The move

Now that I am finally settled in enough to have a little time, I will update all of my faithful readers on the most recent, most horrendous Pelczar family move. But, first, I will lay out what our plan for Chris' last week with us was:
Mon: the movers come to pack the house
Tues.: we rent a small U-haul and pack it with the items going to Corona with May and myself while I clean behind us
Wed. Chris and I go back to the Edwards house to finish cleaning and yard work in order to pass the inspection
Thurs.: We have the housing inspection between 8-11am and pass it
Fri.: Chris goes back to Edwards to out process from the base while May and I re-coup a little.
Sat. : Pancakes and holiday pictures at Sears
Sun.: Church and quiet dinner alone
Mon.: Chris leaves for Korea
Here is what happened:
I recieve a call at 8 am Monday morning. The movers are already an hour late.
Movers: " Hey, ih...we are at the gate but they won't let us in because I only have two seat belts but I brought three guys....and I am the only one with I.D."
What I am thinking, " You guys said you were familiar with military moves and youa re the only one with I.D.? AND you are short one seat belt? Who commits traffic violations when they are trying to get onto a military base?"
What I say, "So...."
Mover Foreman: "So we're just gonna turn around and re-schedule for tomorrow, ok-"
Me interupting: " No. We scheduled you for today on purpose. We need you to come today. This is a military move, we don't have the luxury of re-scheduling."
M. F. : "Okay. Lemme see if I can call someone and get them to drive our I.D.s out to us. I'll call you right back."
fifteen minutes later....
M.F.:" Yeah, no one os gonna drive them out to us, so I'm gonna drop these guys off here and come back to your house by myself to give you an estimate, okay?"
Me: "okay"
what I am thinking: "I already got a price quoted for an hourly rate...what do I need an estimate for?"
So the mover drops three men off in Rosamond. The movers came from Lancaster (I thought. more on this later) so it seemed pretty random. Especially since they were willing to ride with one less seat belt than necessary and none of them had I.D. Did they hire illegals and try ot bring them to my house to move my belongings? Was I about to pay illegals to move our stuff? We'll never know, but we never heard about those three men again and they were dropped of in Rosa-crack.
twenty minutes later...
The mover arrives and walks through the house. He comes out to the kitchen and quotes a price of $2800!!!! Chris and his father, Tom, are there and Chris immediately starts talking to this man about how he came to such a high price. Chris can't get a straight answer fromt he guy nad leaves the room to talk to me. In the beginning, we scheduled the move to be done and also for the same people to load up the corona stuff and transport it to corona for us. Then we saw how expensive that would be and we canceled that half. Apparently they did not want to lose that profit. We agreed that they were trying to keep that profit for half the work and trick us into paying it.
So, Chris walked out and fired the movers. We had no storage unit booked. We had a ten foot U-haul coming the next day and two guys- one of whom was working from his laptop and only expected to be there so we could borrow his credit card to secure the move. So now we have three days to move and nothing is packed and we are short movers and a truck.
Chris and Tom get on the internet and find a storage place in Rosamond to rent. Then they call the U-haul place to see if our truck can be picked up a day early so we can at least get the Corona stuff taken care of.
The moving company calls back right as they are about to leave to get the U-haul.
Dispatch Guy: " Heather, we talked to the foreman and he told us why you canceled the move. We would like to do the move fo ryou for $1700 flat rate. "
Me: "That includes packing supplies nad drive time?"
D.G.: "Yes"
Me: " Why don;t you talk to my husband since he will be handling everything?"
So Chris talks to him and then he asks where the storage facility is and how much it costs.
D.G. "$250 a month"
Chris: "Are you kidding me?!! No way we're gonna pay that. We have a facility that will charge $130 and give us a military discount and insurance."
D.G. "Well our units are very secure."
Chris: "Where are they?"
D.G. "Northridge"
Chris: "You guys have a Lancaster address on your website."
D.G. : " We had a Lancaster office"
Chris: "Well, that won't work for us. In order for the military to pick up our things when I come home, they have to be stored locally. We're gonna do this ourselves."
So Chris and Tom discuss how they are going to move an entire house start to finish in two days while I begin to hyperventilate. Chris neglects to tell me at this time that he can call his first sgt. and ask his squadron to help us move. So I am thinking that Tom has to go back to the office tomorrow and Chris is gonna have us pack, move and clean this whole house with the baby in three days. I start to cry over losing +my last few days with him and at the prospect of the future stress.
The phone rings:
D.G.: "Hello, Chris? We'll move everything to your storage facility for $1850 flat rate."
Chris: " That includes everything?"
D.G.: "Yes."
Chris: "Let me talk to my wife about this. You guys are a little shady. I'll call you back within the hour."
