Moving Day!

Well sort of, moving weekend?  Moving week? I still have a lot of stuff at the old apartment.  Despite help I didn't get everything packed.

Movers arrived and they didn't pack anything, they just moved the furniture and what I had packed.  They also grabbed some plants, which was awesome.  These guys did a great job and had the van loaded up in about two hours.

We stopped at my new storage unit, dropped off winter clothes and all of the outside furniture and then it's on to the houseboat!

With strategically placed fans and leaving both doors open the temperature wasn't unbearable.  The most important part is that all the furniture I brought with me fit!  I eve have a little bit of space!!  I am missing a desk, which will be problematic once I finish cleaning out my apartment, but otherwise I'm good.  But oh the boxes!

I had boarded the dog the first night, he was stressed out enough with me packing,dealing with him while unpacking in a new strange place that rocked wasn't something I wanted to deal with.

Totes full of stuff, and the paper towels are angry

So many boxes! and I'm not done!  First night in the new bed, the mattress was a smart choice and despite the fact that I literally need a step stool to get into the bed, it worked out well.  I'll get a picture when the bed is actually made.  A friend brought over pizza so it was even the traditional 'first night in a new place' dinner!

I always have Jasmine by my door

The plants got settled in well! The tree is now attached to the wall, the idea being that it won't fall into the lake in a storm!

Step one done, now to unpack, organize and then get the rest of my stuff over here or otherwise taken care of!

Remind me to stop moving

If I wasn't downsizing I'd have just paid someone to pack, but since  I am that just isn't going to work.  Even with some wonderful help, not even close to being done and I'm over it already.  The movers will come bright and early tomorrow and take what is packed, take the furniture and I will deal with the rest of it later.  I hurt, I'm done.

Tonight I sleep on the couch and tomorrow in my new bed!  On my houseboat! Without the dog though :(  Poor little guy has been self-soothing all evening with a toy of his, this packing has him as stressed out as I am.  I'm boarding him tomorrow and his trainer will bring him to the boat Saturday afternoon.  Hopefully some of the chaos will be over by then.  If nothing else his stuff will be there.

So need to sleep, so need to finish packing.  I think sleep is winning.

First set of movers are on the way!

Moving onto my houseboat is kind of complicated, mostly because it is so so small, and there are things that not only me but my family aren't willing to part with.  I have an antique dresser, well two of them but only one is being moved today, and a lot of books I'm pretty fond of.  However I don't want any of those on a boat with the high humidity and much greater possibility of things getting wet.

The other dresser is going away, so if anyone is in the market for a very large 'low boy' dresser with a huge mirror let me know.

Anyway all of the things that fall into the 'don't want to get rid of but aren't willing to take on a boat' are going to my mom's, since it was her dresser anyway.  This necessitates two sets of movers, and then a big junk yard haul at the end.

First set of movers are here and even though they're really not taking very much it already feels super empty! This afternoon and evening are the big 'I have to pack everything I want the movers to move, because if I don't I have to move it myself' push.

We Closed! OMG WTF Heat??

Let me tell you about today!  I went to work and waited to hear back from the lawyer.  I got my direct payment paperwork for the marina and the bank, got it all filled out and stuff.  Still nothing from the lawyer.  By noon I wasn't getting anything done so I bailed.

I went and got my new storage unit and it felt a bit warm, but I had been inside all day so it was fine.  I went and stalked the lawyer and had lunch.  He finally gets back at 3pm and we officially close!  Yay!!!  I shoot off a few texts, go and let myself into my new houseboat!

It is SO hot and muggy in there I wanted to die.  I was told it hit 91 in the area.  I opened up the doors and windows but there are no fans, and no screens so by opening said windows I take the chance of spider-bro's coming inside.  My fantastic realtors come by and bring me candy and champagne!  And both go in the fridge and they leave pretty quickly.  It is SO hot.  I end up only getting about half of the stuff I had brought in, sitting near the closet as it was the coolest part of the house and just dying.  I went and got water and diet coke for the fridge, drank all the water and pretty much wanted to die.

So I chose to sit in my car in horrendous traffic because it had AC, I regret nothing about this choice.  I am home now in my wonderfully cool apartment with AC and fans, I am pricing out window AC units since I don't have a lot of floor space to devote to a stand alone.

