I have come to the realization that I have WAY too much stuff! Good thing I’ve moved to a house…Over the course of a couple of weeks, we have spent hours off and on preparing for the big move. Utilities have been scheduled, movers and U-Haul booked, a staging area filled with boxes, and we have even taken a trip to Home Depot to shop for paint chips!

I’m so glad we chose to pack slowly over the weeks rather than procrastinating to the last minute, otherwise I would have been much more of an anxious mess. Garrett has been absolutely amazing with moving preparation too, especially when it comes to scolding me for standing with one foot precariously on a shelf and the other braced against the door frame to balance while I reach for boxes at the top of the closet…Seriously though, I couldn’t ask for a better partner to go through this move with. His patience, attentiveness, and assistance definitely brought calm during a stressful time. I must say though, he really outdid himself with his box stacking skills in the outdoor storage unit!

We have definitely made a good team. He took care of the storing of boxes while leaving me to be neurotic with the organization of the packing itself. I couldn’t wait to get into the house and unpack all of this…It’s kind of a weird phenomenon when you realize that what you’re most looking forward to currently is organizing your new kitchen cabinets and closet. Gone are the days when the most you had to consider is what outfit to wear to school and studying!

After going through this entire process of preparing to buy a home, actually purchasing one, and then preparing for the move, I realize how sad it is that schools don’t teach kids how to live or function like adults. Knowing the capitals of all the states or what year insert-war-here started in no way prepared me for my life. Sure, it’s still important to learn, but why aren’t we taught about taxes, mortgages, various retirement funds, or how to pick the right insurances? Not to mention the different options for utilities (fixed rates versus base on usage) can get confusing if you don’t know what to expect for your usage! Companies aren’t exactly forthcoming with accurate approximations I’ve found…We’re forced to learn and relearn all of this required curriculum yet when we’re thrown out into the real world none of it helps us function as an adult. Thankfully I have a good selection of people to call on when in doubt!

Seriously though, I cannot put into words just how much I appreciate my parents and everything they have done for me. From all of the times they have moved me, all of the nights they held me crying, all of the occasions in my life (both good and bad) that they have stood by me, and all of the emotional, mental, and financial support they provided when I needed it the most, my parents have been my rocks, my role models, my best friends, my guardian angels, and two of the people I love the most in my life. If it weren’t for them and everything they have done for me, I would not be where I am right now. I would not have achieved this huge goal in my life. I would not be a functioning adult. So to my amazing parents, thank you. Thank you so so much for giving me my life over and over again. I know I haven’t always made the right decisions and I’m far from perfect, but I hope I have been able to, and continue to, make you proud because that is one of the most important things to me. I love you!

Okay, enough mushiness…Yesterday was an exciting day in which we got to meet up with the previous owners’ realtor, obtain our keys, and have the house professionally cleaned and sterilized (BIG thank you to the kindness of the sellers for setting that up)! As with just about everything in my life, this task was an adventure on its own…It was a day that I fully came to understand why everyone keeps saying “welcome to homeownership!”

Garrett and I arrived early so we rang up his mom on a video call to give her a tour of the gorgeous landscaping around the house. We had just finished walking around the house when we heard a car pull up so we wrapped up the call and came back around to the front where we were greeted by the lovely and sweet cleaning ladies and realtor. As the ladies began to unload their supplies and get set to work, we encountered just one little problem…The key that the realtor had did not unlock the deadbolts! He went to the front door and couldn’t get it open. He went to the back door and couldn’t get it opened either. He went to the basement door leading to the dog pen and couldn’t get it open either! This poor man had to reach through the doggy door and up to unbolt the basement door. But it didn’t stop there…He proceeded up the stairs only to be greeted by yet another. Locked. Door. Once again he had to reach through a doggy door and up to unlock the door at the top of the stairs before finally being able to unlock the rest of the house and open the garage door for the cleaning ladies. Thank goodness the previous owners had dogs and doggy doors…After everything was said and done, the realtor handed us the keys and garage door opener, bid us welcome to homeownership, and was off! Needless to say, we promptly left the house and went straight to Home Depot to get new deadbolts…along with some paint!

