Closing Day

Well, I had a feeling that sleeping on a 2 inch matress pad on the floor after a day of moving heavy objects was going to be pretty damn miserable, and guess what, I was right! My only comfort in this is knowing that with the lovely sub-zero temperatures outside, it would have been even worse to have kept the matress and then had to load it onto the truck this morning. There is just no way that would have happened.

Outside of being a little cold and stiff, the morning started out with only a few minor hurdles. The cats would be camping out at Grant & Ilona’s place while we closed on both houses, so we needed to warm up my car to the point they wouldn’t be freezing in the back. Yes, they have fur coats, but we’re talking crazy cold weather out there, and they are used to the comforts of home living. My lovely Sebastian (yes, that’s my car) wouldn’t remote start. So I tried to go out to the street and start it. Nope… How about from inside? Still no go.

How about plan B - we take them over in the Mini. The Mini also refused to remote start, but when Martin got in to try again it said it had a low batery in the key remote, but it started. Woot! Being clever, Martin got my other key remote (the one I never use) and tried my car again from inside and poof, it started too! First hurdle cleared, never mind that we were warming up our cars with the keys inside, unlocked and across the street. How fortunate that no one made off with them. Oh how nice it will be to have an actual garage!

OK, so finally the cars were warmed, the cats were tucked away in their carriers in my backseat, and we were on the way! Martin drove the Uhaul and I followed with some very vocal and cranky kitties. Martin parked the truck a few houses down from our new place, to stay out of the way of the other movers who were scheduled to move out the previous owners things that morning. He hopped in with us, and off we went to Grant & Ilona’s, just a little behind schedule. Grant & Ilona were great, having a space already for the kitties and helping to get them settled in. So in no time at all we were on our way back to meet Martin’s sister, Miki, who so graciously offered to drive over and help us move our last bits of stuff which couldn’t fit into our cars.

We had just over an hour to get everything packed up before our buyer was due there for his final walk-through. It was super cold and took some doing, but we did manage to get everything packed into the three vehicles and made it out with about 10-15 minutes to spare. Since we had an hour before closing, we stopped by Key’s cafe for a last breakfast. Woot! They had biscuits and gravy! That has been a fairly regular weekend tradition for us, and we were pleased to see it as a special on Wednesday. The service was a bit slower than usual, so were started to worry a bit that we wouldn’t get out in time, but we ate quickly and made it to our closing full and happy. We were the first ones there, and only a few minutes late. The weather wasn’t being kind to the others either, but everything went smoothly and we were able to head to the next closing a little early.

We ended up in the wrong building at first, but once we got to the right spot everything went smoothly on the purchase side too… at least for us. While we were waiting for our seller to arrive, we found out that the company that had been scheduled to do her move had cancelled on her yesterday, but Shari (our super awesome realator) had helped them to find someone else. That was why she was running a little late, and that they may not have everything out by the time we finished the closing. We weren’t that worried about it, since we had the truck rented for another day and were not planning to empty it in the super cold anyhow. Her movers were running quite a bit behind and ended up not being able to fit everything into the truck in one load and would need to make a second trip. It seemed like quite a mess, but we were happy to go find some food or coffee and let them do their thing. Eventually they had most of the stuff, but she would still need to return later for the last bits of it. It was probably around 3 or 4 when we were finally able to meet Miki again and unload the cars.

Miki, most awesome sister-in-law that she is, agreed to come back in the morning to help us unload the truck and get it returned. That left us free to go back and fetch the kitties. They had pretty much stayed in their carriers at Grant & Ilona’s place, which didn’t surprise us - they are super skittish and shy. On the bright side, that made it pretty easy to pack them back up and get them to their new home.

That left us needing some dinner too. Grant & Ilona had invited us over, but with all the moving craziness we turned them down. There was still some stuff left here from the previous owner and we weren’t sure if they were coming back again that night or waiting for the warmer weekend. Anyhow, we are fortunate enough to now be living in a commercial haven where we not only can get yummy Godfather’s Pizza, we can get it delivered! Woot! (There was pretty much no one willing to deliver to us at the old place.)

While we were eating the previous owner came by again to pick up a ladder. Apparently her furnace had gone out at her new place and a pipe broke draining water all over the ceiling. This place was still a bit cold after having the doors constantly opened and closed most of the day, but for her it was nice and warm in comparison to her new place. She has been so nice and thoughtful to us throughout this whole process that we were totally heart-broken for her! I felt so bad that there wasn’t anything we could do to help. It did put things nicely in perspective though. There were little troubles along the way, but in the end everything worked out really quite well.

The cats ended up doing better than I expected with the move. They spent a little bit of time freaking out… Fred and Kyo disappeared into the basement storage area, while Abby had her hiding spot all picked out on top of the fridge.

It didn’t take long though for Martin, the Cat Whisperer, to lure them out of hiding and soothe their troubled souls. Eventually they all managed to come out and eat dinner. Abby and Fred woofed it down as usual, though it took Kyo about 10 tries to finish all of it as he was freaking out at every little noise. After dinner it was pretty much back to hiding out though. Fred was a bit more adventurous but only while he was being escorted and encouraged.

We figured it was better to let them be and settle in while it was quiet over night. By morning, they had all managed to find their way downstairs to where we were sleeping. We woke up entirely pinned down by cats. I guess that makes everything right in our world.

We are so happy to be in our new home! Thanks so much for all the help from our friends, family, and our realator, Shari. We wouldn’t have made it through this without you!