Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts

Monday, August 14, 2017

Moving Back

We've moved a lot, but we've never moved homes within the same city. Even though our year in Germany broke up our time in Tallahassee, it was sort of nice coming back to a familiar city. We are now living in a different part of town that we need to figure out, but we don't have to find a church, and we know how to get to work. It's nice!
We got to Tallahassee on July 31, and stayed with our dear friends the Kings that night. The next morning, we tackled a variety of moving related errands before signing papers and getting the keys to our new place. We like it! It's got a lot more light than the last place we lived (in the States, I mean). The inside of the kitchen cabinets is painted black which is so strange to me and I don't like that, but pretty much everything else about our new place is great. 

Here it is when we first walked through. Right now it's in a very transitional stage since we haven't been around, but here it was when it was pristine. They replaced all the flooring the day before we moved in which was so great!





A before picture, as we headed to get the moving truck. 

Nobody else ended up being available to load the truck, so it was just Carson and I. It took us six very long hours to get things from the third floor of the unit to the truck. 



Oh man. So bad.




I helped as best I could, mainly lifting only small things. A cart ran over my foot and put me out of commission for a little bit, and I took a "break" to walk up a hill (I forgot how steep Tallahassee hills can be!) and buy some Gatorade from a Walgreens, but for the most part, I was there too, not doing the heavy lifting and generally getting in the way.


At 6, some friends stopped by to help unload the truck, and that's right when Carson pulled up at the apartment with our stuff! It was so nice to have two guys there to help him with the heavy lifting. They were done in a little over an hour, even though they had to go up and down two flights of stairs into the apartment to do it. 

I went on another big Gatorade run while they finished up, and Carson ordered pizza that was scarfed down quickly before they all went to cool off in the pool (the pool is so close to our apartment!!!).


After they left, we tried to organize the boxes a little, and set up our bed. We were missing one piece of the bed frame, so we went back to the storage unit hoping it was among the few things left in there. We found it right behind the door, tucked away and almost hidden, but we found it! We stopped by Krispy Kreme on the way there because the hot light was on. 


The end of the day picture. Sweat not pictured.

This is how the living room looked at the end of the day. I set up the TV because finding that box wasn't too hard.


The dining room looks the worst (now) because all the boxes of Carson's books are in the corner there. He went to get those the next day.

Our friendly bed, ready for weary movers!

It was a busy week, so we made a list of things we needed to do.

The next day, we went on a hunt for a washer and dryer. We found a used set and it fit in the Pilot!

We had to get the set into our apartment ourselves, and that proved to be a struggle. As we were pulling and pushing the first one up the stairs and getting nowhere, a man from an apartment across the way, holding a small child, ran out of his apartment and helped Carson push while I pulled. He was holding his child the whole time! With his help, we got it up the stairs, and he had run back down to his apartment almost before we could thank him. We still had the problem of getting the dryer upstairs, but at that moment, someone from the Classics department walked by, and Carson said hello. They caught up (yes, he does live in this complex too) and Carson asked if he wouldn't mind please giving us a hand in getting it up the stairs. That definitely felt like a blessing from God, having those two just "happen" to walk by right when we needed help!

That day, we got all the things from the storage unit into our apartment and returned the keys to it. We had dinner out that evening (at 10pm because we were unpacking and lost track of time) and then got blizzards on the way home.

We settled down to watch a movie in our junky living room. Sometimes you just gotta take a break!

We unpacked and organized on Thursday, and then that evening, I had dinner with some old coworkers. My former boss is due with a baby boy any second now!


We did a lot of looking at storage solutions and things for the new apartment. Didn't buy anything, but we have our eyes out.

And we went by the Tax Collector's office to register and title our car and get new licenses. I didn't actually know we were getting new pictures taken, I thought we could just change the addresses, but apparently that's not a thing and we had to go through the whole thing again. I don't love my new picture but I've always HATED my old one. 

