PCS checklist (Happy Milspouse Appreciation Day!)

Happy Military Spouse Appreciation Day!!

I think it’s only fitting that I am bumming around my house today, since that’s my favorite thing to do. I was in my pjs until just recently.

In honor of today and our upcoming PCS, I thought I would share my big bad address change and cancellation checklist with you. Updating our address is one of those things that I feel so scattered about unless I have a list. And inevitably, the cancellations get lumped in with address changes, because with things like utilities you get your deposit back and they need your forwarding address to send it to you. We have moved so often that I keep a master list with phone numbers and website addresses. Some things change, but some things don’t (you always have to update DEERS). And here’s my helpful tip for today: I try to update it when I call to set up the new utilities at the new place because I know I’m leaving wherever I’m living eventually.

I tried to make it generic enough so that pretty much anyone could use it, although obviously some things won’t apply to everybody. (Feel free to laugh at all those magazine spots, my dh is a magazine junkie). I hope it helps someone out in the craziness that is PCS season. Let me know if you think it’s useful (or not). Enjoy!

PCS Checklist

We have a winner!

We’re home, and we have a house to live in when we move this summer! 

I think this was the most painful househunting trip that we have yet to experience. They say it’s a buyer’s market? Why is it then that no fewer than THREE houses we wanted were gone before we could offer on them, and our house-to-be almost got away from us as well? (it had another offer in on it but thankfully our offer was better). I guess everybody is moving to the mountains.

Crazy crazy. Almost as crazy as taking your three-year-old with you to look at nearly 25 homes in 3 days.  Our realtor was fantastic, if you are moving out to Colorado, email me and I’ll give you her name.  She actually took the time to fill easter eggs, and when she would open up a house for us to see she would “hide” the egg so that the dutchkid could find it.   So sweet.  And she knows her stuff.  This is our 5th home purchase, so we’ve been around the block a few times with realtors, she’s one of the best we’ve ever had. 

In a bit of irony, after looking all over the place we ended up in our old neighborhood we lived in 8 years ago.  At first I was really resistant to that, just because it felt a little like we had been there and done that… but it’s close to dh’s workplace and well within our price range, along with having a great view of the mountains, a decent backyard and a newly renovated kitchen.  We only had our old crummy camera with us, and I’m too embarrassed to put those rotten images up here, so you’ll just have to wait until we get there to live and I can do it justice. 

I’m finally more excited about getting out there!  I still have to make a decision on the school situation for the dutchkid, but it feels like everything’s coming together.  As the saying goes: “Pikes peak or bust!”

The damages

We are now mostly unpacked, I think this is a my new record for SLOW. I am to the point where I am getting to the things I enjoy about having a new house. We planted the flower beds yesterday and I finally got around to measuring our windows and starting to hang curtains. I have quite a bit of sewing to do, since the windows here are bigger than in my previous modern houses not very many of my curtains will work as is.

So far I have been amazed by the lack of damage to our stuff. Our previous move was our worst ever (where they broke among many other things, my beloved kitchen table). We don’t even have enough to file a claim on for this move:

1) my favorite hat was crushed (an elegant wide brimmed number that I love to wear to outdoor ceremonies, just because)

2) the dutchkid’s 99¢ pail and shovel broken into pieces

Seriously. That’s all I’ve got. Not a single dish, picture or knick knack. Most importantly the table and my piano came through unscathed. I should be grateful, but they didn’t even give me anything good to write about, dangit!

House quirks

quirky things about my house: coal door

Originally uploaded by dutchican

Our “new” house is actually very old, I’m not sure exactly how old but it is close to a century. This little door is in the cellar/basement. It still opens and there are remnants of coal in it (along with other not so nice things). It must have been part of an old heating system, I’m guessing. For some reason such things fascinate me. The house is full of little oddities.

I am here…

…but trying to dig my way out of all the moving paper and boxes. We were in denial all weekend. So instead of starting to unpack after the moving truck was divested of its contents, we chose instead to stay at the hotel and pretend we were just visiting. The fence for the dogs went up today and I have legal internet instead of piggybacking on my new neighbors’ wireless. I will try to come up with some funny stories about the move to regale you with… soon.

