Hot beer and cold showers part 2

the next photo shows my stash ready to be loaded; this photo shows my upgraded stash closet!

...weary from the previous day's drive, we arrived at the new house ready for the delivery of our stuff. The theory was that a certain color inventory sticker was used for what went to storage and a different color sticker indicated that an item or box should come to the house. All in all, this seemed like a pretty fool-proof method to make sure that we would receive the necessities.

The truck arrived with 3 guys to unload half of our stuff - the leased house is half the size of our old house - and boxes began flying off of the truck. Toward the end of the unload, we started asking questions because a few key items were obviously missing...like the refrigerator and the chairs to our table.

Our driver was fantastic about describing how they use certain pieces of furniture to pack a semi load and it ends up that the fridge was an item they used in the 'storage' end of the truck...as were the chairs. The items weren't lost, just buried in a place where they could not get to them.

It was about this time when our contact for the gas utility company called and explained that there was no way they could run gas to the house before the following week. No refrigerator, no hot water or heat (it was a little cold for a few nights). Gas stove, too, so no way to cook except the microwave.

I knew we were going to need beer and showers, but the beer would be warm and the showers - cold. My insightful husband had extended our stay at the hotel and we shuttled back and forth sleeping at the house because there were animals to take care of and taking showers at the hotel. This continued 4 more days until they brought the fridge and the gas company was finally able to send a crew on that Wednesday.

By the time that was straightened out, we had unpacked most of the boxes and knew that things were missing. Unfortunately, the overflow truck was still MIA and we didn't know if the missing items/boxes were in the storage stuff by mistake or on the 2nd truck. We still don't know the answer to this question because the 2nd truck didn't arrive until...yesterday! So, the first truck left on 12/9 and the second truck arrived in our new town on 12/31.

Bugg's bed was on the second truck and with some prodding, they went and purchased and suitable stand-in. We will go tomorrow morning and pick through the stuff that just arrived to let them know what to bring to the house and what to crate up with our other stuff.

Other than all of the little bumps we've encountered, things are good here in LA. It doesn't seem like the economy has slowed which is a welcome change from our other town. The food is fantastic and my first warm weather Christmas left me smiling. Hubs and I sat on the porch in short sleeves and marveled at the warmth. It feels like home.

We were lucky enough to spend time with our oldest son (FOS - favorite oldest son) on the way down. I am hopeful that all of the kids will be here during Spring Break in March.

Happy New Year!