I made Carson smile in this new one and he looks a lot less murdery. His passport picture still looks a little too serial killer for my taste, but at least here he looks like someone who's safe to have on the streets.

Found my wedding dress while unpacking.

We went for a walk at our old favorite park, Cascades Park. They've added this walkway over Monroe Street in the time we've been gone.


It was a busy week! You're lucky that I didn't take pictures of all the times we were unpacking, because this post would have been way longer!

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Across the Pond

I realized a few weeks ago that since 2008, I've moved cities every two years. In 2008, I moved from Beaufort to Spokane, in 2010 I moved to Olympia, Naches and then back to Spokane, in 2012 we moved to Cleveland and in 2014 we moved to Tallahassee. Because Carson's in a five-year PhD, we didn't plan on moving more than just within the city for five whole years, and even then, we planned to move as few times as possible.

Ha. 

So Carson applied for a Fulbright Scholarship in Germany for the fall. It's a long process between application and decision time, so we've known it was a possibility for about six months. In January, Carson found out that he was in the top running for applications, so his chances increased. A couple of weeks ago, I got out of work to discover that someone was sitting in the car, and I was surprised to find out that it was Carson. 

"Are you sure about Germany?" he asked, "I want to make sure you're okay with it. We don't have to do it!"

"YOU GOT IT!" I said. "WE'RE GOING TO GERMANY?"

And so we are. 

We are moving to Germany! In four months! Cue the wide eyed surprised face. 

Here are some details, in case you're curious:

We will be in Munster (Wikipedia link included in case you want to do some slight research yourself). Carson will be working on a project there. We will leave in August for Fulbright orientation in Marburg, stay there for about six weeks of language intensive, and then the semester begins in Munster in September. We should be there until mid-July of 2017. 
We aren't sure what I'll be doing exactly while we're there, but we'll figure it out and I'm just happy to be going along for the ride. I have made a seriously impossible list of places I'd love to visit while we're in Europe, and I'm hoping to get to knock several cities and countries off of it during our year abroad (so fancy!). 
Right now, we're researching storage units, deciding where we'll forward our mail, learning as much as we can about the culture before we go (thank you Ethnography classes in college), and discovering how unique apartment hunting is from a different continent (it turns out that some come without heat and others without appliances including sinks and toilets?!?!). 

So I wonder where we'll move two years from now? The moon?

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Tallahassee First Impressions

When we left my parent's house for Florida, Oscar wouldn't look at us. I think he knew his favorite person (Dad) was gone for a few days, and that it was our fault. Great, now I sound like Dad.


I wore my Cleveland Indians shirt because it doesn't hurt to mix loyalties.





Our apartment building. It doesn't have any amenities (lots of places had pools and gyms and tennis courts), but it is quiet, since there are only three other apartments.

Walking in the front door, you see this.

In my head, there was a separate dining room. I was okay without it, but when I walked in, it felt very small to me and I didn't think it was going to be big enough for our table and couch and I really, really hated this place.
 It's likely that this wallpaper in the main bathroom helped my feelings. Yikes.


Our room

View from the back door.

Carson thought this was the greatest thing ever, this pass-through. I loved that it has over twice the counter space and storage.


Guestroom/Office

Guest bathroom

Getting started.

Mom and Dad were initially an hour behind us, but since we moved slower, they weren't too far behind and brought Publix fried chicken with them!


The unpacking was long, and mostly accomplished by Dad and Carson. After showering, we returned the truck and set off to explore.

Syncing directions was a must.

Filling the tank up once more was also a must (if you don't, they apparently charge $8/gallon)

Since it's the reason we are here, we decided to find Florida State's campus.




They have a circus complex. This was perhaps the highlight of our trip to campus. (here's a website about it)


We walked to find Carson's building.




These spear/arrows are all over the sidewalks on campus.

After touring, we hit the store for a few necessities and headed back to relax and SLEEP.
Setting up house happened over the next two days. More of Mom and Dad's visit coming soon!
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