Note: If your SO is in charge of hiring the movers, make sure that they confirm the date and time with the movers before the actual day of moving.
That morning, we waited around hoping that the movers had not forgotten about us. Thankfully, they did show up. Big sigh of relief!
The crew of three were pretty efficient using dollies and all around good techniques for moving heavy items. About late lunch time, they were finished moving everything into their van. We had gone out to lunch while they were finishing up the packing because our nanny was in the house. When the movers went to lunch, we transported our fragile items to our new home.
We had planned for the baby to take her nap in the rental home and that I would come back to pick up the nanny and the baby after the baby woke up. The baby was a bit scared of the moving process because she saw a lot of things being taken away. In order to quell any anxiety, I kept reassuring her that we were all moving into our new home together. Made it a point to get to the rental home before she woke up from her nap - it wouldn't be like the she went to sleep and her parents disappeared.
We hadn't completely set up her room that night in the new house so she and I ended up sleeping on the ol' futon together. Not great for me - she rotated 180 degrees in her sleep which involved kicking me a few times. *sigh* But we're moving her into a big kid bed so we'll all sleep undisturbed in the future.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Countdown to move in day
Dec 6 (Tue): A more specialized electrician came out to take care of our ethernet, tv, and cable wiring. Also, the day our window shades got installed.
Dec 7 (Wed): Our dismantled sleeper sofa was delivered and re-assembled in the afternoon. Deep cleaning of our home begins in the late afternoon and continues until early evening. We moved some of our fragile items such as wine glasses and vases into the house.
Dec 8 (Thurs): Lots of packing!! Thankfully, packing wasn't too bad this time around because a lot of our items were still packed up from the initial move into our rental home. When you haven't seen something in 6 months, it makes you wonder whether you really needed to it. Needless to say, did a bit of purging when packing this time. Things of slight sentimental value were tossed.
Great news: We passed the final inspection on the first try! :) I didn't think we'd pass until after we moved back into our home. Yay!!!!!
Our GC said that it was the easiest final inspection he's ever been through. He usually puts up a few obvious "mistakes" for the inspectors to catch but this guy didn't catch them. The city obviously wants this house project to finish up quickly. hehehe. After the inspection, our GC went around and fixed up all the mistakes he purposely created. haha!
Dec 7 (Wed): Our dismantled sleeper sofa was delivered and re-assembled in the afternoon. Deep cleaning of our home begins in the late afternoon and continues until early evening. We moved some of our fragile items such as wine glasses and vases into the house.
Dec 8 (Thurs): Lots of packing!! Thankfully, packing wasn't too bad this time around because a lot of our items were still packed up from the initial move into our rental home. When you haven't seen something in 6 months, it makes you wonder whether you really needed to it. Needless to say, did a bit of purging when packing this time. Things of slight sentimental value were tossed.
Great news: We passed the final inspection on the first try! :) I didn't think we'd pass until after we moved back into our home. Yay!!!!!
Our GC said that it was the easiest final inspection he's ever been through. He usually puts up a few obvious "mistakes" for the inspectors to catch but this guy didn't catch them. The city obviously wants this house project to finish up quickly. hehehe. After the inspection, our GC went around and fixed up all the mistakes he purposely created. haha!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Undercabinet lighting
So my undercabinet LEDs arrived. Brought them over for the workers to install just to find out that they couldn't do it because of the voltage difference. *sigh*
LEDs are low voltage and they had wired the undercabinet lighting for regular or fluorescent lights. Apparently fluorescents are also low voltage but they have their own adapters. The LED lights I bought also had their own adapter but they would take up an outlet and wouldn't be directly connected to the wiring (thus, less pretty).
Ended up going to Home Depot with the GC to pick up fluorescent lights. That's what I was actually trying to avoid because I don't care for fluorescent lighting. Good thing is that you can't see them in the kitchen. yay!
Now I have two extra LED light bars...not sure what to do with them yet, but I'll find a place to use them. I'd rather keep them than pay a restocking fee.
LEDs are low voltage and they had wired the undercabinet lighting for regular or fluorescent lights. Apparently fluorescents are also low voltage but they have their own adapters. The LED lights I bought also had their own adapter but they would take up an outlet and wouldn't be directly connected to the wiring (thus, less pretty).
Ended up going to Home Depot with the GC to pick up fluorescent lights. That's what I was actually trying to avoid because I don't care for fluorescent lighting. Good thing is that you can't see them in the kitchen. yay!
Now I have two extra LED light bars...not sure what to do with them yet, but I'll find a place to use them. I'd rather keep them than pay a restocking fee.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Shower door fiasco
Note: Never leave a guy to install stuff by himself! Always stay for the installation!!!!
So the guy who installed our shower doors is a different guy from the guy who took our order for the shower doors. There were mistakes in 2 out of 3 bathrooms!! The powder room door had a towel bar which we did not want. And he had installed a very nice shower door in the kids bathroom when we specifically said nothing was to go in the kids bathroom! There was even a shower curtain rod already installed.
The owner showed up later and prevented his installer from actually caulking the kids bathroom - we probably would have had to replace the tub and even more tiling if that had happened! But there was already some scratching on the tub and cutting of tile. So now our GC had to clean up the mess: re-order tile, remove the tiles with holes in them, and redo the affected tiles.
DH was super pissed. On the other hand, I was just glad I didn't need to run around to fix the mistake. :p
So the guy who installed our shower doors is a different guy from the guy who took our order for the shower doors. There were mistakes in 2 out of 3 bathrooms!! The powder room door had a towel bar which we did not want. And he had installed a very nice shower door in the kids bathroom when we specifically said nothing was to go in the kids bathroom! There was even a shower curtain rod already installed.
