Got out of the old house Wednesday night. The last load or two was simply tossing stuff into the car whether we wanted it or not. On the way to the new house I dropped some junk off at Goodwill.
We had the electrical system at the new house upgraded, as it had an obsolete and unsupported Federal Pacific breaker box and a two-wire system (no grounds). The guy who estimated the job said it would be done in 3 to 5 days. They started Wednesday March 14; the upgrades were finally finished today (Friday, March 23). They're coming back tomorrow to do some drywall patching and paint touch-up. We paid them tonight. They were by and large good guys, but the guy who estimated our job severely underbid the effort. So it goes. They respected their estimated price though so I can't complain.
Friday a plumber was supposed to come out and put in a new shower pan and fixtures in the master shower. He texted Friday morning and said he had the flu and said he would come on Saturday. I texted him back that if he's still sick he needs to get well, but he said he'd see how he felt in the morning. So he may or may not come on Saturday.
So... a quick summary of what we did since buying the house:
Week of 3/12:
. A large and a small tree cut down. The large tree was leaning on our eaves when the wind blew, so it had to go. The smaller one was stuck under another tree and the two trees were crowding each other.
. Several minor plumbing issues taken care of (including the drain under the kitchen sink which looked like a Habitrail!)
. Sections of fence replaced to make sure the dogs were contained in the back yard.
. AC serviced and some repairs done on the exhaust.
. Electrical upgrades started. After installing the new breaker box, they didn't get the power back on at all until midnight Saturday. Our first night in the house was Sunday. And power was limited to primarily the bedrooms and bathrooms; we had to run an extension cord to the fridge and really couldn't cook in the house.
Week of 3/19:
. Finished the electrical upgrades.
. Three new windows installed in the two occupied bedrooms. All the windows were original and painted shut. We wanted windows that could be used for egress in the event of a fire. We plan to do all of them eventually.
. Supplied several new lighting fixtures and ceiling fans to the electrical contractor who installed them as they did the upgrades. I put in an over-range microwave Thursday night and reinstalled the dishwasher Friday while the electricians did "hard stuff".
The house is livable though, and our stuff is all here. Now comes the task of unpacking everything. I forgot how much work moving is.
One thing that made the price of the house reasonable was that it's close (a block in) from Interstate 20. While inside you don't hear too much noise and/or it's just vague background noise. In the yard it's always there, but that was something we came into eyes wide open. But as I'm typing this at about 10:30 at night, I realize that the interstate comes alive during the night time hours with truckers and motorcycle racers. For the most part though it registers as white noise and actually helps me sleep. I grew up near the New York State Thruway so the freeway noise is familiar to me.