Moving Day

Today we moved out of our apartment. It felt a little surreal to leave the place we have lived for the past five years. Leaving was certainly the right choice. We have outgrown the apartment and particularly recently we grew tired of it.

As we left for the final time this afternoon I couldn't help but reflect on the memories that will forever be linked to our apartment. We were so excited when we first moved in. It was the first place Alison and I lived after we got married that really felt like home. It was CC's first home, and the only home she has really ever known. It was the location of many a romantic dinner. It was where I studied for and passed the CPA exam. Here we celebrated many triumphs and worked through some hardships. It was our home.

CC loved our apartment

We have spent the past month preparing to move. We spent a lot of time sorting through stuff, cleaning, and putting everything into boxes. We got rid of a lot of stuff. It felt good. There is something very therapeutic about clearing out the old, unwanted, and unnecessary clutter that comes with living in a place for a significant period of your life. 

It took forever to prepare to move. I guess that comes with living somewhere for such a long time. We put down a lot of roots. Even though we started moving and cleaning weeks in advance we were still a little worried about getting done. We set up an appointment to have the apartment management come and inspect on Saturday, July 23rd at 3:30pm. It was our hard deadline.  On Monday Alison was not sure we were going to make it. I didn't know how we would, but I figured we would get it done. 

There probably couldn't have been a worse week for us to move. It was Alison's finals week, and between buying a house, moving, cleaning, packing, etc. It had been a tough semester. She really needed to focus on getting school wrapped up and didn't need the extra stress of moving. I wanted to get even more done, but work ended up being particularly crazy. I was working with a client who had a deadline this week and there were a couple of nights where it was close to midnight before I got home. 

We woke up early and stayed up late at night cleaning everything we could. We really wanted to do as much as we could ourselves and make moving day as painless as possible. Despite our best efforts, we fell behind our goals. 

Fortunately, Alison's family came to the rescue. On Friday night Blake and Debbie came over to help us clean and move a few things. Dan, Kristin, and Skylee showed up too. We ended up getting way more done than we planned. We are so grateful to have such an amazing family. We couldn't have done it without them. 

CC trying to enjoy her last moments at the apartment 

Our last meal at the apartment

Skylee helping out

On Saturday morning we got up and immediately moved CC over to Blake and Debbie's. She was not happy about being moved. She knew right away something was up and hid from us to avoid being put into her carrier. We got her moved, but it is going to take her a while to adjust to her new environment. 

We had lots of help moving and by 10:30 everything was moved. We spent the next few hours cleaning at Blake and Debbie's to get our stuff settled in. We will be living with them while our house is being built. By this evening we were all settled in. 

In the afternoon we went back to our apartment to clean a few final things and have the inspection. It was unbelievably low-key. The apartment management spent about 2 minutes in there asked a couple of questions and wanted to know where they could return the deposit. Just like that, we were done. We walked out of our apartment and onto the next chapter of our lives. 

Tonight we drove by our lot again. We are so excited about our new home. This week we will meet with the architect and finalize the plans so that construction can begin. 

We are glad this crazy week is finally over!