Thursday, June 21, 2007

The ups and downs of moving

Well, we made it. We're in our new house. We packed up the U-Haul on Tuesday night with A LOT of help from our church friends.

Both closings took place on Wed afternoon. It was ROUGH. They changed the time of the closing on our new house that morning. There were complications with a money transfer from our credit union and it came down to the last minute, but it finally all fell into place. Phew.

I felt like I could breathe a sigh of relief. And you should've seen us in the elevator riding down from the attorney's office. I think giddy would be the best way to describe us. We came back to the house and had amazing help from church again--both to help me scrub the house down and unload the truck. It went by fast and smoothly.

Then today things took another turn for the worse. The city water employee came to read the meter so they could start the bill in our name. He told me that there was water in the meter box and it looked like a leak. He dug a 2 foot hole right behind the meter box and it was slowly but steadily filling up with water as he dug. ARE YOU JOKING???? We've been here for less than 24 hours and there's a leak??? Unbelievable. I am seriously sick to my stomach over it. We have a plumber coming in the morning to look at it and I'm bracing myself for the worst--that we're going to have to replace the water main from the meter to our house. Not only will that be expensive, but will also destroy our front lawn. It has been devastating for me.

Andrew is taking it much more in stride, after blowing off steam at our agent and trying to figure out if this is something we can get the previous owners to pay for. (We're still looking into that, but I'm not holding my breath.) He was very comforting for me and helped me put things in perspective. It is hard for me, though. We lived in our other little house for 4 years and never had ANYTHING like this happen. And we've lived here for ONE DAY and already have a major problem! Very, very frustrating. What scares me the most: Is this a sign of things to come? Has everyone seen "The Money Pit?" Scary, scary. I think I need to get more reinforcement from Andrew. Everything will be ok. Everything will be ok. I'll keep telling myself that.

After we get these problems resolved, I'll have the energy to post about all the good things in the house. There are lots, but I'm overwhelmed by the negative right now. Stay tuned.

7 comments:

Ang said...

Congrats about the move--but I'm so sorry about the leak. That's no way to start off your first day in your new home. Hopefully it won't be a big problem and you'll have smooth sailing from there on out. There's no reason to assume that it means any problems from there on out. Did you have a home inspection? If there were any other major problems, the inspector should have caught them. So try not to worry. Want to hear a terrible moving horror story? Friends of ours were moving from a small house to a bigger one and had rented a U-Haul. The husband was driving it, loaded w/ all of their stuff, to the wife who was waiting at the new house with her 2 year old and newborn twins. He took a different route to stay away from traffic and didn't realize that he was coming up on a bridge. A LOW bridge. He flew under it and found out the hard way that the U-Haul was too tall. He sheared off the whole top ofthe U-Haul, ruining the rental, scattering their broken furniture all over the road, etc etc. Luckily he was okay--but THAT was a bad moving day! (Don't know if that makes you feel any better!)

Ang said...

I must like the phrase "there on out." :-)

Natalie said...

I hope everything works out with the leak. Did you house come with a one year home warrenty? If so it should cover such expenses.

Sorry to hear it has been a stressful couple of days! Moving is never easy.

Anonymous said...

When we first moved here I felt like there were tons of problems. After realizing our office had no phone line, the air conditioner was leaking, the grass was completely dead, and the sprinkling system had multiple leaks, we were both a bit nervous about our house choice. But Dave fixed all those things within the first couple months(what a good husband) and we both now love our house. So you might have a few problems that make you wonder about your decision, but I bet they'll work out fine and I really doubt it'll turn out like the money pit. (-:

Sandy said...

Oh man Andi! Just keep remembering that giddy-in-the-elevator-feeling...it'll all work out - for reals!! I'm a freaker-outter, too (I need to have "Don't sweat the small stuff" tattooed on my forehead). On the plus side - sometimes a plumbing link is easily fixed (as in, Andrew might be able to do it, or maybe the leak will be in the city's lines to pay for or something) or maybe your real estate agent will feel guilty and come do it:) If the broken line happened after your house inspection, but before the house changed hands -- does that put the responsibility on the new owner or agent (I would think especially if they knew about it). I don't know - I'm not a real estate expert. Just seems like if you bought it in "good faith", there might be a way to get something like this covered??

Keep us posted -- believe me, I FEEL FOR YOU on the plumbing issues!!

Despite the water leak...enjoy the new house and all your SPACE!!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your new house! I am sorry we were out of town this week and missed all of the excitement. I am also sorry about that leak. When we moved into our first house in FL, we had several issues. In fact, right after we signed the papers at the closing table, the husband (former owner) turned to his wife and said "Should we tell them about the problems now?" It was crazy! Anyway, to make me feel better Seth actually rented the "Money Pit" and it made me laugh and at least temporarily forget about the house issues.
One helpful thing, if the Home Inspector said that your plumbing is fine, then that company will be responsible to fix it. If it says in the home inspection that they did not inspect the plumbing, then it is the former owner's responsibility. Hopefully...

Good Luck!!

Anonymous said...

Man, what a bummer. And why do water lines ALWAYS go through the front lawn?
We agree with other readers: the responsibility would seem to lie with the seller or the inspector.
Got to add to the "horror stories": when we moved into "the funny little house" in 1962,the former owner was moving out as we were moving in. First heavy item we brought in,the floor gave out just inside the front door. The former owner was so embarrassed he left us an old rocking chair as "compensation". That chair was in our family for the next 30 or more years. We always referred to it as our $4,500 chair. (Yep, that's all we paid for that house in 1962.) I could go on from there, but perhaps it's best not to at this time.
MEANWHILE: Re-rent "The Money Pit", or, better yet, try to find the original version, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"
(1948) with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. Those two will brighten anyone's mood --even in black and white. (The movie, not the mood.)
PS
This could be your most popular blog entry to date. I think we're all staying tuned and feeling for you.
PPS
Brandon and Whitney will have a ball watching the back hoe work.
PPPS
Our home teachers back in La Grande used to say they were glad the Book of Mormon has so many "and it came to pass" moments in it. What if it had said "and it came to stay..."?