After arriving back at the apartment we realized we had nothing to do since everything was packed and we couldn’t access the house for the next 6 hours while it was being cleaned. The original plan was to wait until the next day to get the UHAUL bright and early, then meet my parents and brother at the house to unload it and all of the stuff they were bringing over for me. But plans change when you factor in my impatience! Those who know me know just how anxious and antsy I can get when I’m excited for something, thus I cannot sit still. So here I am, trying to keep busy by rearranging the boxes we staged in the sun room of the apartment when Garrett and I just turned and looked at each other with the same thought. Why not just go ahead and get the UHAUL today? The day has just begun and the cleaners would be done at the house by 3 or 4, which gives plenty of time to load up now while we wait and then unload it when they’ve left. Then we could load it up one more time in preparation for tomorrow. You know what they say…Great minds think alike! I promptly called and altered our reservation for the UHAUL and we went to pick it up. Since COVID has been an ever present concern in our lives these days, the UHAUL was picked up digitally. It got a bit confusing and the site would choose when it wanted to load the next step or not, but we had to stick with it because the store only allowed 2 customers in at a time, so we did the best we could. I finally got us through the pick up steps and Garrett located the locker with the key, so we inspected the UHAUL and headed on our way. The first stop was Home Depot to pick up my housewarming gift to Garrett; a brand new grill! This baby can use propane, charcoal, wood chips, or pellets, which is perfect because we wanted to avoid having gas at the house wherever possible. It also came with a lovely flavor drawer for smoking with flavored woods. We’re both equally excited to light it up and get to grilling! My mouth waters at the thought of the burgers, hot dogs, steaks, and low country boils we’ll be cooking on this!

The lady that retrieved the grill for me at Home Depot pulled it out the door and then walked away while Garrett was getting the UHAUL, so we were left to our own devices in figuring out how to get it into the UHAUL that did not have a ramp. A man who was browsing other grills next to us asked me if we needed help and I said “Sure! That would be great, thank you!” He proceeded to point to the Home Depot employee that was sitting a bit away keeping track of how many people entered the store and then he walked away. Wasn’t quite sure what to think about that interaction! But the employee he pointed to saw us trying to figure it out and came over to help (he was much taller than me so he was more helpful to Garrett than I could have been). With his new grill all strapped in safe and sound we headed back to the apartment to load up as many boxes as we possibly could before heading back over to the house. We managed to pack enough that we filled nearly half the garage! Round two of loading up was underway before it started to rain on us…So we had to coordinate taking loads out to the UHAUL between rain spurts. Thankfully our roommate Frank was able to help with this!

Exhaustion and satisfaction hit when we finally called it a night. One load transported and another packed and ready to go! Welcome to homeownership indeed…

At least we were all prepared for today, which was another bright and early day for us. Seems like we won’t be sleeping in for quite a while! After dragging our sore selves out of bed and walking the puppers, who, by the way, are very nervous at this point, we headed on over to our house! Gosh I never get tired of saying that… One quick pit stop at Plaid, we grabbed a few furniture pieces I had set aside and loaded them up into the UHAUL. They just barely fit! Guess it was a good thing we didn’t have anything else to load into the UHAUL… We arrived at the house shortly before my parents and brother, so we took the time to wander around the house and admire how sparkly clean everything was. That won’t last long with two dogs, rain, and Georgia red clay…But we took it in for as long as we could! Did I say rain? Yes, yes I did. Yet another rainy moving day for us! They say rain washes away the old and brings in the new, right? My family arrived and we got everything unloaded into the garage before my mom and I headed out to do a little bit of shopping while the guys returned the UHAUL and grabbed a couple of other things from the apartment. There wasn’t too much to do unpacking wise since the movers were due today with the furniture. We didn’t want to fill the rooms with boxes, blocking their way, so we just did a few little tasks here and there like washing and putting away the dishes or wandering around the house and coming up with various projects to add to our ever growing to do wish list. Top priority on our to do list? Replacing that basement door. After witnessing just how easy it was to reach through the doggy door to unlock it, we weren’t about to just leave it as is! So off to Home Depot for my dad and Garrett to pick out a nice, new, solid, and secure door. Unfortunately the installation of it will have to wait until the weekend…

At the end of the day my parents headed out and Garrett and I headed back to the apartment knowing we have a very long week ahead of us and it’s just the beginning of this wonderful adventure.