Matt's Move-In Day

The first warning sign was when the maids said, "We can't do this."

Nana, Pop, and I were driving to Columbia when Nana got the news. The painters were supposed to have finished yesterday, but they had "one more ceiling to do." The maids were supposed to show up before we arrived to have the house nice and clean to give Renee a good first impression. 

The maids arrived, saw the place, and said, "Nope!"

The plan had just changed.

The painters were working when we arrived.

There was a lot more to do than one ceiling and some touch-ups. What the painter had really meant was "I'll say whatever I have to that will keep you happy and end the phone call." The cleaners made the right call. 

Pop had wanted to map out the electrical system (I'd have been the lackey/runner). He threw that idea out the window and switched to touring the place and looking for areas that the painters needed to touch up.

The AC was off, so the house was hot. It was meant to help the paint dry faster. However, there was one room we couldn't access from the inside and, wouldn't you know it, it was the room where the "ceiling needed to be finished."

The walls weren't looking so done, either. There was a lot more left to do than advertised.

And that's when the movers showed up!

The movers were an hour early. Originally, they weren't even supposed to show up today! Nana made a brilliant move and offered the movers some money to buy cold drinks at the shop across the street. Too bad the shop was closed. The plan had gone to hell in a handbasket.

On top of cleaners, painters, and movers, there were termite repair guys crawling around under the house! They'd parked in the yard and set up shop on the side of the house, so we hadn't seen them when we pulled up. Pop and I heard their music and them banging around underneath us while we toured the house. I had to laugh as I walked by one of their cars. The guy had crazy seat covers (and I noticed a crazy keychain when I met him in person!).

Pop started pointing out some trees as we walked around back. There were some tall pines that he thought Matt and Renee would be wise to take down (or at least see if the city would do it for them to spare the power lines).

But our next task started closer to the ground.

There were vines everywhere.

Pop got straight to work clearing the porch. He's slowed down with his kidney function down to 11%, but not enough to prevent Nana from worrying about him! I was there to help and to help make sure he didn't do too much.

Which the vines weren't making easy. I'd thought we were dealing with vines when we started. The reality was we were dealing with flexible trees (or bark-armored vines?). Even with shears and clippers, there were places the vines wormed their way through metal and made themselves impervious to removal.

Pop moved on to other projects after we finished clearing the porch railings. I stayed behind to work on the fence.

Seriously, does this look like a vine to you? It's a stick!

Nana and Pop got the painters to move their truck and gear to the street, so that the movers could get to work.

They started to use the carport as a staging area. Nana noticed one of the movers helped himself to a pair of work gloves and proceeded to watch them like a hawk!

We plugged the fridge back in and started to unload the van. Nana had brought snacks and drinks for all the workers. She went around checking on everyone and even helped one mover put on a bandaid after he 'allegedly' dropped the TV!

Pop and I shifted to clearing vines from bushes in the front yard. I don't have any pictures, because we were too busy working! 

It was during this time window that Matt and Renee showed up. It was their first time to see the house in person! They went inside as a neighbor rolled by and introduced herself to Pop.

Nana took charge of the boys straight away!

That gave Renee some time to deal with Harper.

Nana and Pop had brought folding chairs and a table for people to use. They hadn't counted on the movers showing up, so they weren't needed for long!

I can't recall who brought all the portable gear in, but I suspect it was Pop. Matt may have helped.

You should notice a consistent increase in stuff in most of the pictures from here on out. The movers were working. The painters were working. Matt and I were ferrying stuff in from Matt and Renee's vehicles. Everyone was dodging around each other to get stuff done!

Random: I cropped down the above picture, because I wanted to focus on Renee cheering Harper rolling over, but I can't help myself from focusing on "the gloves!" I wasn't sure which picture to include, so I went with both!

Here's the first picture I got with Matt in it! Or at least it's the first one where he's not blurred or wearing some sort of dopey expression halfway through whatever he was saying.

I'd been hearing lots of movement under leaves and pine needles while working outside. 

Aiden and Graham are probably going to have a lot of fun trying to catch skinks in the coming years.

While Pop was resting, I got sidetracked into trying to figure out why kind of vine was taking over the yard!

My gest guess is it's some kind of wisteria. It was probably planted to be pretty and took over when it wasn't consistently tended to.

I'll never plant the stuff. Ever.

I reported my findings to Pop. He was on break by holding Harper.

He had to work to not let her see who was holding her!

Nana was still with the boys. She'd moved from active play to "Let's all just sit, stare at a screen, and rest some."

Only the boys didn't want to watch the same video. That would have been too easy! Nana asked to borrow my phone. That way each boy had their own device playing whatever magical video that would keep them out of the way.

I started taking pictures again when I got my phone back. Boxes were starting to go into the appropriate rooms under Renee's supervision.

The painters were making progress on the kid's room. 

I walked around the house to document some of the progress. The boys are going to be sharing a room.

The second biggest bedroom will become an office.

Harper's bedroom would share a wall with the master.

Pop described the floor plan as being similar to Jama's rancher in Texas. The description fit. Like Jama's, the biggest improvement I could think of would be to include a bathroom somewhere near the kitchen/living room.

The biggest improvement we needed today was for the painters to finish, so that we could move all the boxes destined for the kid's room out of the dining room where they were piling up!

Steady progress was made over the hours. 

There wasn't a lot of putting things away, but the boxes and furniture were moving through the staging points and into the house itself.

Pop took Matt and Renee around the property to point out a few things he'd noticed. He warned them to make sure the kids wore shoes outside, because he found roofing nails from the roofers repairing the place earlier in the week. 

