We are alive and well in North Carolina!!! I can not even begin to describe what this past week has been like. It was simply crazy and a complete blur, similar to the week leading up to our wedding and the actual wedding day. Perhaps that’s the norm for major life changing events?
It all started Monday. That was the day I was going to pickup the u-haul trailer and start loading everything into it. Turns out the trailer we reserved died and we had to go all the way out east on the island for a different one. I decided that was insane, so I called a closer u-haul and rented a 14’ truck. That was surely big enough for our little 400 square foot apartment. Afterall, we weren’t taking everything!
Monday afternoon we packed the u-haul truck. By 6pm it was clear that we had more stuff than u-haul space. I tried to rearrange items to get better use of the space but it wasn’t happening. This wasn’t the end of the world, since we could just come back for another trip after dropping everything else off at the shipping yard for u-pack.
Have any of you heard of u-pack? It’s similar to pods but cheaper. Of course there are reasons why it’s cheaper. We decided that the money we would save ($2500+) was worth it.
Tuesday morning we drove to the upack terminal, where we unloaded everything from the uhaul on to the upack trailer. The upack trailer is actually an ABF Commercial Trailer that is 28’ long and 9’ feet high. You can also have upack deliver the trailer right to your home and pack it there. Our apartment complex had issues with parking a 28’ trailer anywhere, so we decided to pack the trailer at the upack terminal. We pulled the uhaul truck right up to the back of the upack trailer and spent a good two hours moving everything from one truck into the other truck. After we were done and pretty much exhausted we headed back to the apartment for the last few items. We had until 6pm to get everything into the upack trailer in order to guarantee delivery of our stuff by Thursday. We managed to get everything in and tied down with 5 minutes to spare. I really didn’t think we were going to make it but somehow it all worked out.
Wednesday morning was a mad dash to get on the road. I had some stuff I needed to drop off, like the cable boxes and modem to the cable company, the blow-up mattress had to go back to Sean’s brother and the dolly we used to move all our stuff had to be returned to my old job. While I did that, Sean continued packing the last minute items, like clothing and bathroom necessities as well as my computer and things for the cats. When I got back we jammed everything in both cars and hit the road. It was 1:30pm. Much later than we planned to leave, but we left and that’s what matters!
We didn’t get to the house until 1am. Sean actually arrived before me since I went a different route and ended up getting a wee bit lost. Those NJ Turnpike and NJ Garden State Parkway signs should really be bigger and look much different. I’m just saying 
Early Thursday morning the phone rang. Upack had our trailer and wanted to deliver it to our house later that afternoon. Somehow we managed to get really lucky here because we thought we had to get another uhaul truck and drive to the upack terminal, than move all our stuff onto the uhaul and than drive to our house and move it all off the uhaul and into our house. Miraculously (thank you baby jesus) they dropped the truck off right in front of our very own little house. AND, we have until Wednesday to unload everything. This came in really handy because, 1. we were/are exhausted, 2. Sean threw his back out and this moving stuff has been really difficult for him and 3. we only had to move our stuff ONE more time!!!!
We ended up moving a few items in on Thursday. Some of the furniture, like our bed and a few chairs. Than we hauled some ass on Friday and got everything else into the house except for our treadmill, which still, on Sunday morning, sits all alone inside the trailer. The treadmill is the largest and heaviest item we have had to move and neither one of us is looking forward to getting it out of the truck. It can stay there forever as far as I am concerned.
It feels amazing to have everything inside. We are still so in love with the house and all the space we have. Both cats are adjusting nicely. When we let them out of their travel cases the other night, they walked right out and made themselves at home. It normally takes Stormy some time to get used to new places but he just walked around like “HEY! We’re finally back at home!”
I’m so happy the move is behind us and we can start to settle in here and get a routine in place.
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