November 2005 Archives

Today Jake and I took Sophie to see Jake's grandfather at the nursing home for lunch. We packed up her lunch, highchair and bib and settled ourselves in at the guest table. Jake's grandpa was beaming and really enjoyed interacting with her. She was chatting it up at full volume. This unusual event caused quite the chatter amongst the dining hall. Jake and I had our backs to the rest of the diners but here is some of what we heard as we were eating.

"What's that noise?"
"It's a little boy."
"No, it's a little girl."
"Where is it?"
"Over at the guest table, with Norman."
"I can't see her, the mother's head is in the way."
"Well, ask her to move!"

After our apple cake with cream cheese frosting was done we became the hosts of a receiving line for the exiting diners. Almost every person in the home stopped by to say hello to Sophie and comment on her. Jake's grandfather was beaming and Sophie enjoyed all of the attention.

Looking back this is just one of the many perks that we gained by moving to the east coast; Great Grandfather and Great Granddaughter enjoying lunch together.

Today is the fourth and final installment in our miniseries postmortem of our move. Thanks to everyone who's kept reading with us so far, even if it's raised your blood-pressure! It's nice to know our friends are still out there (because they're sure as hell not in Kingston, NY.)

The Aftermath
Sophie had slept great our first week at Sarah & Anthony's, despite being in a new environment and sleeping in her Pack'N'Play. After the restless night at the hotel, we were all looking forward to getting a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, Sophie's third tooth started coming in right after we got back to New Jersey; she was up most of the night, after which I got back in the car and returned to Kingston to meet our realtor. Brandie & Sophie stayed behind with the cat and dog, to hopefully expedite the review process. We only had two more days to find an alternate rental before the moving truck showed up with our stuff.

I was exhausted, but it was far easier to be in the car all day without having to worry about the stress on the baby and animals. The realtor & I drove around to four or five places in the area, then returned to the rental to take some pictures and pick up our mail. Our criteria (a short-term or month-to-month lease, a dog and a cat) turned out to be more limiting than we expected, so the list of potential rentals was short and less than ideal.

At sunset, I drove back to New Jersey without having found a place. There were a few possibilities that we wanted to sleep on, but nothing concrete. That night Sophie was up a lot again, and my cold worsened. I decided to stay home the next day to look through the online classifieds again and see if we could find anything ourselves. Our realtor offered to drive around and check out some places for us. In the meantime, we found out the landlord at the rental we weren't going to occupy wasn't pleased with our decision. They were going to keep all of our deposit (nearly $5,000), and threatened to sue us for the remainder (another $5,000). We were going to need legal help.

Our realtor referred us to a lawyer her firm recommended. Brandie called, and within a few minutes he had questioned her level of education ("I assume you're college-educated, and you signed the lease anyway?") and mental health ("And you're not mentally handicapped in any way?"). He also wasn't interested in hearing any further details about the property. Suffice it to say it was another unpleasant call, and this unsolicited grief was from someone we wanted to pay to help us.

In the end, we didn't find a place in time. We drove back up Thursday morning to meet the mover, and helped unload all our belongings into a storage unit. It took us several hours, during which the weather turned cold. Afterwards we went to a diner for some chili, drove around a little bit and then headed back to New Jersey again. We were beat.

We stayed at Sarah & Anthony's that night, then packed up the car another time for the trip up to George & Sue's. We arrived without event, and have been happily relaxing here since.

The happy ending? It's too soon to say, since a lot is still up in the air. On the bright side, we've caught up on a lot of lost time with our East Coast family. We both dreamed about spending a full fall cycle on this coast, and we've gotten to enjoy a great one here. Thanks to Dad & Sue and Sarah & Anthony for allowing us safe havens in this storm we're weathering - we couldn't do it without you. We also hope there's never need for us to return the favor, but we would in a heartbeat!

Today is the third installment of our four-part miniseries covering our recent moving experience (so recent, in fact, it's still going on.)

Remember, we're password-protecting our personal photos during Jake's job search. Login as 'family', password 'family' or 'friend', password 'friend' to see the pics.

