Moving Memories From Two Years Ago

In recent weeks, my Microsoft OneDrive memory feed has reminded me of our move into our new home in late July 2019. I had this blog on hiatus for a couple of weeks in that time frame, so I didn’t post about some of our moving experiences.

There was some doubt about whether the new house would be ready because the builder fell behind on certain aspects—the painters were backed up, the hardwood floors were barely dry, and the sodding and landscaping were just days in the ground. But the purchasers of our old house needed occupancy of that dwelling by August 1 because their prior home had sold and they needed to vacate it. Such are the domino effects of home sales. Thus, we couldn’t let the closing date on our new home and shift by more than a few days.

Our moving company sent its packers on July 25, 2019, to pack up everything we had not yet put into boxes. They were done by around 1:00 p.m. But by that time, I was sitting in the new house, waiting on the installation of our new refrigerator, so my husband dealt with the packers.

Then on July 26, about 8:00 in the morning, the movers arrived. There were seven guys, most of whom were no more than average size. But they knew how to work. By about 12:30, they had everything loaded into two trucks. My husband’s car and mine had some things that we wanted to move personally, and I’d left my grandfather clock and a couple of other items to move later, after the frenzy of emptying our old house of thirty-five years’ worth of accumulated belongings.

By 7:30 p.m. on July 26, our possessions were in our new house. Including the piano that four of the movers carried down the hill on the side of the house and into the lower level.

After the movers were tipped and left, my husband and I ate a meal our realtor (a wonderful friend and professional) gave us, then fell into bed. We slept in the guest room, because the new mattress for the master bedroom wouldn’t be delivered until the next day.

Then came cleaning the old house and unpacking all the boxes. The old house was ready for the new owners by July 29, 2019, but we lived out of boxes for a few weeks longer. If I hadn’t had a friend who wanted the boxes for her own move, we might still be living out of those packing crates.

The move went relatively smoothly, but not perfectly. The old refrigerator we put in the basement leaked (the water line was loose—easily fixed). A few things broke, and a few others got lost. It took weeks to get our mail and newspapers delivered regularly. And some of our trees did not survive a year.

But two years later, I can say . . . it was worth it.

And I’m glad we moved when we did. I cannot imagine getting the house built and our move done during the pandemic that hit less than a year later, though I have friends who have done just that. Instead, my husband and I could hunker down in our new home, take walks in our new neighborhood, and shelter in place better than most.

Have your house moves gone well or been difficult?