The Great Migration

My mom is officially all the way moved to Pittsburgh. Certain things, like the fridge and stove, had to be left behind because The Others were living in the old place still and it would be sort of shitty to just up and take them. There's another long and complicated story in there. Trust me, you don't really want to know. The people who do know are nodding their heads in agreement.

The Others finally moved out and we were able to go back (four hour drive), rent a truck (boy howdy, do I love U-Haul), and move the fridge, stove, washer, and dryer (yeah sounds easy right...NO.) The Brother, Mom, and I packed up into one vehicle which was going to be my car, but the hand truck I borrowed from work would.not.fit. and allow for 3 people to use the seats and seatbelts. Mom claimed that she could make the 4 hour drive sitting backwards halfway in the trunk. Um, NO. We finally got ourselves situated in Mom's van with everything we needed. At this point we're only running 3 hours behind schedule.

Since The Sister lives 20 minutes-ish from Mom's old place we drive there and crash for the night. Of course we don't arrive until near midnight, but whatever. Up at 7am to fetch the truck and head over to pack things up. The Others had moved out the day before. I figured that they'd leave some stuff behind, just items overlooked. What I wasn't prepared for was a full fridge and freezer, floors left unvacuumed, trash left all over the place, and just tons of stuff in general; furniture they didn't want. Hello! Landlord says all this stuff has to go. I guess The Others assumed we'd just do it, since we were 'last ones out". Effed.Up.

The Sister bribed a couple of her friends into helping us load the truck. THANK YOU FRIENDS! Without them we would not have gotten this stuff into the truck at all. The hand truck that I borrowed from work had a flat tire so it was useless. We managed to clean everything (mostly) and move all the unwanted items into the garage to be donated. Let me just say now, I TOTALLY understand why people leave perfectly nice and functioning expensive appliances in homes when they move/sell/etc. It is still debatable if this migration was worth it.

Twelve hours later! We finally get on the road back to Pittsburgh. We're all exhausted and I'm pretty sure we stopped at every rest stop but 2. It took us about 6 hours to drive back. Thankfully we had 3 drivers and could swap things around a bit. Back in Pittsburgh my neighbor filled the hand truck tire. Without that we never would have gotten the stove or fridge out of the truck.

I got the fridge and stove. YAY. I hated hated hated our old french door, stupidly too narrow fridge. I swear the freezer was the size of an 8.5x11 piece of paper. NOTHING.FIT.EVAR. And what sucked more about it is that the wall was in the way and the door wouldn't open all the way. Getting things in and out was all luck and magic. There is nothing wrong with the old fridge except it did not work in teh space provided and it was STUPID.

My old stove is great, yellow, but it worked. FUGLY. The new stove (and fridge) are white and beautiful. Yes, I'm sure I'll hate them by next summer. SHUT UP. The Boy jokingly said that we now had to replace the microwave and dishwasher so they'll match. I said, not unless they're free. I don't care if they don't match. I don't care if they don't match. I don't care.... ahem

Right, so That was Saturday.

Sunday we did the whole thing again, but this time with a washer and dryer and Mom's new apartment. The apartment says it has space for a full size washer/dryer setup. YEAH.RIGHT. We danced the washer through the doors ever so slowly, barely making the corners, and then I had to climb up and drop down the back to pug things in and hook up hoses. Ditto with the dryer, only it was significantly lighter cause, well... NOT FILLED WITH WATER!

Everything is happy now. None of us killed each other, though I'm fairly certain there were a few close calls in there for me. The Brother is abusing Mom's washer/dryer. Mom has her own little set-up that's all hers and she can put things wherever she pleases. The Sister has us all out of her hair now. and I have a wonderful fridge that everything fits in, but I'm pretty sure was made for people who are 4 feet tall.