Chapter Four — The Move

The move from the lake house falls into the category of “What were we thinking?!” Sure, we were thinking about moving, but it wasn’t til Mr. Canary set things in motion that we actually did something about it!

And what a motion it was! We brought home egg boxes and water boxes from Jewel, and kept every box and bubble wrap from anything Amazon brought us in the past. Cousin brought us a huge roll of bubble wrap from Costco. I never thought we’d use it all. We did! It doesn’t LOOK like you have that much stuff, until you have to put it all in boxes. That takes forever, especially in a 2000 sq. ft house with a 3-car garage and shed! (Well, the shed and most of the garage was all on Sweetie.)

We stacked all the boxes in the garage until we ran out of room. Our poor cars spent the winter on the driveway. We thought we were moving in January (our original closing date on the Perry house). But now moving was a reality. We rented a storage unit in town, and even that was full to capacity. “We just have too much stuff!”

We got boxes from the moving company we chose, and set up a system for recording what was in the boxes. I wasn’t about to list what was IN the box ON the boxes. My girls gave me ideas how their moves went. So I set up “the green book”, printed “Fragile” labels, and made labels for each room “K” was kitchen, “GBR” guest bedroom, etc. It was all organized. This move would be easy on the receiving end. (We’ll see how that goes! Not there as of this writing.)

Sweetie contacted three movers for estimates, but we chose to go with the movers who moved us North.

The guy who came was very professional, so we felt good about the movers we chose (Bekins).

We’d pack til we were exhausted. It got to a point where some things weren’t going in boxes from the same room. I used bath towels for cushioning some of my dishes…that sort of thing.

As luck would have it, our church was going to have a rummage sale on June 24, and they started accepting donations two Saturdays before our move, however I didn’t find out about the first drop-off date until after it was over. So we put anything that was going to the rummage sale in my car, and on that next Saturday, we dropped off a large number of boxes.

I gave them a lot of good stuff, including Amy’s wedding dress, and a set of crystal dessert dishes that match my wine glasses. I think in 50 years I used them two or three times. Who has fancy dinner parties anymore?! So kissed them goodbye. I felt good about the stuff we took to the church, and it felt somewhat freeing. I made arrangements with the chairlady to meet with me on Monday after school, even though they were only taking donations on Saturday mornings until school was out. But we’d be gone by then. I took over at least 7 or 8 more boxes of stuff. After that, anything would have to go to Goodwill. After the sale was over, I contacted the chairlady and asked how it went…the church raised $18,000!!! I felt so happy for them!

So the packing continued. We had boxes stuffed everywhere, and we were running out of room. Sweetie and I were testy with each other. Moving is very stressful, especially when you have several hobbies.

And just when you think you’re doing so well, moving day comes. EEK! I had stuff I couldn’t find boxes for, like my KitchenAid, the turntable for all my inkpads, and our TVs. The movers sent packers to help with the stuff we couldn’t get packed in time. Sweetie is worried about some of his garage tools. We wonder if we’ll see them again. These items did not make it into The Green Book. So we just have to wait and see how honest these guys were. Though we didn’t speak their language, so don’t know what was being said.

Anything personal like files, laptops, etc., that we were taking to the trailer went into the master bathroom where we locked the door. We eventually realized we needed a storage locker in Bourbonnais. So some of that stuff and my threads and sewing machines went there.

When the bed got stripped, I put the linens in the washing machine, to be washed after the movers were gone. After all, we still owned the house for two more days before closing. After they left, I went to wash them, and found the Tide missing! WHAT? They packed the Tide?! Argh, so had to unload the washer. Luckily it was still dry.

May 16, 2023, the movers were done! We had stuff in storage in Fox Lake, so Sweetie went with them to unlock it and move out the few pieces of furniture in there. It was all on its way to their storage facility until we are ready for them to bring it all back to the new house.

There were things we didn’t want the movers to take. We were both beyond exhausted. Both of our cars were filled to capacity. We rented a storage unit in Bourbonnais, and drove there to drop off load #1. Then drove halfway back and reserved two nights in Bolingbrook since it was about halfway to Bourbonnais. We still had at least one more trip to storage. We arranged with the hotel to leave my car there after check-out, until we were on our last trip to Bourbonnais.

Sweetie saw what was left and said “that’s not all gonna fit in our cars.” So we wound up renting a U-haul. One saving grace for our realtor…KC called and asked if we needed any help. So we took advantage of that and he came over and helped load the u-haul, though Sweetie didn’t want him IN it, just to help with the boxes, and ultimately he screwed up the packing of it where it all didn’t fit, which required another trip to Fox Lake. We wound up tossing some things, that I would have moved. I guess I won’t miss them.

KC and I walked through the house one last time, checking the cabinets and closets to make sure everything was gone. And we left for one last time. Bye bye lake.

OMG, that was the worst truck I’ve ever been in! The suspension was shot and I prayed we’d get back in one piece! We were so glad to return that vehicle! Ugh.

May 17… So we finally had our last trip down Route 12 and were happy to say goodbye to that road.

We picked up my car at the Bolingbrook hotel, and checked into a hotel in Bourbonnais.

May 18 was the closing. We are no longer lake house owners. Bittersweet feelings.