Our First Crisis

So last night Matt and I experienced our first "emergency" in our new place.  It's also the first "grown-up" emergency we've had to face--ever.

Yesterday, we finally hauled our washer and dryer up our stairs and hooked them up.  After being here for a little over a week, and it being almost two weeks since we've had clean laundry, we were really excited to hook up the appliances that would lead to us getting clean clothes.  After rewiring the dryer with the right plug and using internet directions to hook up both the washer and dryer, we decided to try them out.  To make sure the washer was draining properly, we ran an empty load and sat there and watched it.  Everything seemed fine.  Excited, we filled the washer with give away clothes to run a load with bleach to clean the washer out.  We set the cycle, closed the doors, and walked away. 

Fast forward about 20 minutes.  I went out to the main part of the apartment from our office with the purpose to get something to drink.  As I walked past the washer area, my feet squished on the carpet--not good.  With a shout of  "We're leaking!!" I immediately shut off the washer and Matt and I proceeded to get every dry towel we could find and try to clean up the mess.  A call to emergency maintenance was made.  They showed up within 20 minutes with the carpet guy.  An hour and a half later, things were cleaned up. 

Now, Matt just went out and bought a new clip for the washer drain hose, and it's on there SUPER tight.  We're going to try and do laundry again.  This time we won't walk away until we are CERTAIN it's going to work.  In the meantime, we need to live with the dehumidifier and fan blowing on the carpet to dry it out completely.

The First Week

 

So we've been in Florida for almost a week now, and boy has it been interesting.

Our drive down here wasn't very exciting.  We had technical difficulties with our technology, so instead of listening to "Catching Fire" like we had hoped, we ended up channel surfing the radio and listening to NPR.

We did go see a Civil War battlefield in Tennessee, and that was really cool  It had a great museum, and the grounds were really nice.  We learned a lot in the two hours we were there.

We got to Florida on Wednesday night, and had a very optimistic attitude about everything.  We were going to sign up for internet the next day, our stuff was going to get here Friday, we were all good.  PLUS I got a call Wednesday morning from a school asking me to come in the next day for a job interview.  So we went shopping and got me some clothes to wear to said interview, got some food, and then called it a night.

Thursday we were still having a great time.  I went to my job interview, and it went REALLY well, and then we went and signed up for internet, and that went really well.  We chillaxed at the apartment most of the day and everything was going well.

Flashforward to Friday: The cube people called and told us that because of the rain, they couldn't deliver the cubes until Monday....so that meant we were going to be without stuff through the weekend.  We were bummed out majorly.  Then on Saturday, Comcast decided to screw us over, and we couldn't get internet.  I won't get into it all, but by Saturday night we were super angry.  So, on Sunday, we decided to make the best out of a crummy situation, and we drove to the beach.  We walked around, and enjoyed it.

Monday came, and after fighting and debating, we quit Comcast, only to rejoin it.  Our Cubes came in the evening, and then today we got internet and tv and internet.  Things are beginning to look up!   Oh, and I got a job at the school I interviewed at.  Everything is coming up Caffrey right now :)

Hopefully things will slow down, and we'll get to enjoy our last month of vacation before school starts!!

All Packed Up

Well, Iowa, you've been good to us. 

Our cubes arrived on Wednesday, and we spent all day on Thursday and half the day on Friday loading them.  It all comes down to this: We have WAY too much stuff.  Seriously.  WAY too much stuff.  We ordered 3 cubes, but were determined to use only 2 cubes.  And we did it!  We fit in all into 2 cubes.  Of course, we had to sacrifice a few pieces of furniture to the trash gods.  But who needs a couple bookcases and a headboard for our bed anyways?  And of course, we ended up having to UPS two boxes to ourselves, but we really do need sheets, blankets, duffel bags and our tool boxes.  We had to get creative on how we fit things into the cubes, but we always wanted the project of reassembling the futon and our desk chairs when we arrived in Florida anyways.  And thank goodness for Matt's parents!  They're letting us store important items like the other 4 dining room chairs, our end table, a nightstand, a table lamp, the globe and our sombrero until we come back at Christmas and pick them up.  (Yes, we're gluttons for punishment and are now planning to drive back at Christmas in order to pick up the things we have to leave behind).  But all and all it was very successful.  We packed the cubes, 99.9% of our stuff fit, and we only had to shove a little bit!

Of course, after 2 days of killing ourselves to get everything packed up, we're going to have to do it all over again in a couple days.  We leave tomorrow morning for Florida and will get there Wednesday night.  The cubes should be there Thursday.  So we're going to enjoy our two days of sitting in the car, listening to Catching Fire, since there will be no time to rest (or see Harry Potter) this weekend.