Moving is my kryptonite. I hate it with a passion like you wouldn't believe and, yet, I just can't get away from it. Even as a kid, my family moved. A. Lot. By the time I got married and was ready to start my own home, I had somewhere between ten to fifteen moves under my belt. And I was only 21.
Not able to avoid it, our sixth anniversary was matched with six moves, not including the time we spent bunking with family in between (not insignificant amounts of time there either). I really had myself convinced that this last one, a little over two years ago, would be the last move until we were ready to leave Iowa. I was so sure! And yet, I hesitated to decorate our apartment, as is my M.O. Why put time and emotion into making a place mine when we might just pick up and move on soon!
After getting back from Seattle, I was on this intense 'get our apartment organized' kick and part of that included a little bit of functional decorating. And making the kids' rooms a little more exciting.
We moved to Ames in the summer of 2010 and it took until post-summer of 2013 for me to be interested in decorating, just so you understand completely.
The past few weeks have been a little intense in our apartment. We've had some major heating issues, keeping our apartment very cold. It also happens to be that this winter has been EXTREMELY harsh in terms of low temps and windchills in the 'never should get there' zone. Our building manager and maintenance guy exhausted every effort, trying to get our heat to a comfortable level but this past week, they realized there was nothing that could be done until the end of winter, when the entire building could have the system turned off for work to be done.
Simultaneously, we have been having small electrical issues here and there that the maintenance guy had been able to fix each time, more or less.
When they realized the heating couldn't be fixed, they provided us with a space heater for each bedroom and a nice, larger one for the living room area.
Within a minute of turning them all on, the breaker tripped and the power went out. A new breaker went in, the heaters were turned back on, and the same thing happened. Within a minute, it was all off.
Out came an electrician.
The diagnosis was our apartment would need rewiring and it wouldn't be a quick fix.
I'll spare you the details of the emotional train wreck I was at this point.
At this point, it was noon-time on Friday. We had just picked Bella up from school and had a couple hours until it was time to get Benny.
Our manager offered us a vacant unit of comparable size with very generous terms of how long we could take to move in (she even offered to allow us to use it just for the winter if we wanted our apartment for the long run, after the work would all be finished), and went above and beyond to make sure we could make it all work.
At which point, we started moving our belongings.
We opted to just permanently move to the other unit, as we will be moving within the year (GOD WILLINGGGGGGG) and it didn't make sense to come back for a few months.
Remember how I said this was Friday, around noon? By the time Shabbos came in that evening, we had all three bedrooms mostly set up, a semi-functioning kitchen, a living room, and our table and chairs. How? I have no freaking clue. A friend came to help with the couch and table, another friend watched Bella until it was time to pick up Benny and We. Just. Trekked.
We are slowly working our way into the apartment and I honestly debated just pretending this never happened. But what's a blog without a post or two every so often so here I am, spilling the beans.
3 comments:
And that is why Hashem chose YOU to wear the Supergirl Cape Miss WonderWoman! That sucks but you are amazing for pulling it all together at the 11th hour like that...
Funny you should mention that, I actually finally found a gorgeous orange dress and instantly thought of you :)
It's unfortunate that it had to come to that. Though it's nice to see that your building manager has exhausted every option to fix the problems to the best of his abilities. Heating truly is an issue every winter, moreso with that really cold winter last year, so I understand where you're coming from. I hope you guys have settled in nicely on that new unit, and that they were able to permanently fix the hangups.
Marvin Scott @ Crown Strata
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