It’s after midnight, and the movers will be here in less than 8 hours. I’m exhausted. My sister, Joan (Daddy’s Roses), moved last month, and she had everything ready to go three days before moving day. She said she was bored because she didn’t have anything to do those three days.

Unfortunately, I’m not like Joan. I’m NOWHERE near that far along. My daughter came over and helped me for awhile earlier this evening, but there is still so much to do.

Anyway - I probably won’t post again for a couple days. I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t close on the house until Tuesday. So after the movers are finished I still have four days to finish up all the little stuff. So I’m going to take a deep breath and go to bed. I’m too tired to stay up any longer. Just think - tonight’s my last night sleeping in this townhouse. I won’t miss it for even one second.

I’ve already packed my alarm clock, and I’m afraid I’ll oversleep tomorrow morning and won’t have time to shower and dress before the movers get here.

If anybody in my family reads this, give me a call at 7:00 Central tomorrow morning to make sure I’m awake! (That’s 8:00 Eastern - for all you Georgia folks!)

Stay tuned . . .

Note: It’s 7:15 a.m. Apparently no one in my family read this - because no one called. Sure glad I didn’t depend on that! But I was up at 6:00 anyway. It’s time to unplug the computer. Knowing me, though, I’ll figure out some way to post here before more than a day or two goes by.

Today is moving day for me.  Here are thirteen reasons I hate moving. 

1.  Everything is so JUMBLED.

2.  Boxes and bubble wrap and tissue paper are everywhere.

3.  I won’t be able to visit everyone else’s Thursday Thirteen because I have to unplug my computer and get it ready to be moved… well, and I will be running around nonstop all day Thursday.

4.  Even though I’ve gotten rid of so much junk, there is still more left.

5.  For the past few years, each time I needed to file papers, I just stacked them in boxes instead.  I figured I’d file them later.  I kept filling up boxes and setting them in the storage room.  Now I’ve got over TEN boxes of papers to go through - sort, discard, file, shred. I’ll work on that next week. 

6.  There are boxes on my bed that I have to move before I can go to bed for my last night’s sleep here.

7.  Moving is a lot of WORK.

8.  Moving involves a lot of TRASH.

9.  Moving is, unfortunately, a necessary evil at times.

10.  Moving makes me feel very unsettled for awhile.

11.  It usually takes me at least a week or so to feel at home in a new place.

12.  I’m moving in with PawPaw - and his mother is visiting this week.  How’s THAT for timing?

13.  I’ve cleaned out the freezer and refrigerator - so there’s no food to eat.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

The movers will be here at 8:00 Thursday morning.  That means I have one day left to get everything ready to move.  Sigh!  I’m making great progress, but there is a lot to do on Wednesday.  Right now it’s 11:30 p.m., and I’m so tired from all the 4th of July festivities and packing.  This morning I took one load of stuff to the storage space I’ve rented.  By the time I finished loading and unloading all those boxes, I was drenched in sweat.  So I think I’ll call it a day and go to bed.  I’ll start fresh in the morning.

I had some good news today.  This afternoon I tried on some jeans that I couldn’t even zip a few weeks ago. They were still a little snug, but I could zip them.  So my exercising at Curves and cutting back on food is showing some results.  Yea!  It’s absurd how happy that makes me.

I just paid $40 for a locksmith to spend five minutes repairing my front door lock.  As soon as he looked at the lock, he turned to his assistant and said, “Look at that!  It still has the plastic thing in it.”  The builder had left a plastic space-holder in the lock rather than putting a screw in it.  No screw - No wonder the lock was wobbly and turned in circles.

So that $40 added to the almost $400 I paid to the plumber last week to repair two leaks in the crawlspace that were most likely there since the house was built less than two years ago, along with $74 for the official termite inspection I had to do.  And don’t forget the AC repair.  This move is getting more and more expensive.

