Long overdue update

We moved to our new house a little more than a week ago, and we've just been busy unpacking and getting the house sorted. There're still quite a few more boxes to unpack, and we still have to do an overall big clean, but Jamie has been feeling under the weather since last week, and while we typically have this strange immunity to each other's germs, I must have caught something from him since I haven't been feeling so great myself.

It was a freezing day the Saturday we moved, just above 0°F, so I felt bad for the 3 movers that showed up bright and early [7:30am, on the dot of our scheduled time], we went with Good Stuff Moving, based on the numerous positive Angie's List reviews. We have a lot of stuff... I guess we've accumulated even more stuff since our last move. Our furniture and boxes almost filled up the whole large moving truck. The movers were done in less than 6 hours, and the cost of the move came in below the estimate, so we were happy even though there was slight damage to our belongings and on two walls.

Later that day, the cable guy showed up, so we had internet access and television the same day [not that we absolutely needed it, but it just happened that way]. And then the appliance delivery guys showed up with our new washer, dryer and gas range. We had picked those up the weekend before the move at Sears Outlet. I love our new KitchenAid 5-burner double oven gas range [I should have known, of course it's called the "Architect Series II", that's why we were attracted to it]. It's the size of a regular range, but has two ovens, I didn't even know that existed! I thought they only made full sized double ovens. The electric range that came with the house is just sitting in the middle of the kitchen at the moment, I am trying to sell it through craigslist but no luck so far.

And then the following Monday, a plumber and electrician came by to install our gas stove and dryer, and some other miscellaneous work. We wanted to replace our water heater, but the electric model we had our heart set on was unavailable and on backorder, without a definite delivery date. So hopefully our 37 year old water heater will keep on going and not die on us anytime soon.

A few days ago, there was a blizzard, and I had to shovel for the first time. It sucks! We have exterior steps down to the street, so a snow blower would be impractical as we would have to lug it up and down every time. An old school shovel it is. My arms are still aching from that exercise, we got around 7 inches, in some areas it was worse because of the wind. There is so much snow already piled up, and none of it has melted, it's difficult to figure out where all the additional snow should go. Saint Paul also doesn't plow its streets very well. The main arteries, yes. But our quiet little residential street? Forget it. We've not seen or heard a slow plow at all, I don't think our street gets any love from the city. Jamie's very thankful for four-wheel drive.

Gracie had a hard time with the move, I think. She had no appetite and didn't poop for... maybe 4 days? And then yesterday, while both Jamie and I were in the bathroom, she left a pile of presents for us on the stairs. She has never, ever gone indoors before, I was under the impression that she would rather die than go indoors. So, we're not sure what the problem was, whether it was retaliation [we have been keeping her in her crate when we leave, because she's not used to the house yet, and would probably damage the woodwork with her crazy chewing habit], or if she's losing control of her bowels due to age, or maybe it was just a random one-time occurrence. She shreds everything that we place in the crate with her, the oral fixation has gotten worse.

We also had a security system put in, since the house has so many windows, and yesterday, when we were at Ikea, we got a call from ADT saying that one of the glass breaks at the house was activated. So unfortunately, Gracie's howling and whining is somehow at the same frequency as the sound of glass breaking, and we can't turn the security system on and leave her alone in the house until we figure out how to not set off the glass breaks.

That's it for now, I haven't unpacked my camera yet, but when I do, and when the house is in a better state, I'll have more photos. :)