Moving… a lot!
I wanted to share a little bit about my moving experience. Just for posterities sake! I hope you don’t mind me just talking for a bit! (be sure to check out our moving tips post!)
It is funny, I have always LOVED moving… call me weird, but I love the challenge of a new home, cleaning out the old, getting rid of extra junk… all of it- even the driving to a new home! And really Justin and I have never moved just across the street, it has always been across the country, so they have been big moves filled with adventure…
Well this move has definitely changed my opinion of moving to a slightly less appealing thing to do… Ugh! It is challenging to move with kids.
First of all, we had like 3 times the stuff and no time to pack it. But it wasn’t just the packing, we had an entire house to finish remodeling (and NOW I realized why I shouldn’t start another project without finishing the last!) Not only did we have to finish the house (since we decided to rent it out and not sell it) but I also wanted to stage and photograph it for the blogs sake, which none of you have seen since I’m still not very settled, but all good things come with time!
Since we don’t have family to help us out in Texas one really helpful thing was that when we took a trip to Utah in June to speak at the Summer Soiree we drove our second car, dropped it off then flew back with our 15 year old niece who could help us with the kids while we got to work! She was a miracle worker, I don’t know what we would have done without her… although as a mom, it was really hard not to be able to be with my kids for about a month.
Like I said we’ve moved two times before with ABF U-pack, we wrote about one of them here. So we know the drill pretty well. What we didn’t plan for was record hot heat… and taking 4 days to get it all loaded. I am super thankful that we had so much time to load up the trailer, that is a really nice feature of ABF. It just took me forever to get all the boxes packed, and after about the 3rd day I totally lost steam and was so unmotivated. So it wasn’t that loading the car took so long it was combing through and boxing everything that we hade neglected for 6 weeks while we finished the house.
We made a little video… I think the girls are hilarious!
The road trip this move wasn’t quite as fun as the last one we took. (if you read it you might recognize this guy! He was our mascot again.. and funny enough, I watched the movie Lilo and stich for the first time in my life on this trip!)
We had a deadline to get our niece back for girls camp… but we got on the road a day and a half late… so it was rush, rush, rush! But our girls were amazing and we were majorly blessed. And we made it there in record time pretty much without incident… accept we had a little miracle. At 1:00 in the morning, while driving in the middle of New Mexico, we drove about 27 miles on empty, searching for a gas station. I tell you I prayed for 25 minutes straight (along with Justin and my niece… we were very wide awake for fear!) Thank heaven we made it! That was a miracle, I tell you!
I was thankful that we didn’t have to split up and drive a moving van (another benefit of ABF– I tell you I love these guys!). I don’t think I would have made it without Justin’s help driving! We arrived late Sunday night and our stuff was already there. NICE!
We got home to a family reunion, so we had them hold it for a day or so. Once they dropped off our stuff, low and behold there was a heat wave going on in Utah (just in time for us to unpack). My sweet 18 year old nephew got heat exhaustion helping us out, but he was so good about it! Thankfully we had like 2 whole days to unpack, because it was madness schedule wise for us! We took our time (and I actually left for a blogging conference EVO with my good friend Ruth… go check out her blog!! It was so good, I am going next year FOR SURE!)
Our families and friends were really good to us, helping to get everything unloaded! And now we are trying to get settled. Yeah, it has been a month, but we are downsizing by 1,000 square feet. AND we haven’t been home for any period of time for about 8 years, so we’ve never been so busy. We are hoping that in the next few weeks life will be settled down a bit and we can go on with things!
Anyway, that was our move. If you are considering moving, I would really check ABF U-Pack out, it is prices really well and such a great moving company. I hopefully will not be moving for at least 2 years… but if I do, I know who I will call!
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
Welcome back to Utah. 🙂
I love all that you were able to pack into the minivan for the drive!! Looks like you guys are barely able to fit!
I also love that you are in back with the girls … too many of “those” road trips to count!!
Let me just add my YEEHAWW!! that you guys are finally back in Utah!! Hooray, it’s been too long!
Glad it went smoothly! I hate moving, I usually get a couch dropped on my head or something. Your cat looks so much like mine–it’s a little spooky!
Jessica, Have you seen Donna of Funky Junk’s cat. Spitting image of our cats apparently. It would be funny to see how their temperaments are different.!