The owner showed up later and prevented his installer from actually caulking the kids bathroom - we probably would have had to replace the tub and even more tiling if that had happened! But there was already some scratching on the tub and cutting of tile. So now our GC had to clean up the mess: re-order tile, remove the tiles with holes in them, and redo the affected tiles.
DH was super pissed. On the other hand, I was just glad I didn't need to run around to fix the mistake. :p
Friday, December 2, 2011
Appointments at home
Thankfully I had to be at home for two appointments that would happen around the same time. :)
First, I had our alarm company come by to take a look at what new equipment we had to get and what old equipment could be reused. That took a little while since so much has improved and updated since we first moved into the house. They have nifty little iPhone/iPad apps to control your alarm and even lighting. Of course, it all cost extra.
Second, furniture delivery for our headboard and sleeper sofa! Although, unfortunately, they could not get it through the doorway. And in the process, they broke a door handle trying to get the sofa through. *sigh* So they had to take it back to the warehouse for disassembling and reschedule another date to deliver the sofa pieces.
First, I had our alarm company come by to take a look at what new equipment we had to get and what old equipment could be reused. That took a little while since so much has improved and updated since we first moved into the house. They have nifty little iPhone/iPad apps to control your alarm and even lighting. Of course, it all cost extra.
Second, furniture delivery for our headboard and sleeper sofa! Although, unfortunately, they could not get it through the doorway. And in the process, they broke a door handle trying to get the sofa through. *sigh* So they had to take it back to the warehouse for disassembling and reschedule another date to deliver the sofa pieces.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Cyber Monday and misc
Thankfully the undercabinet LED lights I wanted were on sale during Cyber Monday! :)
Other great news: our carpet came in early! On Monday, DH got a call that the carpet installation would be scheduled for Thurdsay.
For Tuesday and Wednesday, I went around shopping for curtains, picking up Macy's merchandise that we had pre-paid for, and getting miscellaneous home items. We were finally replacing our broken mail slot. I bet the mailman was pretty happy about that. (We originally had a screw the mailman had to remove and replace each time to open the mail slot.)
Note: if you like your house numbers, make sure to safekeep them when the workers take them down to paint the exterior! I had to buy new house numbers even though I totally liked the old ones - grr.
Other great news: our carpet came in early! On Monday, DH got a call that the carpet installation would be scheduled for Thurdsay.
For Tuesday and Wednesday, I went around shopping for curtains, picking up Macy's merchandise that we had pre-paid for, and getting miscellaneous home items. We were finally replacing our broken mail slot. I bet the mailman was pretty happy about that. (We originally had a screw the mailman had to remove and replace each time to open the mail slot.)
Note: if you like your house numbers, make sure to safekeep them when the workers take them down to paint the exterior! I had to buy new house numbers even though I totally liked the old ones - grr.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Black Friday!
For Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take a nice break from work related to the house. The only thing we did for the home was buy lots of stuff on Black Friday! :)
Went to Macy's and stocked up on guest towels and pots/pans (need new ones for our induction cooktop). We scored a $40 king size down alternative comforter! It would've come with two pillows if we had got the deal earlier in the day. (Macy's opened at midnight but there was no way we were going to do that with a kid now.)
We also bought two more place settings and silverware sets for the upcoming Christmas dinner we're hosting. We scored an awesome discount on both pieces due to an incredibly enthusiastic saleslady who works in the bridal department. She gave us a discount earlier than usual. hehe.
Walking around the mall, there was a guy handing out flyers for the Sony store. We went to check it out. There was a 40" TV going for $600, retailed at $1300. After lunch and a stop by the house (for the scheduled chimney cleaning and inspection), we went back to the Sony store to buy the TV. In the late morning, there were about 8-10 TVs but by afternoon around 3:30pm there were only 2 left. We grabbed one, and while paying for it, the last one was sold. The guys at the store said that there were no more at their warehouse either. So lucky we got it!!
For our chimney cleaning, it unfortunately did not happen. Maybe it was fortunate so that we could get back to the mall early enough to buy that TV. Anyway, our chimney was damaged by the 1989 earthquake according to the chimney guy. We would actually have to rebuild the damaged part of the chimney. He would not clean it because it was damaged. He had been previously burned by customers who used their fireplace with their clean but damaged chimney even though he warned them not to. Then they would complain to him when something went wrong. So he went away with the expectation of sending a quote for the chimney rebuild later.
Went to Macy's and stocked up on guest towels and pots/pans (need new ones for our induction cooktop). We scored a $40 king size down alternative comforter! It would've come with two pillows if we had got the deal earlier in the day. (Macy's opened at midnight but there was no way we were going to do that with a kid now.)
We also bought two more place settings and silverware sets for the upcoming Christmas dinner we're hosting. We scored an awesome discount on both pieces due to an incredibly enthusiastic saleslady who works in the bridal department. She gave us a discount earlier than usual. hehe.
Walking around the mall, there was a guy handing out flyers for the Sony store. We went to check it out. There was a 40" TV going for $600, retailed at $1300. After lunch and a stop by the house (for the scheduled chimney cleaning and inspection), we went back to the Sony store to buy the TV. In the late morning, there were about 8-10 TVs but by afternoon around 3:30pm there were only 2 left. We grabbed one, and while paying for it, the last one was sold. The guys at the store said that there were no more at their warehouse either. So lucky we got it!!
For our chimney cleaning, it unfortunately did not happen. Maybe it was fortunate so that we could get back to the mall early enough to buy that TV. Anyway, our chimney was damaged by the 1989 earthquake according to the chimney guy. We would actually have to rebuild the damaged part of the chimney. He would not clean it because it was damaged. He had been previously burned by customers who used their fireplace with their clean but damaged chimney even though he warned them not to. Then they would complain to him when something went wrong. So he went away with the expectation of sending a quote for the chimney rebuild later.
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