Further Adventures in Moving

Sorry to leave you all hanging there. The suspense is killing you, I'm sure. Did we manage to take down all our furniture and box up all our possessions in time for the carpet cleaner to come on Saturday morning?!?

Yes, we did. And it sucked. Here is a picture of our dining area with everything piled into it.


















I was away at work on Saturday but The Brain had to spend his entire day either crouched on that chair or out on the deck in the sun. He had his iPad and laptop loaded with video games, and he totally had access to food if he shimmied past the mattress and into the kitchen so don't feel too bad for him. It took the carpet roughly 48 hours to dry so on Monday, exactly a week after moving in, we got to celebrate our independence by hauling boxes (AGAIN) and getting our furniture set up.

That musty smell hasn't gone away though, so now I am convinced that the carpet is rotting out from under our feet. I am still recovering from the spider infestation so there is no way in hell I'm peeling back a corner to take a look. I simply don't think I can take the knowledge of whatever is happening under there. I'm trying to be all zen about it. Maybe I can take on a new identity as a quirky knitting lady who smells like rotting carpet. It could be my thing. And then people will get to know me and discover that people who smell like rotting carpets really aren't that bad. It could be an After School Special. Do they still make those things?

So let's recap, shall we? In the last few days we have had our carpet professionally cleaned (The Brain tells me it was one of those super-powered giant tanks on a truck with a long hose), we got our power back and our hot water turned on. Things are looking pretty good, no? Except that I have filled one and a half pages on a legal pad with things that are broken or installed incorrectly or just plain annoying. As Nora suggested to me, I'm putting everything in writing and delivering it to Landlord Man so that there is no confusion later on about who was responsible for what. I am including everything from the fact that we need to run the dryer three times before the clothes are no longer damp to the leaky toilet that is draining water all over the bathroom floor. Now not only do I smell like rotting carpets, but I have the classy distinction of getting to pour a bucket of water down the pot while standing on soggy towels every time I visit the restroom.

Things are not all bad though. Landlord Man brought his own personal washing machine over on Sunday so that we could do laundry (a process which led to our discovery of the faulty dryer). I finally took matters into my own hands and WD-40ed the heck out of our post office box and now the lock works again. The Brain even managed to use his powerful biker's legs to press the front of the dishwasher back into shape so it doesn't catch on the baseboard. Now we can open it all the way! And it was with great relief that I turned on the AC today and discovered that something in this place actually works.

And in case any of you are still wondering what possessed us to move here (aside from a rent payment hundreds of dollars cheaper than before), I leave you with these:

The view of the canyon from our front deck:


















The view of the canyon out the door of the guest bedroom:


















The sunroom/office, overlooking the canyon:


















Every day is kind of like waking up in the middle of a jungle...a jungle with its very own ice cream truck driving up and down playing "Oh Susanna" all the livelong day.