Movers for my mom's stuff come between 8 and 10am tomorrow, it shouldn't take TOO long since everything is packed.  I just need to sort out which boxes are which and put the ones they need to take closer to the door.  I'll sleep on the couch here tomorrow night and Friday morning we start moving into the boat!

I've been home over an hour and I finally feel almost human again.  F this heat!  Tomorrow is supposed to be just as bad or worse, but then we're back into the 70's again.  This bodes much better for my ability to function while moving.

Thank you everyone for the FB congratulations!  I just posted the fact that I had closed with this quick picture I took while dying in the floor:

So now I organize, pack, and then we're off!

We're really closing on Wednesday, I swear

I knew this process was going to well.  I find this amazing houseboat I want to buy, it's in my price range, this is the fifth house I've purchased in my life, I know how to do this!  It will be fine!

What a sweet summer child I was.  Not that this has been bad actually, I've had WAY worse times trying to buy a home.  This last week has been a thing though.

We were trying to close by the 1st, but due to the fact that I didn't want a credit on any of the demands to repair, and they had to actually repair things, that got delayed.  Then the bank had to get the papers over to the lawyer, that took forever.  I signed those on Sunday.  I took a bus into Seattle this morning and wired the money over.  Yay progress!

Turns out I forgot a thing and I had to go back to Seattle this evening and re-sign the loan paperwork.  The lawyer, who has been SO patient, has my downpayment money but still needs the bank to fund their side.  Once they do he sends stuff in and we close.  Oh, and the sellers are having twins on Friday, so we really need to get this done.

Currently the plan is that we close on Wednesday!  Only a week later than we had hoped, which is actually pretty good for real estate.  I have all of the clothing part of the donations in my car ready to drop off tomorrow, part of the house is packed but all of the movers are scheduled.  Assuming the bank doesn't do anything weird, or need anything else, I should get my keys that day!

I still haven't started packing the kitchen....

Throwing out all of the things! Still more Purging

I keep talking about purging, but when you're moving into a houseboat with 350 ish square feet there is a lot of downsizing.  Today was the bathroom.

I am not a hoarder! I am lazy.  I buy in bulk so I don't have to buy often.  Things like toothpaste, toiler paper, paper towels, things like that, tend to be purchased at larger quantities.  This isn't going to necessarily work in my new space.

With that in mind I had very large trash bags as I tackled the bathroom.  In this process I learned that I don't need to buy a few things for quite a while:

• facewash
• papertowels
• shampoo/conditioner
• candels
• hair ties

I threw out a lot of stuff, filled more than one big trash bag.  My goal is to have everything packed and ready to go and live out of my travel stuff for the rest of the week.  My bedroom is close, bathroom is close, but then we get... the kitchen....

Papers are signed! Closing this week I swear

Less numbers of paper to sign than I've had before, but it makes sense since it's not actually a house.  I learned a few things about Totes.  Seattle has a lot of regulations with Houseboats, I've linked some of the explanations before.  My boat has a bit of history that only matters because of those regulations.

Currently my hull was built in 1995 and everything above it was totally redone in 2016 making me the third occupant (second owner).  However today I learned that my boat was actually 'created' in 1935.  Now nothing is left of that original boat, but legally that initial houseboat is what I own.  It was 40 ft long hull and I can't change that footprint, ever.  To get a bigger houseboat I have to buy an existing one that already has a bigger footprint.  It's a little sad, I'd love to put a longer hull on and give myself more lower deck space, but I knew this when I started so there aren't any surprises.

I take the bus downtown tomorrow to get the money wired and we are estimating that we close maybe Tuesday?  Since the movers don't come until Friday I am not concerned.  This is so exciting!

Stuff going to my mom's is packed and ready to go, that is getting picked up on Thursday.  I gave my complex my 'intent to move out' notice that gives me until the 22nd, so I should have plenty of time.  I do have one piece of furniture that is unclaimed that isn't going, a very large antique dresser, but worse case I'll pay someone to haul it away.  I've emailed a few antique stores to see if they are interested.

I will have the keys this week!