New House, New Home

When Gretch and I got married in 2008, we moved into a two-story townhouse (with a finished basement) across the way from some good friends of ours. The unit to the right of us was empty and the unit to the left was occupied by a wonderful woman who worked as Sunday School teacher at a local church. Our apartment managers were fantastic, and we really liked where we lived.

(This isn't our unit, but it is very similar to where we lived.)

Then some college students moved into the vacant unit next to us, along with their loud stereo, drum set, and three large dogs. After a day when I came home to find several dog turds in my front yard, I went to the manager and complained about the dogs. His response: "Wait, what dogs? They didn't say anything about having dogs!" I told him that they did, indeed, have dogs. He promptly kicked out the dogs and their owners. But a few of the guys stayed. With their stereo and drums.

Then our rent went up again and we decided to look for a place that was more affordable. We moved across town and about a mile east of where we had been and found ourselves in a lovely one-story duplex with a garage and fantastic neighbours. Our apartment managers were decent and the maintenance personnel were wonderful. We stayed there for three years. Then our landlords closed their residential holdings and sold them to another company in the area. Our rent was going to go up considerably more than we were prepared to leave, and we were having minor problems in the house that were getting annoying to constantly fix (or have fixed by the awesome maintenance guys who stayed on with the new company).

(I love Google Maps street-view!)

For nearly the entirety of the three years we lived on Leeper Court, we had friends who lived in Winfield Village, a cooperative housing complex in Savoy, tell us we should really move there. We had many friends in Winfield, many of whom we went to church with, but we resisted moving to "Little Provo" (so-dubbed by the Mormon community of Chambanavoy due to the high concentration of Latter-day Saint college students and families living there). Then we were visiting with some other friends who told us how much they paid each month for rent. And that gas and water were paid for by the cooperative. And the high-speed Internet was only $17 a month. The only catch was that we had to raise a significant amount of money for an equity payment. (Because it is a cooperative, we are shareholders in the corporation, which means that when we do move again, hopefully not for a very long time, we will get our equity payment with interest back.)

We saved, we borrowed, and we saved some more and managed to get the money by the deadline. Because of all the summer professional development workshops, conferences, and programs I had planned, we started packing way back in May for a move that would take place on August 3. Despite this, we were still packing up odds and ends the day of the actual move.

Many friends came to help, including two buddies of mine from Washington, who came with a truck and a flat-bed trailer. We had also rented a U-Haul and after several hours of hard labour, managed to get all of our worldly possessions moved from Leeper Court to Winfield Village. Boxes were piled up everywhere, we had no bed to sleep in, and we were suddenly very aware of how much we had come to rely on our garage for storage.

(Kramer catching a nap.)

We sorted, we organised, we cleaned, we unpacked, we rearranged, we unpacked more, we rearranged again, we cleaned, we organised more, and we kept working on it. About two weeks after we moved, my baby sister came to stay with us while she was looking for employment in the area with the goal of being able to attend Parkland College. I made sure we got the office/library/guest room ready for her. We also made sure that the one and half baths were clean.

(The pile of file folders on the little desk have been put away, by the way.)

Our next task was to conquer the living room, which is also Gretch's art studio. This was primarily Gretch's responsibility, though. I just did the manual labour. It took a couple of rearrangements and at least one outburst of throwing stuff across the room, but we finally got the living room in order. 

(This was actually among the very first things I got set up. Priorities!)

At the same time, I worked on getting my kitchen sorted out. After getting the kitchen arranged, though, Gretch visited some friends in Winfield and saw how they had their washer and dryer organised. She liked their set up and suggested we do the same. We made the switch and had to order an extension for the washer drain hose.

(Not the best picture in the world, but it'll do for now.)

The last task was probably the biggest: the bedroom. When we moved, we discovered, to our complete and utter dismay, that our mattress had a massive amount of mildew on the underside, due to inappropriate ventilation of the box spring. So we ended up camping out in the living room for nearly a month. We ordered a new mattress and as soon as it arrived, we started working on the bedroom. Due to a cold that I had picked up from a student of mine, I decided to stay home last Thursday to rest and fully recover. By afternoon I was feeling much better and was determined to finally get my bedroom in order.

(Gretch discovered how to take a panorama picture on her phone.)

And so it was that on Thursday, September 5, a full month and two days after we moved, that we finally had a home that was neat and orderly. In the process of unpacking we hauled off four large boxes of miscellaneous stuff to Goodwill, gave away many items to friends, FreeCycled some furniture we had no use for, and eliminated a lot of excessive junk. It took a long time, and there were many fretful moments as blood-sugar ran low and stress-levels ran high, but we are firmly situated in our new house. Winfield is going to be a good home for us. We have friends all around, access to wonderful facilities, are within walking distance of a movie theatre, a skating rink, specialty shops, a grocery store, a handful of restaurants, an antique store, and even Walmart. Our expenses are considerably lower, which means we will be able to start saving and paying off student loan debts. And, on top of it all, I am a full mile closer to my school, and my morning bike ride takes me through some lovely farmland and across a few small hills.

(The corner of Curtis Road and Race Street in Urbana. There's a cornfield where those soybeans are now.)

Come visit! Our new address is 415 Paddock Drive West, Savoy, Illinois 61874. Our door is always open if we are home. We have plenty of games, lots of movies, and an awesome library.