Sorry we haven’t been writing lately. It’s been lots of 7AM to 10PM days and just a short time at home. We didn’t do a good job ahead of time estimating how long we’d have to work on different tasks around both homes.
A quick update – we’ve been robbed! Our new house was robbed and the appliances were taken. The thief broke in and took the most expensive and easiest items to take. At least the thief was courteous and turned off the gas when he snipped the cable to the gas stove. We think it probably wasn’t his first time through this. We’re still dealing with that event but everything is being resolved. It was the builder’s responsibility to lock it up so they bought us new appliances. The only problem is the new microwave is broken. It’s getting handled through the warranty however. C’est la vie.
One thing to learn from all of that is to make sure to get things in writing. I trust the builder and the company to do the right thing, but when it comes to money sometimes people can be funny. It’s always best to get things in writing.
Another lesson – it may be cheaper to seal your own tile but it sure takes a long time. It took us nearly 4 days to get it done. We saved $1300 doing it ourselves, but lost all that time. Although I’m really happy we saved that money, I’m physically exhausted and feel like I’m behind in other areas.
We had a little debate about movers, too. We shopped around a little bit and found different movers estimate things differently. We were concerned about movers that estimated by the hour. Is there motivation to get things done quickly? If our move is done in 4 hours, then the hourly rate vs. flat rate turns out to be mostly the same. However, if the hourly folks take one more hour, that’s another $100. On the other hand, if it’s a flat rate, will the movers rush through and not be as careful so they can save time?
We decided, after some debate, to go with the flat rate. If we get any guff about the amount to move (they made us estimate boxes as well as the items we’d be moving) then we’ll move the small stuff ourselves. We’re not done packing our boxes yet so we don’t know where we’ll end up number-wise.
Here’s to hoping we’re done with the move soon and ready to get back into our groove. I need to get to studying and Melissa wants more time to write. We’ll get there in just a little more time…
Image Source: Mykl Roventine