We talked and agreed that it was still more than we had thought it would be, but worth it at this point to avoid the stress and pressure of doing the entire thing by ourselves. So we called back and re-hired them.
By this time, it was 12:00 and Chris and Tom left to get the U-Haul and rent that storage unit.
The movers and Chris and the U-Haul all showed up at 2:30pm. Things got started right away and it was a mad house. The movers were helping to pack both trucks because they wanted to get finished as soon as possible. Chris na Tom were packing everything that was going to Corona while telling the movers what went on which truck. I was giving food and furniture to the neighbors like a crazy person and at five, Chris walked up to me and said, "the van is all packed up why don't you take the baby back to my parents house? I'll meet you there with my Dad later tonight. It will be too late for you guys once everything is done here."
He didn't have to ask me twice. I left. I got to Corona at 7:30 and at 8pm I got a call from Chris, who was using the foreman's cell phone.
Chris: " Hey is my dad there yet?"
Me: " No. Why?"
Chris: "Well, you took my wallet home and I forgot that Dad was here so that we could use his credit card and I sent him home about an hour ago when the movers were done at the house. I am at the storage unit with them, but I can't pay for the move so they stopped unloading the truck. I talked to the dispatch guy and he was threatening to auction off all of our stuff and everything. Is my Mom there?"
Me: " (sigh) No I am the only one here. Let me call your mom and see if I can find her."
Chris:" Okay, call me back."
So I find Martine and tell her we need her with her credit card.
She comes home and faxes a letter of authorization and a copy of her credit card and I.D. to the dispatch guy who can't seem to decide whether he wants to be nice or rude to my husband while he threatens to auction off our things. (Does anyone reading this know if that is a usual occurance in Israel? I think they have laws about that type of thing here...)
So the movers start unloading the truck again and everyone is nice again and Chris just wnats it to be done.
It gets done and Chris comes home at 2 am.
The next morning we wake up to find that there is work that needs to be done on the master shower and Chris was expected to help with that. So we help with shower stuff and then unload the U-haul and start un-packing on Tuesday. Wed. we return the U-haul and go back tot he Edwards house to clean. The movers did not pack an entire closet with coats and games and blankets in it. They broke a few small items and left them in pieces on the floor...we were a bit upset at the job they did but it was too late.
We cleaned. I worked inside while Chris worked outside. It got dark at five so he was mowing the lawn in the dark with a flashlight. The neighbor came over to help and she packed the stuff that was left and helped us organize things and take care of May while we worked on cleaning. She helped for six hours of the nine that we worked. At 11:00 Chris told me he was tkaing May and I home.
Me: " what- are we gonna drive back to Corona nad get home at 1am to wake up at 4am to get back here by 6am to finish cleaning for two hours before the inspector comes?"
Chris: " I don;t care. You are exhausted. I'm exhausted and You have been wearing that baby in a wrap for 6 hours because she screams in anyone else touches her. We need to go home."
Me: "Okay"
We went home and slept. At five, when May woke me up, I woke Chris up. he said he was going to re-schedule everything. (He had a medical apt at 8:40am as well as the housing inspection.)
I didn't have the heart to tell him that, when I scheduled the inspection a month ago, that was the only apt they had available.
So, he called at 8 am and the had one on Fri!!!!
Chris decided that he was going to go back alone to his newly scheduled medical apt at 1pm and finish cleaning and sleep in Santa Clarita and then go back Fri for the inspection.
He spent so much time cleaning Thursday that he was an hour late for a small meeting that we had arranged for home group to pray for him. But, we both felt great about the inspection. We felt sure that we would pass.
On Fri. morning, the inspector showed up and almost immediately told Chris that there was too much to do. He would never pass. He needed tore-schedule. Chris talked him into leaving a list of what needed to be done and coming back that afternoon since he was supposed to out process that day before 4pm.
He cleaned again for about five hours. The man came back and still said he would never pass. He actually started to help Chris clean the house. Finally, at 3:45 he passed us. Chris raced over to the out processing guy, who had agreed to stay late for him and they got him out in about an hour.
The inspector did not charge us for the hole in the garage wall, which was a gift from God, we are certain. And Chris was able to out process. But we were both exhausted. he was twice as much as myself. I couldn't help thinking that he was going to Korea to have a bit of rest.
Saturday was nice. Sunday we went to my sister's house for dinner and helped them start decorating for Christmas. That was a lot of fun. Chris took a few pictures. I thought the one here was so beautifully done. My sister and her step-son, Nick trimming the tree together.
We left a bit early and tried to sit in the spa after May went to bed. We had a short time of prayer in it but May kept waking up, so we moved inside and finished praying and went to bed. Nuts. what a crazy week. We were so gald it was over. But we were so sad that it was over so soon. It only brought Chris leave date that much closer.