Day one

He said 6:45.

“I’ll be there Tuesday morning at 6:45 ready to begin work.”

I was stuck at a broken traffic signal right about that time but arrived 10 minutes later to unlock the door to our new house for the first time. The crew didn’t waste any time and got right to work with hammers and mallets, breaking up the tile and carrying the debris out to their truck.

I started unloading my car. The first of five carloads of boxes, dishes and household items Cristy and I would carry over today.

Mid-morning an unexpected cancellation in another tradesman’s schedule permitted him to fit our foundation repair work in today. We met him at the house at about 3 o’clock, just after another car unload. By this time, the flooring contractor had taken a day’s worth of demolished tile and pulled-up carpeting off to a depository; Cristy and I had a few minutes of quiet in the house to plan our next move. But of course: a trip to Lowes! $350 later (not including $110 in coupon and gift card credits) we had several more projects mapped out.

I am headed back just now, with the last carful of belongings to move today. As a special treat, I’m bringing along some snacks for Cristy and am going to drop by Sonic to get a cold drink for us both. Too bad they don’t serve cran-tinis at Sonic.

Day one of the move-in extravaganza is drawing to a close. 17 more days until the remodeling and moving process will be complete.