8 Hours

I knew it would happen.  It was honestly inevitable: our move was bound to have problems.  Sigh.  Problems started yesterday and today was therefor a long day trying to resolve said problems.  Rather than rant and rave, I'll just make a list of the things that have gone wrong in the last 48 hours.

1. We were meant to pick up our keys bright and early Wednesday morning.  We got a call very last minute saying we needed to move that appointment with our landlord to late afternoon.  That meant we couldn't move the bedframes and mattresses that were already packed into the van into the house in order to move another load of boxes that night.  Oh well.
2. We drove to the house as planned late afternoon only to find the landlord was not there.  We waited about 20 minutes before calling her.  After going through a stream of people, we finally reached her to find out she attempted to call our home number to tell us she was stuck on the other side of town in an emergency with another house.  Why she called the home number when she knows we were likely on the road, I don't know.  She tried to direct us to a lockbox on the side of the house so we could at least move stuff in as we had planned.  The key in said lockbox did not work; apparently, the cleaning crew had put the wrong key in.  Out of luck.  We drove back home with new plans to meet the landlord at 7:30am the next morning before Jared had to get to work-plan was to walk through together, get that load of stuff in the van unpacked, and he would take it back to the house in order to meet us down there around lunchtime with another load.  
3. Got to the house at 7:30 this morning-brought James with us.  We had arranged to have the power, water, gas, and internet turned on that day, so I had to be there for a while.  I brought James to make things easier at home.  We brought my laptop and a couple of camping chairs as well as a pillow and a blanket.  Upon arriving to the house, we found the landlord there, and took that as a good sign.  That feeling didn't last.  The landlord quickly told us the key she had brought didn't work either-no way to get into the house.  The two garage openers didn't have working batteries.  We were stuck outside.  She had called a locksmith to come change the lock out entirely, but he was 40 minutes out.  Sigh.  We waited around, but Jared had to leave to get back to work.  Sigh again.  I decided to keep the van and told Jared I would just unload the mattresses and frames myself, just loading them into the garage.  He took off, and the locksmith got there shortly thereafter to change out the lock.  We got in the house, just way later than I thought.
4. The landlord gave me all the paperwork, answered a few of my questions, and though she was nice, she had to leave very quickly, and left me to do the walkthrough on my own.  I would have preferred to do it with her to get any last minute things fixed, but oh well.  She did say that because of a snafu with the water, the carpet cleaners didn't shampoo the carpets, and she had scheduled them to come back today.  I told her I would call as soon as the water was on so they could come over.  Definitely annoyed that they didn't have that done, but at least she had them scheduled to come out. She left.
5. The walk-through began, I became more and more dismayed with each room I went into.  Nail holes still in the walls.  Light fixtures not working.  plates on some of the plugs not on.  Both bathrooms were gross-totally needed to be cleaned, and that was frustrating since she said they already had a cleaning crew out.  The counters in the kitchen were covered in some filmy stuff.  Yardwork in both yards not done.  Fridge didn't look cleaned out at all.  The bathtub and shower were the worst-hair still in both, and terrible deposits of hard water and rust stains.  I admit it-I started to cry.  I took a billion pictures, called Jared, and cried some more.  We were supposed to officially move in on Saturday, and I was all of the sudden completely out of my comfort zone.  
6. I got proactive.  I called the landlord to report that the house flat out needed to be re-cleaned.  I gave her specific examples-she agreed and arranged to have the cleaning crew come back out.  I told her the yardwork wasn't done at all, there were cat feces in the backyard and cigarettes.  Apparently, the past tenant never smoked in the house, but smoked a ton in the backyard.  She arranged for the yardwork to get done next weekend.  I told her I was extremely worried about the cat smell in the house.  She assured me the shampooing of the carpets would take care of that.  I told her about the cosmetic issues that were not fixed in the home.  She said she would get her handyman out there today to fix things. I told her that we really were disappointed this was not done before 6/1, given that our lease started yesterday. She told me she would deduct 4 days of rent from our first month.  I appreciated how she worked to meet my needs.....though I sure do with this could have been taken care of over the last 2 weeks. Triple sigh.
7. Once I got off that phone call, I was calmer, thank heavens.  James and I settled in for the long haul as we waited for all the utility people to get there.  We set up camping chairs in the kitchen and he started watching movies and playing games on the tablet, and I got out my computer.  Thankfully the internet guy came very, very quickly, so I was able to work as we waited for everyone else.  The SRP folks also came out quickly and got that set up; the gas guy was next, showed me how to get that set up and headed out.  Water guys came out close to noon, and I immediately called the landlord to confirm the carpet cleaners could come.  Things were moving along.
8. I took James out for a quick lunch break at a very gross jack in the box down the road, and we got back moments before the carpet cleaners arrived.  They did their thing, and that's when I noticed the house was getting really hot-86 downstairs.  i wondered if that was due to the humidity from the carpet cleaning, and though I tried to adjust it, it was on some weird schedule, and I couldn't figure it out.  Frustrating.
9. The carpet cleaners did a great job, which was awesome.  We only had to wait for the handyman and the cleaning crew. They got there around 2, at which point I was starting to really drag.  James, bless his heart, was doing so awesome, and I am SO glad I brought him to hang out with me. That was probably the sole bright spot of the day. The handyman started fixing a handful of small things, measured one window to replace the blinds that didn't work, and spent a loooooong time changing out the front door lock.  He actually didn't finish that, so he ended up taking my keys with him so he could finish the next day. I didn't love that, but didn't know what else to do.  I kept the garage openers once he replaced the batteries, so at least we had that as a point of entry.  The cleaning lady worked until about 4:30, and she was at least nice-we chatted for a good while.  I took James out to get a snack at Frys and once we got back around 5, I let her know we would need to head back to Mesa, so she could call it quits.  She was just about done mopping anyway, so it was good timing.
10. James and I finally left the house around 5.  A lot of stuff got done, but man, we were beat-James fell asleep in the car. I did manage to get all the mattresses and stuff unloaded on my own-not easy, but I did it.  Jared and I would end up loading boxes in the van around 10pm that night, and we actually drove back to the house to unpack them into the correct rooms.  i was so tired, but it was helpful to show Jared the house since he had not been in it since the last tenant moved out.  I was honestly still dismayed that after two cleanings, the shower still looked gross and the bathtub not much better.  I just vowed to clean those two things out myself so I knew they were done well.  

We got home around midnight to relieve Karianna from her babysitting duties and called it a day.  Such a long day. I am really hopeful all the issues we have to deal with are just done.  I don't think those hopes are going to come true! But I can wish, right?

And this is the guy that made it possible for me to survive the day.  :)  On the docket for tomorrow:  3 loads of boxes to the house, just me and Jared.  How much you wanna bet I'm going to get about 10 more bruises on my legs?  They'll be in good company-I'm already black and blue all over!  Moving is so much fun. :)