Everything (except the termite inspection) are things that the builder SHOULD have handled.  If you live in Tennessee - never buy a home from the Jones Company in Tennessee.  I don’t know if they’re in other states or not.  I’ve owned several homes and have had to deal with home builders and repair folks, and I’ve never seen any worse than them.  The absolute worst home builders I’ve ever dealt with - bad workmanship and complete failures in dealing with customers.  Plus, the guy who handled my initial walk-through when I bought the house and also handled my one-year punch list flat out lied to me - both times.  Apparently it’s a pattern with him, and he does it very convincingly.  They have so many people trying to buy their homes that they don’t care about the quality of their work or the satisfaction of their customers.

My only consolation at this point is that what goes around comes around.  It will eventually come back to bite them in the butt . . . I hope. 

I just had a plumber give me an estimate on making the repairs necessary for me to close the house on the 11th - there were two leaks in the crawl space that had to be repaired.  His price was $850 to do what was needed - replace a cracked pipe and replace a valve. 

After I recovered from my shock at the price, I called my son who has his plumber’s license but who usually just works on irrigation systems.  He told me he could do the work for me for much less and that I shouldn’t pay that much.  So I told the plumber that I was going to have my son do the work instead.

He immediately said he’d call his boss and see if they could do it for less.  And guess what?  They can do the whole job for just $398.  LESS THAN HALF THE ORIGINAL ESTIMATE.  They are going to “throw in” a valve that was $450 in the first estimate.

I called my son.  He said he couldn’t do it for less than $398.  So, the plumber got the job and is working on it now.

Interesting sidenote:  As the plumber was writing up the work order he chatted with me about his son and raising his son right, and how he knew God would take care of things.  How just this morning he had to take money from his son’s college fund to pay the mortgage.  Was he trying to play on my sympathies?  Or maybe make me feel guilty for not paying the original quote?  I don’t know.  If so, it didn’t work.

Amazing, isn’t it?  Less than half the original estimate.  Most people would have just had them do the job and paid the $850.  Dishonest bastards!

I got to my townhouse this morning and discovered that when I finished cleaning out the refrigerator/freezer yesterday,  I hadn’t pushed one of the shelves all the way back in, and so it blocked the door from closing completely. Thus, with the door ajar,  the ice in the ice maker started thawing and leaking onto the hardwood floor.  Sigh!

I pulled the refrigerator out from the wall - swept/mopped/wiped up all the water.  Lord, I SURE hope I got it cleaned up in time and it doesn’t cause the wood floor to warp. One spot, in particular, looks a little saturated. 

Also, that means that the food I had decided to keep is now thawed out, too.  So I have more food to throw out.  In addition to being a lot of work, this move is turning out to be a food-waster, too.

My mantra for now is “In two weeks, this move will be behind me” - repeated over and over and over and over . . .

If I look at yesterday’s “to do” list without considering circumstances, I was an abject failure because I didn’t complete four of the items. However, I did get in my Curves workout, stuck to my diet, went through THREE hours of a home inspection (which was the reason I didn’t get to the other items on the  list - I had NO idea a home inspection was so involved!), cleaned out the refrigerator, freezer and pantry and and packed up my dining room (which was a MAJOR deal with all the dishes), and prepared a doggone good dinner for PawPaw and myself.  I also spent an hour and a half over at the land helping PawPaw cut down trees.  By the time we finished it was too dark for a bike ride, and we were exhausted anyway.  So while I didn’t finish everything on my list, I don’t think I could have done anymore.  As a matter of fact, I’m rather superwomanish to have done all that!

So for today, here’s my goals - a little less intense than yesterday:  (1) Curves workout, (2) Stick to diet, (3) Make all those phone calls, (4) Pack up two rooms, (5) Arrange for repairs that the home inspection discovered were needed, and (6) A quick stop to get more packing materials (bubble wrap mostly).

I’m headed out the door to get started on this list.  Wish me luck!