Moving Expenses

We're officially out of the old place and into the new place. The move and getting everything set up has presented a hose of financial challenges, so that we've handled well and others that could have gone much better.

I mentioned movers for our furniture a while back. This was probably the BEST $300 we've spent in a long time. I love Gameboy dearly, but one if his faults is underestimating how much work big jobs will be. This results in not enough time, frustration, and all around grumpiness for everyone involved. A friend reccomended movers who charge by the piece and I decided that was a great idea for our furniture. They guys who dilivered it struggled and I pictured Gameboy and a friend hurting the walls, or worse yet themselves, trying to move it. Our quote was $255 four our bedroom (4 pieces), office (3 pieces), living room (5 pieces). The guys were great and Gameboy was ready to pay them double after the first 10 minutes. They threw in some extra stuff and Gameboy took them to McDonalds and gave a healthy tip.

I've continued to spend an excessive amount of time and (at least in my opinion) with the Big Box stores. One error I've made in this area is not checking about reshelving fees/properly measuring. The pantry- the gloriously huge pantry- needed shelves and brackets. Prepared with approximate measurements I did some really fuzzy math and ended up with shelves that are way too small. The restocking fee to return them is around $1 off, but I may have been a bit more careful if I'd known about it. I also don't like that when I asked about return policies they just said within 30 days with a receipt.

Outside of cleaning and shelving the next biggest drain has been our lawn. I live in what could easily be described as a desert on a mountain. We recently broke a 100+ year record for straight days in the 90's or above. We're also at about half our usual summer rainfall. I've tried a few lawn tonics service guys and internet searching informed me about. The tools to apply the tonics, the ingredients, and time amaze me. I think if we haven't made progress in the next two weeks we're going to try the comercial chemically stuff. I've been trying to keep things relativley natural, but it's sad. On the plus side we don't have to worry about mowing any time soon.

I haven't run tallies yet but I'd guess we're in the $600-800 range on stuff from Home Depot, Lowes, and the grocery store for the house. All of the receipts have been relegated to what I'm calling the organization table. Only problem is it's surrounded by boxes, making it hard to you know, organize.

There are a lot more things that we want/need to make our house a home, but I'm doing my best to keep a tight reign on things that aren't necessary for day to day life. Bookcases for our many books would be great- but they can hang out in boxes for a few more months.

Any lawn tips? Or even better, how to make all of our stuff unpack itself?