I was able to spend last week in Philly and visit Megan, Ryan, Cora, Krister and Sheri! It was a great trip and so much fun. (Anderson siblings Krister, Jana, and Megan pictured below.)I took the bus from Boston, stopping in NY, and then on to Philly. It was a breeze and cheep too. I also tried out Philly's commuter rail which stopped really close to Megan's place.
Megan and I completed phase one of our "extreme condo makeover" in just about 5 days. All we have left to do is a little more work on the kitchen and from there on out it's just the fun and easy extras to make the place even more cozy. A little more cleaning (as Megan had already done the hard cleaning), removal of excess wiring and stripped screws, re-arranging funiture, hanging pictures and art, new drapes and rod hung, some painting, lots of new lighting, new ceiling light fixtures installed, and the place feels fresh and like home! YAY!
Megan will have better before and after pictures of the condo as my pictures don't do the space or our work justice.
Mingled in with our condo project we were able to have a lot of fun. Play time with Cora, hanging out at Megan's place, exploring the area, the best philly cheese steak and hoagie ever, pumpkin water ice with vanilla custard at Ritas, dinner at Krister's house with Uncle Blaine, Aunt Kathy, cousin Heidi, and Mike!
I made an ironing board cover for my apartment's built in board. The old cover looked like it was 30 or 40 years old. Yuck! This is quite an improvement.
Our apartment is certainly smaller than what we were used to but we love it and it totally works for us! I've done a lot of cleaning, fixing, arranging, and organizing yet you'll see that there is still a little work left to do. Let these pictures act as a sneak peak into our new digs. I'll post pictures of our family room and entryway once we clear out the last of our boxes to the storage unit.
(*press play and turn up volume while reading this post for full effect*)
Over 3,000 miles, 6days of driving, too many tolls and truck stops to count....we made it across the country! We were lucky to find ourselves moving the same time as my sister and brother in law so we shared a truck and caravaned. Matt and I said goodbye to Portland and took our first real break in Utah where we packed up the Hayes' things. After packing up our own house and hitting the road we quickly realized we were exhausted and didn't actually make it to Utah directly. We pulled off in a truck stop and slept in the cab until a cattle truck woke us up. Then we were back on the road again. It was great to be in Utah but we wish that we would have had a lot more time to play. Two short nights in Utah and we were off. Ryan driving his Honda and Matt driving the big-rig with our car in tow. I got to go between cars and man the two way radios. We started this leg off with a bang...literally! We hit a HUGE piece of sheet metal which was in the middle of the freeway just up the pass in Utah. It went under the truck and got stuck on the car dolly. Luckily there was no major damage other than to Matt's shin when after we pulled over he picked it up, realized how heavy it was, and dropped it on himself.
A quick look see in Cheyenne, a lovely motel, huge wind turbines, and a lot of corn before we hit Chicago. It was AWESOME to stay at Clair and Kathy's house, sleep in nice beds, enjoy great conversations, and eat a huge breakfast. We plan on a weekend trip back to Clair and Kathy's place soon!
One more hotel along the way and then we landed in Philly!!! We were nervous about navigating the huge truck into the small streets of Philly but we finally found a route that the truck could fit through and found the Hayes' condo. Another huge life saver and welcoming faces were Krister and Sheri. They helped us unload the truck, took us on the best tour of Philly of all time, and kept us over for the night. We had our first water-ice and authentic Philly-cheesestake. We were in heaven.
Matt and I could have stayed in Philly forever but we had to hit the road. We rode up to Boston on a Saturday and sat in terrible traffic through NY which delayed us nearly two hours. We got in late, got our keys, and blew up the aerobed just in time to fall asleep. Early the next morning our movers showed up and we had all our stuff in the apartment in about 2 hours! Compare that to the three days it took us to load it into the van! We returned the van the next day but only after unloading our long term storage items into our storage unit, one dead car battery in the Civic, replacing said battery, finding 5 gas stations before locating diesel, one guy yelling at me "dis ain't a parkin lot lady" while I waited for Matt to fill up, scraping a street sign the entire length of the truck, me following Matt in the Honda watching the break light on the car dolly jump out of place with every bump in the road (remember that huge piece of sheet metal in the freeway...woops!). Yep, we got the truck there only three and a half hours late. Lucky for us the Budget guy liked that we were from a cool city and waived the hourly late fee and ignored any possible damage fees.
Cleaning and unpacking has ensued ever since. I am feeling so relieved and already settled in to our new place. Matt started school this week, I can eat and sleep again, and we are happy to see this transition come to an end.
A million thank yous to our families for helping us make this happen.
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