The Rental
After a week of resting up and taking in the scenery at Sarah & Anthony's, we were ready to start exploring our new hometown. We packed up the wagon, loaded the cat, dog and baby, and sadly said goodbye to our hosts. "It's only two weeks til the wedding! We'll see each other soon," we said. Then we were off to Kingston.

The drive up was beautiful, if a little foggy and hard to see any distance. Still, the Catskills were impressive and we excitedly pointed out landmarks on the Thruway that we'd be able to use on trips back and forth to New Jersey. "We'll get Starbucks, and then stop at Cinnabon!"

The directions were pretty simple once we were off the Thruway: just drive straight through town and take a right. The neighborhood was simply gorgeous, all beautiful old mansions that were kept up nicely. We were both impressed.

We had seen pictures of both the neighborhood (the rental's best selling-point) and the house before, but seeing both in person really drove home the contrast between the house and its neighborhood. The house was in very bad shape, but even brand-new wouldn't have fit in. It might have made an ok summer cabin, but didn't look like it would survive a winter. But still, we weren't looking to buy: just a place to rent while we got on our feet and figured out where we wanted to buy. The landlord (actually someone subleasing the remainder of her lease) was waiting for us out front.

We parked, got the baby out of the car and all shook hands, then began our walkthrough. It started off at a limp ("The garage door opener doesn't actually work, but we don't have a key to that door anyway - we just leave it locked and park outside") and soon became a fairly eye-popping list of broken appliances ("The washer doesn't actually spin, so I just run a load and wring the clothes out by hand. There's also a great laundrymat nearby that we love, we'd keep using them even if we had a working washing machine") and dismal revelations about the house: exposed wiring, peeling possibly lead-based paint, water damage, mold, sunlight streaming through the window frames, no weather-stripping around the all-wood exterior doors, Saran-Wrap duct-taped over the windows, dry rot on all the window frames - and that's just the hazardous stuff. In addition, there were lots of other minor eccentricities and annoyances.

About ten minutes into the walkthrough our realtor arrived and joined in on the tour. It was her first visit to the house as well, and after we had descended into the "finished" basement with its pegboard "drop-ceiling" I caught her eye. She looked as shocked as I felt. I was barely able to keep Sophie away from the paint peeling off of every windowsill during the walkthrough. In its current state it was obviously something we couldn't spend a night in, much less a winter with soaring oil prices.

After we wrapped up the tour, our realtor asked for a few minutes alone with us. She gave us a brochure disclosing the possibility of lead-based paint on the premises, and apologized for the state of the house. It definitely didn't live up to the description the landlord had given her, or us.

After the landlord had left, we asked our realtor what alternatives we had. We both agreed we couldn't stay there and had made a mistake in trusting the landlord, but we had already signed a sublease and handed over first and last month's rent plus a security deposit. More immediately, we needed a place to spend the night.

The realtor gave us directions to a Holiday Inn back by the Thruway entrance. We called and found out that they were pet-friendly; we would just need to pay a little extra. A short while later we were unpacked and settled into the room. We didn't have litter for Eliot, so we shredded the Daily Freeman and put his box in the bathroom. We set up the Pack'N'Play, moved the coffee table into a corner and moved the office chair out into the hall.

Even after the rearranging we were still all on top of each other. The animals kept moving to opposite corners as Sophie explored the room. Eula of course barked every time she heard anyone outside in the hallway. To avoid getting complaints we would move her out into the car whenever we had to leave the room. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then spent a sleepless night trying to keep Eula from waking up the baby every time someone slammed a door in the hall.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel again, then went to Target to try and find litter for Eliot. Sadly, after all the negative experiences it was a relief just to be in such a familiar environment. We both stumbled around in a daze for a while, then drove off to meet the realtor and look at other rental possibilities. We took turns reviewing the notebook while the other entertained Sophie. We were both exhausted, and it was 2pm: neither of us had showered or eaten lunch yet. We decided to cut the meeting short without driving to see any houses.

