The Adventures of a First Time Home Buyer: Part 5

Part 5: The End’s in Sight

Moving day had finally arrived and because it was April, I was worried that it would either rain or be extremely cold or both! Although it could not be considered warm or sunny, the weather was cooperative. My parents arrived the day before to help us finish up the packing, move the rest of the little items, and unpack the boxes we had moved. Most of the moving and unpacking was completed by the official moving day, which was my plan all along.

The movers, Moovers, were scheduled to arrive at 8am. The first dilemma was that the loading zone in front of our building is only enforced during business hours on weekdays. We moved on a Saturday. Therefore, almost the entire zone was covered in parked cars. The moving truck did not have room to park in the zone and could not park on the street. The security guard tried to call a person to move their vehicle, but to no avail. I was at a loss and both my boyfriend and the moving guys were looking toward me for the answer…which I did not have.

Minor caveat: I was also ill; so my body and brain were not functioning at the highest level during this move.

Back to the real story: Like a little girl, I pretty much ran upstairs to my dad and asked him to figure it out. My boyfriend, in the meantime, figured out that I was not going to live up to my problem solving capabilities and had already worked out a deal with the guard where the moving truck could block part of the garage exit. After that predicament, moving everything out of our old place went well because we just had to direct traffic and the two movers did everything.

Parking was not as large of an issue at the new place, although I am not entirely sure if where we parked was legal, but no tickets were written. As the movers were unloading the furniture, we received a call from the furniture store that was delivering our appliances. They were a few minutes away. So we had movers unloading our furniture and delivery people unloading our new appliances. Once they were all out, we were ready to install the new appliances and finish unpacking. We made two Home Depot runs for a step stool, toilet paper holders, towel racks, various appliance parts, a tree, and other miscellaneous items.

My dad had removed the old appliances the night before and put them in his trailer to take home. I refused to pay $60 per appliance to have the deliverymen install the appliances. I volunteered Dad to install them instead. My boyfriend was going to help. Welcome to dilemma #2, #3, and #4.

Let’s begin with the largest problem, the microwave.

Our old microwave was installed with a wall mount and then screwed into the top of the cupboards. We hoped that the old wall mount would fit the new microwave. It didn’t. By taking out the old one and installing a new wall mount, we were able to fit our new microwave in.  I don’t know how to describe the process, but it was definitely not easy. At one point, one of the brackets fell into the microwave and we had to remove the entire microwave case and find the bracket. If you have ever installed a microwave with a wall mount, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, be happy you don’t know what I’m talking about. The boys eventually got the microwave installed with minor help from my mom and me.

The dishwasher was next. Since we have granite countertops, we could not screw the dishwasher in place to the granite. We also could not screw it into the hardwood floor because there were cabinets in our way. We needed a side mounting kit, which of course did not come with the dishwasher. My dad was really trying to figure out what he could make from our miniscule supply of tools and doo-dads to get the dishwasher mounted that day. However, I eventually convinced him to let me order the side mounting kit. After reassuring him that both my boyfriend and I could use our college educations to figure out how to put the side mounting kit on the dishwasher and screw it to the cupboards, he gave up.

Another minor caveat: Receiving the side mounting kit was an interesting feat. I ordered it and did not see it arrive in the next two weeks. Eventually I remembered and asked my boyfriend if he had seen it. He claimed that he thought he got it from the security guard the Wednesday after we moved and put it on the kitchen counter. I looked EVERYWHERE for that kit. I have zero clutter in my house and I usually have tabs on everything. That kit was nowhere to be found. My boyfriend came to the conclusion that it had ended up being swept into the giant box of trash. I agreed with his conclusion because I pretty much threw anything and everything that I did not want into that box. I bought a new kit and it sat on the counter for a week or two. We cannot find the motivation to put the kit on. It’s very low on our priority list. My new goal is to wait until my dad visits again and have him do it. I know it’s sad that we can’t find 30 minutes to install our dishwasher properly, but that’s our life. And then a week ago, my boyfriend went downstairs to get a package from the security guard. Guess what? The security guard also said that he found another package in the very back of the shelf that was for us. Yes, it was the dishwasher mounting kit. I laughed, but I sort of wanted to cry. I returned one of the kits and there is still one sitting on our counter waiting for my dad to visit.

The final issue was that the stove power cord had a four-prong end and our outlet only had room for three prongs. Luckily, my dad was able to find the correct plug and attach it to the cord. It was a very minor problem, but Dad was pretty annoyed that another thing went wrong.

Eventually all of the appliances were installed and everything was unpacked. My parents left and we spent the next couple of weeks perfecting the space. I got my sewing space set up and my boyfriend set up his man cave/office. Our new couch and TV were delivered. I found the perfect color of towels for our master bathroom. We are still debating about placement for our pictures and shelves, but slowly making progress.

Stick around for the last post in The Adventures of a First Time Home Buyer series to see pictures of our beautiful and complete condo.