Georgia and Onward

Maxine was on the move again!  This time she traveled to her new home in Atlanta, GA.   Maxine and her cat and people love to go but preparing for and getting started on this trip were tough.  Obviously the emotion of leaving the South Shore - a place we've called home for nearly 11 years - and saying goodbye to our loving faith family at Christ Lutheran Church, Scituate, along with the wonderful friends we made in the community has been the most difficult and emotionally challanging of any move we've made!  The most physically challenging was cleaning out our home.  We downsized and got rid of A LOT of stuff.  The number of trips to the dump was astounding!  We were shocked at how much had accumulated.

There were what seemed like daily trips to Savers (similar to GoodWill for those of you not familiar) and at least five trips to drop off tools to the son of a dear friend.  We're so thankful he is in his first home and could use some tools!  We do hope we didn't give him a bunch of stuff he didn't want or need.  On top of that there were pickups and deliveries to friends of special items we had a hard time parting with, but giving them to people who will enjoy and appreciate them certainly helped.  So, after two intense weeks and one 30+ hour weekend stretch without sleep, the last of our belongings were distributed among either two PODs, our vehicles, or Maxine and we were on our way.   Well, not quite...

In the midst of all this Gregory flew to NC because his dad was hospitalized with a broken hip.  It was a bit challenging getting him on a flight and for the flight to actually make it to Asheville but that's another story!  Who knew Asheville was such a difficult destination?  Colleen, Mr. Tumnus, and Maxine waited at a campground near Hartford, CT, until Gregory's car was picked up for transport to GA since he wasn't around to drive it there.  Thankfully, Elliot drove Colleen's car to us last week!  We have grown accustomed to each of us having a car.

Colleen made it nearly to the PA border after leaving CT but since she doesn't like to drive Maxine in the dark she and Mr. Tumnus stopped and got a few hours of shut eye.  Next stop was Chambersburg, PA,  where Colleen met up with her best friends and had a nice evening with them.  The next day Colleen took off nice and early with Mr. Tumnus riding shotgun, hoping we'd be able to drive straight through to North Carolina to reunite with Gregory.  Unfortunately Maxine decided, while driving through the hills of Virginia, that it was a good time for her brake lines to spring a leak.  What a blessing that there was a big truck garage just off the next exit and Colleen managed to roll Maxine into their lot without crashing into anything or anyone!  

Now we've been in GA for three eventful weeks.  We closed on our condo and decided to move in a few days later because living in Maxine isn't as much fun when we're not on a traveling adventure.  We also just wanted to be in our new place...never suspecting the challenges we were about to face.  So we settled Maxine into storage and had one POD of our belongings delivered.  Fortunately the POD that was delivered was the last one we packed and it had some useful items for "living" in the otherwise unfurnished apartment.  Then the remaining POD was delivered; the one with the majority of our belongings and all of our furniture; the one packed by "professional" movers.  We use that term "professional" losely since it seems the job they did was less professional than we had hoped watching them do it.  Their packing of the POD was so poor that the contents had shifted such that we were unable to open the door!  A number of things had slid or tumbled and jammed the door so the POD had to be taken back to the warehouse and opened there.

However, not being able to unload the POD proved to be a blessing since without the distraction of furniture we discovered some floor and plumbing issues when the carpet was pulled up in the condo, leading to a three week delay in having new floors laid - a long story for another time!  Suffice it to say working with an HOA takes time and patience but in the end they agreed to pay for our flooring guy to level the concrete!  So, today the new floor was finally laid!!  The second POD has since been opened and the status of the boxes in there has us a bit concerned about how many of our belongings may have been damaged.  To get the POD open it is tilted back and jarred to settle the contents back away from the door.  We will find out once the POD is delivered again this weekend and we can finally get our home in order.  Good thing we took the content insurance option!

In addition to concrete needing repair and leveling we also found a bathroom leak that had clearly been ongoing for years and hidden by newly laid carpet.   The repairs will require a new tub/shower, the attached plumbing, and surrounding walls plus mold mitigation. 😠  Now our next project is finding out who is responsible for those repairs.  Our home warranty and home insurance have already denied our claim stating the issue was there prior to our policies...well duh!  Our thought is that our insurance should pursue the previous owner's insurance but they don't do that so we've gotten in touch with a lawyer to help us out.  The question is, "Will the lawyer cost more than the repairs?"  We're still in the information gathering phase so we'll see.  Thankfully we have a second bathroom to use in the meantime.

A trip to NC last weekend to celebrate Gregory's parent's 69th wedding anniversary reminded us of all we have to be thankful for!  It was such a joy to be together with all of our boys, their wives, our grandchildren, and Gregory's cousins to celebrate at the rehabilitation center where Gregory's dad is recovering nicely from hip surgery.  We keep reminding each other that if these are the biggest challenges we have in our life then we are not doing just fine, we are blessed!  Broken things can be replaced, concrete and plumbing can be repaired.  Life, loving relationships, and family cannot.  Those we have in spades.