We ate lunch at a nearby pizzeria, then called Anthony and drove to meet him in Newburgh. It was a relief to see him again! We decided to take them up on their offer to return to their house in New Jersey while we sorted things out with the rental. Brandie, Sophie & Eliot would ride back with him, while Eula & I drove back to the hotel to clean up and check out. Even though we left after 6pm, the hotel clerk took pity on us and didn't charge us for the second night's stay.

Today is the second installment in our four-part coverage of our move. Yesterday we recounted our final grueling day in California, and how the movers backed out of their "not to exceed" price twice. As we drove out of town that evening, we both agreed it was one of the hardest days either of us had endured (and we still had a red-eye to catch, with the dog, cat and baby on board!) It was very sad leaving our first little house, and the town we loved so much.

Early the next morning we arrived in Newark to find our brother-in-law Anthony waiting. He helped us find our bags and animals, navigate two overloaded SmartCarts through the narrow corridors and elevators required to reach the rental car area, and then led us back to his home before going to work himself. We then enjoyed a week of fantastic weather (see earlier post) and caught our breath relaxing at Sarah & Anthony's beautiful house while the leaves changed. Thanks Sarah & Anthony!

The Car Carrier
Our car was due to arrive in Kingston either Monday or Tuesday, and Brandie (being very familiar with shipping services from her time at DWR) called Wednesday prior to verify the date was still accurate. Marlene reassured her that Monday or Tuesday was still the date, so we decided to wait until Sunday to head over to Kingston. Our furniture was still en route, so we would be sleeping on the air mattress and Sophie in her Pack'N'Play. Showing up Sunday would minimize our time on the air mattress, allow us more time with the family and still let us meet the car carrier on time. A no-brainer, right?

Friday morning Brandie turned her phone on at 7:30am to find four voicemails from Marlene waiting. The car carrier's offices were in the Midwest, so it seemed strange that she had been trying to reach us so early and so urgently. On the phone, Marlene was now very upset. The driver was in Kingston, she said, and needed the address for delivery. Brandie had given this info to her already (twice, actually, on Wednesday), but it was fairly moot: we were still two hours away and couldn't meet the driver in time. We didn't know anyone in the town, and certainly no one who could show up with the $1400 required to release the car. Marlene wasn't happy to hear this, and their conversation didn't go well.

When I called back a few minutes later, I found out Marlene had already released the driver and instructed him to put our car in a storage facility. We would be given the name of the facility and the daily rate only after we had wired them the full amount due, even without being able to inspect the car.

Not seeing many other options, we packed up the baby and headed off to the nearest branch of our bank. We figured wiring money would take at the most half an hour, so we didn't pack a bottle or any food for Sophie.

It turns out our bank's California network isn't well linked to any of their other states' networks, so the banking official could view less about my account than I could with their online service. It literally took two and a half hours, ten people and a fax machine to complete our wire. Brandie & I took turns distracting Sophie outside, amidst reassurances that we were close and only needed a few more minutes. In the end, the banker was optimistic but not 100% confident that the wire had been successfully completed. We drove off intent on feeding the baby, our anger with the car carrier now displaced towards our bank. Even the banking representative encouraged us to switch from her employer, she was so disgusted.

After we had all eaten things seemed brighter, of course, and we just waited for the car carrier to verify they had received the wire. We didn't hear back that night, but we weren't planning to drive up and get the car that night anyway. We assumed the wire either hadn't gone through or had taken longer than the business day to complete.

The next morning we got a call from the driver. Brandie was initially cold to him on the phone, expecting some grief about having to wait for us in Kingston. After all, we were given an official window that we should be available and we weren't. It certainly wasn't the driver's fault that he was early and the office had bad information on Wednesday.

"Apparently there was a mixup at the office," he said. We had been given bad information, but not on Wednesday: our car was still on his truck, and he was still en route. He wouldn't be in Kingston until Monday, as expected.

Since we had already paid (the wire was successful!) and we were close to where he was, we decided to just meet him in New Jersey rather than Kingston. We got the car without further incident, and returned the minivan to the rental office near Sarah & Anthony's house a few days early.

