Sunday, May 29, 2011

No Matter How Ya Slice It, Moving Sucks

Folks, I finally have my internet service working at the new Right View From The Left Coast bunker. It took forever. Two weeks and a surly A T & T tech to come to the bunker to help straighten things out.
But, that was just one of the reasons I concluded something rather important.
Moving sucks!
The whole process, period.
Since this is the first time Mrs. RVFTLC and I have bought a home, both of us had our eyes opened to a lot of things.
First of all, we got an education in real estate terminology.
A short sale, well it is not really a short sale for the potential buyer. Being naive about the whole process, we read up and asked a lot of people about the short sale. Essentially, the term means that the seller owes more than the home is worth. And in our case, the owner married and moved in with the new mate. Thus, she nor the bank seemed to care about the total value of said home.
Advantage there, us.
But the disadvantage is the fact that the bank is in no real hurry to sell said property. And sometimes it takes up to one year from beginning to end of the process. One has to have patience.
Yet in our case, the whole process took five months.
One reason, have a nice chunk of cash to put down. Squeezes out even one that outbids the first buyer.
The next reason it all sucks is that it is beyond signing your life away. Our file at the escrow office had to be at least one and a half inches thick. And to be honest, I can not tell you a quarter of what we signed.
Then there is signing before and after.
I should have just started signing with my left hand. But I did keep signing with the right. After a while, I am certain many of the signatures looked like I had too much to drink. You know, kind of crooked and going off the page.
OK, there is more.
Packing.
Packing is absolutely a horrible exercise. If you are like me and have accumulated a lot of stuff, there is no time in the world to do the kind of purging necessary to make it work. So, you just take a lot of stuff with you. Unless you are Mrs. RVFTLC. She can purge with the best of them. No binging on her part. No sir. Just purge, purge and purge. And even then, it is not enough.
As the process began, Mrs. RVFTLC was bringing boxes from work. A lot of them. I kept telling her we did not need that much.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
Boy, was your humble blogger wrong.
We almost did not have enough at the end. Oh, did I mention that the end is the worst?!
It is like a fire sale at a shop going out of business. Everything must go! Into a box and hope that you figure it all out at the new location.
Moving day in the past was an absolutely horrible experience. But this time, age and wisdom shined in both the missus and your humble blogger.
We hired movers.
Now, the move was only about 3.3 miles. But we are not in the best of shape. And we had the money to do so. And it was the best investment of the whole process.
The movers we hired were excellent. Very polite and never letting us pick up anything. Going from the old bunker to the new one. And once we got there. We just told them where to put everything. That was the best part of the otherwise suckable experience.
One would think that two weeks ago yesterday would be the end of the saga.
Again,
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
In our second bedroom, which is the world headquarters of your humble blogger's enterprise, we discovered there was no electricity. Not one electrical outlet worked. We eventually found the circuit breaker and, shock of all shock, the breaker to the office was. . .broken!
We had to wait until Monday for it to be repaired. And one thing our real estate agent did was purchase warranty insurance. It covered the cost.
But you know something. There would not have been a cost if those involved listened to Mrs. RVFTLC and your humble blogger.
Here is a clue to you renters and homeowners.
Always make sure your smoke alarms are in working order. If they are chirping at least five months, you know it might be something more than needing a new battery. And that was the case in why the office had no electricity. The smoke alarm had to be replaced. And the fact that it is connected to the electricity in the ceiling should have been a clue to the inspector and the city inspector. But hey, what do we know?!
And as far a Direct TV, well they kind of sort of screwed up. But they did redeem themselves.
The tech that came out should have called my cell number if he or she could not reach our home number. Yeah, we are still into having a land line. And they did have the cell. Supposedly. I called they nice gal at Direct TV, and she said that the tech did not have my cell number. So, to cut this short, we had to wait until Monday for the new appointment and installation. It kind of sort of worked out OK. We got a lot more stuff put away than if there was a working television.
Now I have railed on about A T & T. And that, my friends, is a whole other post. When I will not spew profanities that would make a hooker and a sailor blush.
The whole experience, I believe, is major suckage. It takes a huge amount of time and commitment. One would think that commitment is in order.
But, I can share with you that one thing to look for is an excellent handyman. And
I can say we found a great one.
In one evening, he and is assistant put together and over-the-range microwave, a dinning room set, an American flag pole, a swinging bench and a shelving unit in three hours. Oh yeah, and fixed the garbage disposal as well.
Now it is beginning to feel that all of it is worth it. After all, this is our first home. And it is having our touches. Mostly Mrs. RVFTLC's but a few of mine. Such as the flag pole in front. And my office. But, it is our baby.
The experience has sucked, but now it is starting to feel worth it. But I sure as hell do not want to do this for a very, very long time.
Because moving really sucks!

2 comments:

An Unmarried Man said...

I'm glad to hear your move went so smoothly!!!

I have an appointment for AT&T to come out but I'm thinking of cancelling and staying with Time Warner just because AT&T's plan is not cheaper and it's not worth going through all the trouble.

Righty64 said...

DO NOT GO WITH A T & T! DO NOT! They are the worst. I would bundle with someone else. But I love Direct TV. The problem is that they bundle with. . .A T & T. So, I just stay screwed.