Grubby

Well, we’re here. Tired and grumpy the lot of us.

It never fails that at the last minute I’m always frantically cleaning the house. Even though every single house I have ever moved into was nasty (no matter whether it was bought or rented) I always feel compelled to clean the one I’m leaving. I have never been able to just load the U-haul and walk away thinking: “It’s their house to clean now.” It’s some sort of weird compulsion. I would say it’s a Dutch one, except my Dutch dh doesn’t suffer from that affliction. He’s always more obsessed with either a) how much money it’s costing or b) how behind schedule we are.

At least with this move we didn’t have to drive across the country (just several states) so the just getting here was less painful than last time. We sign for our house tomorrow and hopefully our household goods won’t be far behind. Until then, I’ll have a whole new house to clean.

I’m not looking…

The packers are here. Two ladies who came from a company based out of Ft. Bragg, which is several hours from here. It’s interesting that with gas so expensive they would pay to have them drive all the way down, but I’m not sorry. From past experience, I’ve had good luck with lady packers. They seem like they know what they’re doing, so I’m opting for the hiding my head in the sand approach… just letting them do their thing and hoping for the best. So here I am. Surfing instead of supervising.

Update:  I’m telling you, those ladies can PACK.  They did my entire house (about 12,000 lbs they estimated) in 6 hours.  It was supposed to take 2 days.

Making progress

Sometimes when I’m feeling sorry for myself, I like to think doing a DITY (sorry, “Do IT Yourself move”) would actually be easier. But then I stop smoking that crack pipe and realize that no, trying to load up all your furniture, find enough boxes and make sure it doesn’t all get broken would be worse.

We always do a partial DITY to pay for the U-haul. After the Army completely lost an entire shipment of my dh’s stuff (before we were married), we always take the stuff we couldn’t bear to lose or be broken. I just hate these last few days when my house is a shambles, piles of stuff everywhere and boxes of stuff we’re taking that are partially packed. You really can’t pack everything because you still need some of the junk until right before the movers arrive.

I usually fall into the trap of trying to organize my house in some sort of logical order in the pipe dream that maybe unpacking it would be easier on the other end. However, that dream has never come true. The movers don’t abide by my neat system of keeping everything together and I still always find random objects thrown together in the boxes.

This time, dh and I decided that we would focus on just separating out the stuff we are taking. This sounds so logical! (you can tell it was his idea). We’ll see how that works out for us when we unpack. For now it’s driving me crazy.

How dare they!?

There’s something about the home inspection process in selling your home that gets under my skin. I don’t know why it irks me to have the buyers come through with a professional to nitpick my house, but it just does. Outlining all the things that they are going to change or improve and “oh this paint color will be so much better!” And then asking us to fix things.

I like to think that when I’m a prospective buyer I am a little more sensitive to how the sellers might feel (ha!). I might hate your paint colors and decor but I’m not mean enough to say it within earshot. I guess I am strangely defensive about my house. Maybe it’s because I feel like they’re getting a killer deal to start with and then they want to nickel and dime me? We left this morning after they got started, thank goodness, and at least we don’t have to be present for the closing. I am even more glad that we will be living on post next, at least I will be spared this whole process again for awhile.

Impending doom

It’s here. That sense of “holy crap how am I going to get everything done before the movers get here?!”

We spent this weekend trying to see those last few people we would feel guilty about not seeing before we left, including my in-laws today. Feeling slightly guilty about being relieved that I’m moving farther away from my mother-in-law (well, not that guilty). Dh and I spent the car ride back going over mental lists of what we need to accomplish this week.

The dreams have started. For years, when under stress I have these odd packing dreams. Usually I’m running out of time trying to get to the airport, and things keep on preventing me from getting things into my suitcase. In a strange trick of the mind, now that I AM packing, I’m having similar dreams but they’re more about losing things. Last night I had a vivid dream about my dh’s camera equipment. Somehow I had misplaced his astronomically expensive Nikon D200 at what must have been a photographers’ conference. In the dream I kept on searching through endless camera bags.

So there you have it. A glimpse into my twisted psyche. I think I’m going to just let the movers have at it and throw the rest into the U-haul.