Moving Week!

Since we were homeless for a few days, we actually had "Moving Week" instead of "Moving Day".  On Saturday, May 22, we finished all the packing, with the exception the things we really were using every day.  By the time we finished that, our box piles had grown to these proportions.

Oh yes, the Mindy-Kitty continued to investigate the boxes, and perch herself here and there :)

I never knew I had so many kitchen utensils!  This was not a large box, but I did fill a small box!

Monday was 'Moving Out Day'.  Arian came to pick up Rob and they went to get the U-Haul.  Thankfully the truck was available as promised!  U-Haul does guarantee the truck will be available, but since we needed the truck for 6 days, we had to have a "one-way" truck, rather than an "in-the-lot" truck.  This made us a little skeptical of their guarantee, but everything worked out just fine.  We had gotten a call on Saturday telling us where to pick up the truck - thankfully it was not that far away. We wouldn't have had time to drive to Thunder Bay to pick up the truck!

We were so thankful that it was a dry, sunny day, but it was very warm!

Check out the excellent park job that Rob did!  Kudos to Arian too, for being the signal-man.

We were able to extend the ramp from the truck right onto the front porch, so there were no stairs to deal with.

Let the packing begin!  A big thank you to Steve, Arian, Dad D, Mark and Rachael for all their help on this day!

Moving the piano - it is an old piano, a little over a hundred years old, and it is HEAVY! Note the handy piano dollies:

Made it!  The piano is safely on the truck.

It turned out that our stuff FILLED that 26' truck!  We had rented a big one, since we did not have the option of a second trip, but did not expect to fill it.  But fill it we did!

We used Rob's pickup for some things too, and ended up making a couple trips with the last of the odds and ends.

Baby Lucas came to "help" us move out too...

We stayed at Mom & Dad D for the week.  That worked out very well!  Thank you Mom & Dad!  The U-Haul was just parked in the driveway.

U-Haul is decorating their trucks with various creatures; on our truck was some horse that is extinct.  Mom's question was, if a horse is extinct, and all you have is some bones, how do you know it was striped?

We set up our mattress in Dad & Mom's dining/living room.  That big room was our home for the week...

...and for Mindy.  The cat stayed in our old house overnight on Monday, the house being pretty much empty.  Tuesday morning I went back to the house to finish vacuuming, and pick up the final few items, and the cat.  Once at Mom & Dad's, I let her out of her crate, in the living room.  It was kind of funny to watch.  She wanted to hide.  First she went to look behind one chair - no, that wasn't a very good spot.  She peered around another chair, nope, not good enough either.  Then she found the couch..Zoom!  Behind the couch she went, in fact, I think she went under the couch.

However, she settled in fine, and faster than we expected, spending quite a bit of time in the sun on the window sill too.

One morning, when I was going to work, I snapped these two pictures.  Annie was oblivious to Mindy, but Mindy was well aware of Annie!

On Wednesday evening, Dad, Mom, Rob & I spent the evening doing some gardening.  The original plan was to cut the grass and plant some annuals that Mom had bought.  We did all that - it was a very warm evening - and cut down a tree!  That was a rather spur of the moment decision, but the tree was getting too big, and was not so healthy anymore, so down it came.

This is the "BEFORE" picture.

The "AFTER" picture.

On Friday, May 28th, we got the keys to our new house!  I met the lawyer shortly after 2:00pm, and then I was off to our new house.  When I arrived, I was thankful to find that it was empty already.  Time for the work to begin again!

We had another group of family and friends come to help on Friday night, to clean the house.  THANK YOU to Dianne, Christine, Karin, Rachael (& Lucas :)), Mom A.    The house was not a disaster, but it felt good to know that it had a good going over.

Dad A and Dad D were also over, and they worked with Rob to start running the cables for phone and internet in our new den.

Rob worked on Friday, but when he arrived, he carried me over the threshhold :)

I had gone to pick up the cat late Friday afternoon.  She found the new house pretty terrifying too, especially with people vacuuming, drilling, so she attempted to hide again.  An empty house doesn't afford a lot of hiding spots, so under the stairs between two studs was the best she could do.  Later that evening, when things quieted down, she did emerge and start exploring.  Rob and I slept in our new house Friday night, and Dad & Mom A stayed over too.

Dianne kindly brought some beautiful flowers to help make our house a home...the original "vase" that was used was very lovely indeed!

Saturday was "Moving In" Day.  The truck was unloaded.  Thanks to Mark, Jason, Dad D and Dad A for your help.  Mom A, Mom D and I worked at unpacking boxes.  The kitchen was mostly unpacked by mid afternoon.

Moving the piano in.

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Arian, Karin, Alex & Erik stopped in to have a look.  The truck was empty by then, so Alex could sit up in the "Grandma's Attic" section with Grandpa!

Oh, and we found a more suitable vase for the flowers...the picture doesn't show it very well but it really is a very nice glass jar :)

We are settled enough to live, but we hope to start painting very soon, so are waiting with some of the unpacking until the painting is done.  Thankfully this house has a very large storage room in the basement, so we've piled a lot of the boxes up in there, until the painting is done.

We're very thankful for this new home that God has provided for us, and for the dear friends and family who helped us out so much - thank you!    It is our prayer that God will bless us in this home, and that He would enable us to shine His light in our new community.

I'll try to do another post soon, with some pictures of the house, since that's probably the pictures you're really waiting for!