And he brought up the trees. Matt and Renee's next door neighbor had some strong opinions on a few herself and I suspected she'd love to help with their removal (so they'd stop dropping all the pine needles on her side of the fence!).

Nana got patriotic at some point. Graham had the right idea by offering to vacuum (He'll be popular with his parents if he does it with a real one when he's older!).

I found Pop fixing a desk with wood glue (My contribution was to find some tape, so he didn't have to hold it in place to dry).

I had to laugh at some of Matt's furniture. Not because I'm judgemental, but because I recognized it! 

I bumped into Graham exploring. He was watching the movers reassemble the master bed.

Renee scooped him up before he was gone too long!

The neighbor told Pop and I where we could drop the vines off for pickup. Pop tried to drag the whole pile (and he got further than you'd expect with everything clinging to each other!).

Then he wanted to show me the luxurious crawl space.

The termite repairman were gone, but they'd been ecstatic about the working conditions when I spoke to them. It was cool under the house and much easier to move around in than the horror stories the repairmen tried to regale me with!

Nana was being patriotic and creative when we came back inside.

Moving is a lot of work. Especially when there are kids to care for as you do it. Lots of little unexpected problems pop up and you may find yourself asking things like, "Why won't this table assemble like it's supposed to!?"

The painters finishing up and heading out was a big win. Nana moved the boys to the play room.

Renee pegged it as such, because she can easily see what the kids are doing while she has access to the kitchen.

Things were winding down when Ka arrived! It was about 4:17 PM.

She brought all the kids with her! They'd been stuck in beach traffic. Cole napped, so he was wide awake and ready to play!

I had dropped Shane off with Ka and Stu around 7:45 AM. He'd hung out with them all day, so that I could help. He got to see Tenley and Evie's final performance at camp, and hang around while Ka waiting for anit-malaria prescriptions (They're going to Ghana to see Megan!).

I think it was the first time Shane met Harper in person? She'd been separated from the boys due to Graham's hand, foot, and mouth disease when we visited Matt near Thanksgiving. 

Shane ooh'd, ahh'd, and made a bunch of faces before he ran off to join everyone else in the toy room!

After Matt and I moved the big shelves into the toy room, he went on Harper duty.

The other kids all went outside with Ka to explore.

They checked out the path, the shed, and probably started a game of tag.

Ka stayed out with everyone. I occasionally saw a kid run screaming by a window while I moved boxes inside, so I know they were active!

Matt and Renee got their first visitor a little after 5 PM. It was an old friend from JMU!

The movers were gone, the AC was on, and toys were out. All the kids were partying and enjoying the new scenery. 

The beds were assembled, so that Matt's kids would all be able to go to sleep without any hassle tonight!

I think Nana said Matt and Renee woke up at 4 AM to get on the road? She said they'd slept in sleeping bags on the floor for their final night in Fairfax.

With all the shifts in time tables, we were in Columbia late enough to have dinner as a family! It was a multi-stop trip. Pop and I dropped Nana off at Trader Joe's on the way. He went through the drive through at MacDonald's while I walked next door to pick up Chick-Fil-A.

On the way back to pick up Nana, Pop and I stopped at PokeFreshe to pick up a pair of poke bowls for Matt and I.

It was fantastic, by the way. I intend to go back the next time I visit Matt!

A scuffle started at the kids' table over the fact Shane had lemonade. He'd shared some with Cole and that started fireworks amongst the girls!

It lasted as long as they were at the table and was forgotten when the running and tickling began.

There was still a lot of unpacking to do, but Matt and Renee were officially home with dinner over!

Meanwhile, I had a problem. It was around 6 PM. Shane had a lesson with Sunny at 7 PM. I'd brought my laptop to SC, but left it at Nana and Pop's house! No one had thought we'd stay in Columbia so late!

Carrie was upset. I'd told her we could make the lesson and it was looking rough. I had to coax the password out of her, so I could log onto iTalki on my phone. I had 5G service and I was determined! The internet technician had set up the wifi amongst all the hubbub, too. Renee put the wifi password in my phone and Matt offered a room for Shaen to work in.

This can work! I thought.

Buuuuut, Nana said, "Time to go!" a few minutes after I got the plan in place. I'd just texted Carrie to calm her down and uh-oh! 

I rode with Nana and Pop, so there wasn't any other choice than to hop in. The lesson started as we left Columbia and my reception went from great to chugging along. We had to reschedule.

On the bright side, Matt loaned us The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! I tried it out on the road home.

Shane was immediately jealous. He kept saying, "I wish I could play!" to which I replied, "It's my turn."

We got home around 8:20 PM, I think. There was enough time for me to shower and Shane to follow suit. Then it was bedtime.

I got some texts from Carrie at 1 AM. Kila had peed in her crate. I slept through those texts, but was awake for the 6 AM burned-out, "Please come home." This had always been planned as a quick trip. I had considered staying around long enough for Shane to have a morning playdate, but moved the time tables up. We'd be on the road by 8 AM.

There was enough time for breakfast, packing, and goodbyes! It was a short trip and a working one, but I feel like we packed in enough fun and memories I'm glad we did it.

In a little over 48 hours, we spent roughly 16 hours in a car (I drove for 12).  Shane and I made one stop for gas before leaving SC and then it was straight home without stopping from there!

Kila was happy to see us! Carrie was more shut down, but after she took a long nap she started to open back up.

She bought Shane a new video game about a cat, Stray, which they tried out together!

And so ended our part in Matt and Renee's moving process. They have some time before he starts the new job. It's pretty crazy to think they bought the house after only seeing it online! Ka, Stu, and their crew would leave early Sunday morning to go visit Stu's parents before Ka flew to Africa with the kids. That's a whole bunch going on within the family in a short period of time! What a time to be alive!