The plan was to do a few things in the new house before we moved in, then move in, then fix up a few things in the old house, then list it for sale. Our goal was to do this is 3 weeks. Things didn't really go according to plan.
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| First dinner in our new house, at our folding table |
We closed on our new house on a Friday. Brett was with us and the other two were in school. We had done our walk-through Thursday night and everything looked as expected. I was bringing in cleaning supplies when Bryan called me to the basement. There was a puddle. We notified our realtor and the previous owner apologized for not getting the gutters cleaned out. We cleaned up the mess and cleaned out the gutters. Problem solved...
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| Ready to paint Brett's room |
We wanted to get the bedrooms painted before we moved in. We were also planning to get new carpet installed the first week, so we got right to work that weekend. We got the owner's suite and boys' bedrooms done.
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| Official moving day |
We were still sleeping at our old house and planned to move the POD (our beds) on Monday. Again, it was Bryan, Brett, and I on Monday that went over to work on the new house. The other two were at school. My parents were expected to arrive to help us move. Bryan went down to the basement and called me down again. This time it was not a puddle, it was a lake! It had rained heavy over night and the sump didn't kick on. The entire utility/storage room and Brett's bedroom had water covering the floor. (Had it been one more night, a ton of our stuff would have been in the storage room.)
Bryan got to work in fixing the sump pump and putting in an emergency backup while Brett and I cleaned. My parents came to the rescue. Brett's flooring is luxury vinyl plank (LVP), so they pulled it all up, keeping it in order, dried it out, and reinstalled it. This set us back a few days, as my parents had come planning to help put new LVP on the main floor. We were also having new carpet installed on the main and second floor at the same time.
But that's not all! On Monday night, we all slept on mattresses on the floor in our new house. (My parents had their RV parked in the driveway of our old house.) On Tuesday, Reggie and Lydia went to school again while the rest of us worked on the new house. There was a track meet after school. All 3 kids were in track. Lydia usually does the 800M and the 1500M, but when I checked in with her at the track meet, she said she decided not to do the 1500M because she "had a sore throat". I thought that was weird, so when we got home, I found our covid tests and had her do the test after her shower.
I was in the bathroom with her. I put the drops on the test and it IMMEDIATELY showed a positive result. She covered her face with her t-shirt while I escaped past her and told her to go in Bryan's little office (which literally had nothing in it). Her bedroom light was broken (of course!) so I didn't want to set her up in there. The rest of us tested negative (including my parents) and I brought her a mattress, bedding, and clothing. And that's how she spent her first few days in our new house.
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| Painting Lydia's room |
I wanted my parents to go home, but they refused. So we pressed on. Mom and I painted Lydia's room, and Dad and Bryan put the light fixture from our bedroom in there, and a new one in our bedroom. Then they got to work on putting new LVP in the dining room and the room where the guinea pig's cage would go. Simultaneously, we had a painter painting the two-story foyer in our old house.
We got Lydia's bed and piano set up for her and she was able to move into her bedroom on day 4 of her quarantine. We were still testing negative, and she still tested positive though her symptoms were better (I don't know if there's science to this, but the result took longer and was more faint). My parents left on Sunday (Mother's Day!), and we allowed Lydia to emerge from her room with a mask on Monday. Lydia was required to stay home from school and school activities until day 11, which meant she missed participating in honors band and her spring concert.
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| Mother's Day with our covid + daughter |
That next week, Bryan and I continued to work in both houses. I still had the dining room and two bedrooms in the old house to paint. Reggie was going to school and Brett was doing home school and helping us with projects. We were still dealing with some seeping water along the stairwell from the basement to the garage.
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| Finally time to take a walk in the park by our house |
And then we had another big storm. Brett was a church, Bryan was at the old house, and I was home with Lydia and Reggie. I thought we should check the stairwell, and this is what I we found:
A water feature!
We used all the towels we could find and then used old blankets, rung them out, and used them again until Bryan and Brett got home. Despite me telling him not to, Bryan went out in the storm and cleaned more gutters out!
That weekend, we had new flooring put in the old house and Bryan's parents came to help us clean up the yards and shampoo carpets in both houses. The floorer damaged our freshly painted walls. We had no time to wait for the company to come back to fix it. Bryan's parents stayed an extra day to homeschool Brett so I could clean and repair walls. The last step was staging, which we hired done and we managed to make our goal of listing on May 19th.
May 19th was going to be the last track meet. Brett and I went up to the hosting school and were looking for the field and Bryan was shortly behind us. Reggie and Lydia were on the field ready for the meet to begin. Another storm blew in and this one brought heavy, large hail! Reggie and Lydia scrambled to their bus for cover, Brett and I were stuck in the van in the parking lot, and Bryan was only able to pull over. We were pummeled with hail for several minutes. It was so loud! they canceled the meet and after some confusion Reggie and Lydia found us. When we got home, there was still hail on our deck.
But no water in the basement...
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