When I spoke to the person at the car carrier who gave me the wire account information, I asked to speak with the manager of the customer service department. Of course he was busy, so she promised he would call me back. Of course he hasn't, and we've had too many other things to sort out to follow up on it. Someday, maybe!

Tomorrow, look for details on our uninhabitable rental in Kingston and the sleepless night Eula, Eliot, Sophie, Brandie and I spent in Room 179 of the Kingston Holiday Inn.

You hear a lot of moving horror stories: movers changing prices, holding stuff hostage, etc. Ours was unfortunately no different, or maybe it's a "Best Of". We'll cover the highlights in our first four-part feature, starting today with the movers.

The Movers
A few days before the move, Brandie called the mover to confirm our pickup window. They had guaranteed Wednesday or Thursday, which would allow us to fly out Thursday night and the new owner to take occupancy Friday. On the phone, after about a day of calls to sort out the confusion, we learned that National couldn't get a truck to our house on Thursday, so the local mover would have to pay out of his own pocket for his own truck to come empty our house.

Fortunately he held to the agreed dates and on Thursday the truck and crew showed up and got to work on our house. A few hours into it, one of our neighbors came over to tell us what a horrible experience she had had with this same mover seven years ago. Her hardwood floors had been ruined, and they raised the price on her three times during the move. She repeated this to the moving crew, none too gently.

A few minutes later, I noticed the moving crew foreman on his cell phone. When he got off, he had some bad news. "We're going to need to adjust the estimate," he said. The estimate, which had incorrectly included a full-size stainless refrigerator and 27" tv that weren't getting moved, was now somehow too low. Even though we had walked the estimator through our entire house, showed him everything we had and then gave away about half our belongings, the "not too exceed" price was no longer valid.

It was only going up $200 though, so we tried to remain optimistic, signed the altered agreement and went out to buy sandwiches for ourselves and the crew. They wrapped up around 3:30pm, which gave us about three hours to go ship some last items, throw away what remained, return some hardware to our cable provider and finish packing for the airport. Twenty minutes later my phone rang.

It was the owner of the moving company, very irate. They had just finished weighing the truck, and it was nearly 1000 pounds over the original estimate. Somehow this was our fault. We needed to drive down to his office and sign new paperwork for the new price, or National wouldn't take our stuff.

During the first price hike, the concern was that we had too many items. We hadn't used many big boxes (our estimate included 18) to pack, only three. The moving crew reassured us that the number of items didn't matter, it was only the final weight that impacted the price. Now it still wasn't clear whether it was a volume or a weight issue, but we agreed to stop by their office on the way to the airport to sign the new paperwork.

It was about then that we realized we had packed the hardware for Eula's crate on the moving truck. No one sells just the hardware, so we added a Petco visit to our list of things to do in just three hours. We raced through it all and made it to the mover's office around 6:30. We signed the new paperwork and met the driver, who promised to meet us in 7-14 days in New York. We then drove to meet John, handed off the last few things we couldn't pack or ship and made it to the airport on time.

Tomorrow we'll recount the misadventure with the car carrier, and hopefully post some pictures of our disastrous rental in Kingston.

If I didn't grow up here, I'd have to say this whole East Coast "bad weather" thing is just a hoax. We've had gorgeous skies and warm, sunny, California-like days since we've been here. Some of the trees near my sister's house are just starting to hit full color, and many are still green. We're getting to see the full fall transition, which I'm happy about: I was worried we were going to miss it and go straight into winter!

Yesterday was Halloween, and we packed in a full day of parades and fun. We went to Julia's parade at her school, met a bunch of Sarah's friends and co-workers, had a great lunch at the local pub and then caught Jessica's parade at her school. Both nieces dressed up like witches, and were very convincing in their costumes. Sophie wore her ladybug costume, but her hood kept covering her eyes so we mostly kept it off. She seemed to enjoy all the parades, and wasn't at all phased by the different costumes.

After the last parade we came home for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. That was all we had energy for, but Anthony and the girls stayed strong and went to the local firehall for a Halloween party. Eula did her best to scare off potential trick-or-treaters, but we still managed to get a good number before we all went to bed.