When it came to this move, anything that could go wrong, has (so far) gone wrong.
For years, Jordan and I have laughed at the bad luck that surrounds us. Things that are a breeze for most people end up being difficult for us.
Here's what I mean by this...
We were scheduled to move into our realtor's rental house the week of the 3rd. However, the tenants living there now are in the process of buying a house and the closing date got moved back.
That happens. We understood and thankfully our realtor is amazing and offered us to stay in his lake house for a huge discount until we were able to get into the rental house. However, we weren't able to get in until August 10th so we would have to get a hotel for the week of the 3rd. That means, instead of moving one time we would end up moving three times in the matter of a few weeks.
So, we respectfully declined and had to quickly find another house in the Mt. Home area that would allow a dog and a month to month lease. Thankfully, we found a house in the country for only $400.00 a month and is on 35 acres of land!
Not only were we out in the country (which we love) but we could put so much more into our savings every month because of the price.
Win-win, right?
Well....
We were scheduled to move into our country house August 3rd. So while Jordan headed to Mt. Home for his first day of work, I made the necessary calls to get the utilities changed into our name.
After calling the landlord, she decides to call the current tenants to be sure they are out and cancelled the utilities in their name.
Remember how I said typical things that are easy for most people aren't for us? Yeah, that still rings true.
The tenants of course were not out yet and wouldn't be until August 5th.
Seriously!?
Apparently they needed two more days to clean up the place. (clean up the place are key words for the rest of this story!!)
So, we understood and they graciously put Jordan up in a hotel free of charge until the tenants were out.
Wednesday, August 5th, rolls around. My Mom's side of the family leaves from their few days in Fayetteville, my parents head up to Iowa to help with family stuff and Jordan's parents are driving down from Iowa to help us with the move. This is also the day Jordan gets the key to the house and gets to see what it's like for the first time.
While Jordan is in Mt. Home for the next day or so, Jordan's parents and I are in Fayetteville finishing packing up the house and getting it loaded into the Uhaul.
Bye bye Fayetteville home!! :(
Once Friday rolls around, Jordan joins us in Fayetteville to finish up and finally make the big trek over to Mt. Home.
After a two and a half hour drive, we finally arrive at the house.
At the beginning of our long dirt road driveway is a cemetery, followed by a herd of cows and then finally our house in the middle of nowhere.
The smell is overwhelming, there are cobwebs EVERYWHERE, the curtains on the windows seem to be from the 1960's, the paint on all the walls are strange colors with a weird suede like finish...I could go on and on.
As much as I could have cried in that moment, I held it together and instead of unpacking, Joan and I started deep cleaning for the remainder of the day while Jordan and Dan fixed what needed to be fixed around the house and tried to get the yard and front porch in order.
We had removed the curtains that were holding a lot of that nasty unknown smell, vacuuming and shampooing the carpet, scrubbing the cabinets inside and out, cleaning the bathroom...you name it, we did it! We even asked the landlord if we could paint. We thought painting would help with not only the smell but the dark feeling that was in the place.
Our overall goal was to make the house livable!
That was until we lifted the couch in the living room that the previous tenants had left behind and found....
a dead, flat (yes, flat!) mouse with... get this... fleas jumping off of it and everywhere around it!
That's when I almost broke down.
We all stopped what we were doing, ran to buy out the store of all of their bug bombs and bombed the house.
It took 15 bug bombs to get that house in shape.
15!!!
Because of this, we had to rent a hotel room but those are hard to find when you have a dog.
So, we had to stay in a smoking room at a local Ramada. If you have ever stayed in a smoking hotel room, you know how terrible it is and how bad you and all of your belongings smell leaving it.
None the less, we decided to make the best of it. After all, we weren't sleeping with a flock of fleas!!
We picked to eat at one of the four restaurants in town (I miss Fayetteville!), enjoyed a nice dinner and break from it all, then returned to the hotel, joked about the day, then decided it was time to go to sleep to prepare for what tomorrow would possibly be throwing at us.
The next day we returned to the house and started ALL over with the cleaning.
Back to wiping down cabinets inside and out, vacuuming and shampooing the carpets, I started painting the burnt orange kitchen while Joan scrubbed down/in all the appliances and the guys unloaded the truck.
We get everything unloaded from the uhaul and decide to return it a day early.
Again, typical easy things for most aren't for us....
The location we were given to return it is suddenly closed.
What I haven't explained yet is that we are 20 minutes from town. Technically, we live in Lakeview right now and were returning the Uhaul 20 minutes away in Mt. Home.
We call the number available on the sheet hanging from the door and she sends us to another location to return it....BACK IN LAKEVIEW!
Are.
You.
Kidding.
Me.
After finally returning the Uhaul, we decide it's best to keep the laughs rolling, the smiles going and take a drive around and give ourselves a break for the rest of the afternoon (after the cows let us pass of course).
At this point in the story the day is finally over, we have eaten dinner, set up the bedrooms so we have somewhere to sleep, and we are all now enjoying a well deserved strong drink on the front porch.
The night we relaxed at the house was my favorite part of the few days because where we are in the country, you can see every star! It's gorgeous and pushed the past few days away for a bit.
Sunday morning rolls around, my parents are on their way to help us with what is needed. We finish painting, lawn work, unpacking what needs to be unpacked, and we are FINALLY set!
Living Room Before
Living Room After
Kitchen Before
Kitchen After (before we picked up after ourselves! Ha!)
Bedroom Before
Bedroom After
Bathroom before and after
SIDE NOTE: The thing that kills me about these before pictures is that they make the place look A LOT better than it did in person!!
Until the tub fills with water to the rim and the toilet overflows all because I did a load of wash.
Yep. It doesn't surprise any of us at this point.
Thankfully, our landlord is awesome and gets a plumber out here as fast as possible to fix the problem.
Still, we chug down another strong drink and we are again rearing to go.
At this point, it's just been little things that continue but it's nothing we can't handle after the last week we've had. Plus, we keep reminding ourselves that it's only temporary and it's motivation to really dig into the house hunting.
As much as I want to start decorating to make this house feel more homey, I'm hoping we find a house in the next few months that will make decorating this place a waste of time. Cross your fingers for us!!!
Until then, Josie is going to soak it all in while she can. She loves the cows and all the running around and bug chasing she can dream of in one day.
So, here's to all of the crazy (and hilarious) obstacles that God puts us through day in and day out and to many more! We say bring it on!! :)
Until next time!
XO,
Kelsey
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