that, even after changing the tickets.
Posted by kelley on Jan 17 2008 |
Okay…the idea of a furnace war in Texas is a little absurd; however, when I went out this morning it was well below freezing and it’s only up to 30 degrees F right now and we still haven’t turned on the heater this winter. 
When we moved into this house there was a lovely gas log set-up in the fireplace. Beautiful ceramic logs with very realistic coloring glowed whenever you lit the line of gas vents underneath. The heat was lovely, but, there was no smell, no sound and our gas bill for the one month we had it on was…wait for it…$150 higher than the month before when we didn’t use the fireplace at all. Aack.
This year we took out the lovely ceramic logs. Sam removed the gas burner and capped the line. We bought a 1/4 cord of oak and collected all the pecan from the yard (very self-pruning trees) and we’ve had a fire in the fireplace. Now, I know Mr Green would like us to have a stove or burn a cleaner fuel, but we’re working one step at a time. Right now, we’re not using fossil fuels and I count that as a bonus. If we make it to spring without the heater, I’ll be really excited. If we’re having a furnace war, I suppose it’s against ourselves. Hazzah!
:)k
Posted by kelley on Dec 25 2007 |
Done…D O N E. I just finished the last present and tucked it under the tree. I went sneaky, sneaky into the kids rooms to put their stockings at the foot of their beds. There are other things I would have liked to have done, but the list of presents is finished and I’m off to bed. Happy Christmas!
Posted by kelley on Dec 05 2007 |
Okay…those (very few) of you who actually read my blog are going to find today amusing. This is post #3. And this is Mitten #1. Aidan’s and there are cut fingers under that green flip-top. I had to be somewhat sneaky to get his hand measurements since these are supposed to be for Christmas. I’m damned happy with them. k
Posted by kelley on Dec 05 2007 |
Pretty, isn’t it? Not saying who, not saying what…just a nice photo.
Posted by kelley on Dec 05 2007 |
Okay…they’re not the most brilliant mittens in the world, but it’s really hard to make cut-top gloves with a flip-top for a four-year-old. I’m working on Aidan’s now and the gusset is a little more elegant. Cass will love these. She’s fond of novelty yarns and although this is actually a pretty nice fiber, it does have a loopy effect.
:)k
Posted by kelley on Nov 25 2007 |
This is what happens when I’m stuck on the couch with a cold for the day. I’m in an eternal quest for resilient fibers (with some memory) with which to make things for my wool-sensitive son. He, like me, can’t quite stand to have wooly-ness next to his forehead, neck or hands. But using cotton makes for stretched out garments with no spring and little warmth. This hat is a blend of Acrylic (sigh), wool and polyestere (that’s how it’s spelled on the label). Doesn’t itch me…we’ll see how he likes it. It’s pretty. k
