Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Moving, Corey and Monique style

Corey and I have a good life. We've been blessed with good family and friends, a happy marriage, we laugh alot, love living in this city and generally enjoy life. Of course we're also us, which means bad luck follows us. I'm not being ungrateful, but man stupid stuff just follows us.

So... we've moved into our condo this weekend. Of course it didn't just happen easily. First we had some issues with the developers not telling us about changes in our place, such as putting up drywall over the bottom quarter of our brick wall in the living room. After going round and round with them, we were able to settle on things and were ready to close and move in on Friday.
We did the walk through and put together a "punch list." This is a list of small items such as touching up paint or cleaning up the brick. They have 30 days from closing to complete this. We put together the list and planned to start moving little things like clothes on Friday night. The truck was rented and our friends were ready to help with the big move on Saturday morning. Well, during the walk thru, the contractor and realtor told us that we couldn't move in on Saturday because they had to put the finish on the hardwood floors. This takes "6-8, maybe 10 hours to dry." This was frustrating because I had literally called the realtor every week for the last month or so to make sure the place would be ready in time. I told her that we could push the move date back if needed, but I just needed to know ahead of time. She reassured me that everything would be good to go by Fri, May 26th. Of course it wasn't, so we scramble to get the moving truck on Sunday instead and made sure that our crew was still willing and able to help out a day later.
Since the floors were supposed to be dry by Saturday night, we decided to get some light moving done that night. We show up to the condo 10 hours after the floor finish was put on and it still wasn't dry. Annoyed, we went back home, finally Sunday morning it was dry.... we thought. I walk into the bedroom to start hanging up a closet system we bought and felt stickiness under my feet. That's right, ruined the floor right off the git go. Luckily the rest of the place was dry, they'll just have to come back and touch up that room, because I'm not paying to fix it.
Next up was the actual move. Chicago seems to be having an unusually chilli season this year, except of course for Sunday. It was the hottest day of the year. Going up and down three flights of stairs to move out of the old apartment in the hot sticky weather was miserable. Tyler claims it was the worst day of his entire life.
Still, we got everything out and everyone is still alive. At least the new place is airconditioned - WRONG! Not yet at least. Nice of the builders to tell us that our A/C wouldn't be in right way. Supposedly it's going to be running this week. Until then, Corey and I have been sleep on the couches because the living room is the only room with a fan. This fan/light is turned on and off by remote control. Pretty cool, except that we're apparently on the same frequency as our upstairs neighbor. So, if they turn their lights off, ours go off too and visa versa. At 7pm last night they turned their lights off. I could only play tug of war with the lights for so long before I had to give up and unpack in the dark.
To me, these types of issues don't seem like "punch list" items. They're items that should be listed as "we need to complete these before we tell Corey and Monique that the condo is ready to be moved into" items. It'd be nice to have cable or for the hallway lights not to be connected to the outdoor light so that it would work in the daytime and not just the night like it does now. Also, on that "ready to move in" list I'd include a deadbolt that works or a shower door. Hey, maybe I'm being picky. This is the first time I've bought a home, so what do I know. Maybe homeowners don't need a toilet seat. Geez!

5 comments:

Steaming bowl o' Calderone said...

Congrats on getting moved in. It sucks, but you're going to be fine. This is your home now so if you have to be jerkpods to get things done, then be the biggest jerkpods so they know they can't walk all over you.

Anonymous said...

Trust me, I haven't been afraid of being a bitch!

We're getting there. They installed the correct appliances and fixed the deadbolt and ceiling fan. Tomorrow they measure for the shower door (don't know why this wasn't already done) and next week the A/C should be on.
Still need to get the electical work fixed & bathroom cabinet done, but we're making strives baby!

Seriously, they're a big bunch of jerkpods they are.

Anonymous said...

Isn't home ownership fun? It may take a little time, but you'll get that sucker in line. Congrats on the new place.

Anonymous said...

THANKS! Now get your lazy ass out here... Sheesh, not visiting in over two years. You should be ashamed Nikki Doodoo. Doodoo head is more like it!

Anonymous said...

Yes, with hospitality like that I should get my lazy ass out there.