Bits with the Belchers: The Move

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Move

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged, but things have been hectic around here to say the least! We've been in our new house just over a week now and have accomplished quite a bit (I think) but still have plenty to do...and that's a separate post anyway. This is all about the move.
We were scheduled to close on November 16 (a Friday) and planned to load the truck in Birmingham on Saturday and unload in Nashville on Sunday. Well, on Wednesday night before closing, our agent called with the news that we may not close 'til Monday because the loan officer still had not received all the paperwork from underwriting. The next morning, Friday (the day we would've closed) and the following Monday we received tons of calls and emails requesting information for underwriting....almost all of which were documents we already sent. I finally asked the question, "what have you all been doing the last 5 weeks?" I mean, seriously?!? Why the last minute hold up? Fortunately, the homeowner's moved before Thanksgiving and agreed to an early occupancy so we were able to move in before finally closing on Monday the 26th. We loaded the truck in B'ham on Friday after Thanksgiving (23rd) and unloaded in Nashville Saturday (24th). Packing up the B'ham house:

We reserved two trucks plus loaded Donny & Pam's (my FIL & stepmom-in-law) trailer and Yukon, our Traverse, my parents' car, my brother Steve's car and Mark's Explorer (my cousin, Rachel's, husband-down from St.Louis). I think it's safe to say we have too much stuff! And yes, we did purge before packing and loading. My sister, Tracy, brother, Rob, brother-in-law, Edward and Uncle Jimmy (down from St. Louis) also helped. Daniel and I have learned two things from this move and decided if we ever move again: 1. we're selling everything and starting over and 2. we're saving up to buy a house cash. I digress.
Thanks so much to all our volunteers!!! We really appreciate your help, especially with an interstate move over a holiday weekend! It means a lot you were so willing to pitch in- and a big thanks to my aunt Patti and cousin Rachel for volunteering to watch the kids at my parents' house while we moved all day in Birmingham!

After all the packing was complete, we locked the doors and drove up to Tennessee. Daniel and Edward were awarded the delightful task of driving the trucks to the new house. I'm pretty sure we should've bought Edward his very own rack of ribs for that. Since it was late and everyone was tired we decided to unload on Saturday as originally discussed, there was just too much work and driving to do it all in one day.

We didn't start until about 1pm on Saturday because we knew less help was available. My uncle Jimmy was driving back to St. Louis and my brothers wanted to hang with him before heading to the house and my parents sadly had a funeral to attend. This left us with 5 less people than we had loading, 4 of which were guys. Mark and Rachel headed to the house when I did which would've given us 3 guys to start with but they blew a flat so Daniel and Edward hauled a lot of heavy stuff- about half the first truck alone- while Tracy & I unloaded cars. Fortunately Mark and Steve were there in time to haul the couch bed. They were able to finish the first/big truck before dark and the second truck had very little heavy furniture which made that unload pretty quick. Donny & Pam unloaded their car and trailer into our garage Friday afternoon, so that was already done.

This dog showed up on moving day and tried to take over! I can't count how many times we had to remove him from the house. When he ran off some of the neighbors brought him back to us! They never seen the dog before and assumed he was ours. Oh my goodness, he was giving us a bad rep. Fortunately we were able to clarify with everyone that he is not our dog. We haven't seen him since, so I hope he made his way home :)