Letting out big slow sigh. Finally. I think the chaos of the last month and a half is at a level where I can actually relax a bit!
I started my move from the second floor duplex apartment into the first floor apartment THAT HAS A COURTYARD one month and 3 days ago. Well maybe a bit sooner. Backtrack to 2 weeks prior...packing up my apartment into boxes. Amie is in Pigeon Forge as a performer at Dollywood for 7 months but she's back between acting jobs so I "get" to pack up all her stuff too. But had to start because I was putting in brand new wall to wall carpeting into my 2nd floor home (as a soundproof buffer for when I moved downstairs and had people above me). Got the boxing done and shoved all the boxes into closets, bathrooms, shelves, and the kitchen while they installed the carpets. Whew! At the same time, was focusing on moving my hot tub from the patio deck next door (yes..I did say next door. It was in my rental units' courtyard that I now am putting on the market to try to sell/rent...something/anything to be done with the short-term rental use I've been doing for years with it). So...I have supervised the construction/extension of the deck in the courtyard below me (where I'm moving soon) to accommodate said Hot Tub. Once that was built...I was blessed beyond measure to have 9 buff young and...not-quite-so-young-but-still-very-strong men come over to my home and literally LIFT this huge hot tub over the 8 foot wall that separated my "soon to become my" courtyard from the "still mine but... don't want hot tub there anymore for potential buyers to want to have it" courtyard next door. Confusing I know. But the bottom line is that I have WONDERFUL friends with terrific hubbys and sons!! Watching these 9 guys heft that hot tub...amazing. So...that took up a lot of time and then the hot tub sprung a leak and putting the sides of it back together is like a rubik cube puzzle! Took a good while before I got the sides in there correctly. Only to find there was now a leak in the pipes so had to take them all off again...get a repair guy in...and...then figure out my rubik-puzzle hot tub panels one more time! So that was all of the last half of April. Plus of course..running up to get Amie settled in her new job and visiting with Katie. Then...May 1st finally came which meant that Mikes folks (who decided to buy a Condo out on the islands in east Savannah but who'd been renting from Mike and I for years) were officially moved out of the first floor apartment THAT HAS THE COURTYARD!
Yes! Yep, the Courtyard is huge for me. After living with just a balcony in a 2nd floor 2 BR duplex with Mike, the girls, our dog, cat(s), & fish since 2006...having a courtyard again is a seriously big thing for this little gal.
Ahhhhh. And so began this past month. Before I could move boxes out of closets and bathrooms etc...along with whatever furniture I did want to keep...I needed to create a 2nd bedroom out of the 1BR/2BA first floor duplex apartment downstairs. And paint ceilings before they could start. (Pop liked having all the ceilings the same colors as the walls..but not so with me so...I got out tees that are now artistically um...splattered in a very fashionable splattering and painted all the ceilings in my soon-to-be-apartment. Between contractors and calling my handyman guy to do all sorts of other repairs that kept popping up (the Air Conditioning unit went belly up on the first day!) etc...I have been barely able to breathe. Thankful that I work at the hospital only rarely as every day has been spilling over with stuff to do at home. Plus...my renters in the Cottage out back and the Studio Apt (3rd floor) also have their leases running out so I needed to start finding new tenants and, because I have the Manor for sale/rent...I needed to figure out what furnishings between these four homes did I want to keep and move into my first floor apartment and what to get rid of. And...the other thing I had to deal with has been soundproofing. Townhouse and duplexes are tough and I don't want to hear my neighbors (renters) essentially. So I got out the nailgun and put in carpet runners along the stairwell to my old apartment and the studio apartment (looks beauteeeeful! I only had to rip up parts of it twice because I'd finish and it would make you dizzy if you looked down because it wasn't straight but swerving a bit. But finally got it straight. (HA! love a pun).
Anyhow....still handling the short term Manor rentals next door and, in between, I rotated a bunch of the furnishings between my old apartment, the studio apartment and the Manor on a merry-go-round-search for what I wanted to now put into my "new" first floor apartment and what to get rid of or change out for soundproofing needs. Studio now has great new carpet, got a new settee as I took the old one and a full-sized bed instead of the Daybed and trundle. Manor now has the daybed/trundle, lost the full bed to the Studio and the antique oak kitchenette that I now have instead. I hired two strong movers who helped me with all this merry-go-rounding plus the hands of a sweet friend who (unfortunately) kept being here when I would decide to exchange out a piece of furnishing. Moving the tempurpedic bed was the hardest on the movers though. But... I love my new room. Right off the faux french doors of my newly created bedroom is my totally working wonderfully... Hot Tub!
So...Wednesday, May 25th finally and exhaustedly found me and Gizmo, for the first time....sleeping and moved into my first floor apartment. Woohoo! Yay! Just typing this is making me smile and want to do a high-kick cheer routine!! (not that I could but it's there...in my thoughts!)
I left the cat upstairs for a few more nights till I had more boxes and such unpacked so that it wouldn't be quite so stressful for her. But Kiara is now here along with the fish.
Life continued pretty hectic...had to unpack..figure out storage...work on plants for the courtyard...get the outside outlets and fountain repaired...etc. But finally coming together!
So much so that 2 nights ago...for the first time since we lifted and moved my Hot Tub over the wall weeks prior...I FINALLY stepped into my hot tub and got to enjoy being under the stars with serious massage jets on a pretty bruised up body.
Ahhhhhhhh. I finished up the month of May on Memorial Weekend by working 3 straight 12 hour shifts at the hospital.
Done now with nursing again for quite a few weeks though. Thank goodness. I can only handle so many spinning plates before they, or I, break.
So June is still filled up with unpacking. I haven't even touched the second bedroom . It's still chock full of boxes. It'll be Amies when she's in town and my spare when she's not. And I still need to buy some furniture and do some painting and stuff to decorate things the way I want. My maintenance guy is coming again tomorrow to do some more small repairs on various units including my own so that is ongoing.
But...I still feel such a freedom being this far along in the moving in and such. I can finally focus on getting new tenants! As I said...my Cottage and Studio ones leave this month. I did get the Studio re-rented! But I need to find tenants for 1. my "old digs"...the second floor 2BR/2BA duplex. 2. the 2BR/2BA Cottage (it used to the Carriage House to this huge home-now-split-into-separate-units). AND...though I am hoping to sell the Manor next door.... I am still operating it as a short-term rental till that day finally comes which means...constantly finding new vacation renters for it.
So...I am heading out on this bright and sunshiny day to paint touch ups and trim and clean the duplex apartment this week. Gotta make it tenant ready. Next will be the Studio. And after that the Cottage.
In the meantime...sending up prayers for our sweet Lord to provide me with the "right" tenants.
He often takes things down to the wire with me in past needs I've prayed for. I think it's a strengthening of faith-deal. It's easy to have faith when you pray way ahead of the deadline to get something and you get it. But much harder when the deadline (eg: loss of rental income) is staring you hard in the face and only moments away. So then, when He still pulls it out....you realize it isn't the convenient pat answer that Satan wants you to think... which is contained in one word....
Co-incidence. But the answer truly is from God.
Well. That's me. My past month and a half of kinda-crazy-awful-hectec-so-glad-I'm-"almost"-doneness. It would've been so much easier to have done all this with Mike. Cheaper too...by far! But.... I think he'd be proud of me for doing as much of the repairs and work on my own too. And just the getting it all done. Women out there with mates though....treasure not just the muscles and brawn (which I really miss with Mike) but the camaraderie of sharing the load. I miss that the most.
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