Apartments | Wishes And Pixie Dust

June 6, 2011
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Checklists

As we pass the seven-week mark life seems to be a whirlwind of not only daily activity, but also everything that we need to remember to do in preparation for our move. Up to this point we have set tentative goals that we have met at times; at others not, but as we move into the home stretch we realize that it needs to be on paper.

For those of you who are wishing to follow in our footsteps and plan a long-distance move, we thought we would share our paper organization and checklist methodology. Feel free to tweak it to fit your own needs.

Inventory: Every box that is packed is given a unique letter combination. We started with A, worked our way to Z, and now are advancing to the double letters (AA, BB, etc). For example, Living Room A. On the laptop we have an Excel file with several worksheets that lists the contents of all the boxes. This can be a little tedious when packing and does take extra time, but it will prove invaluable when we find ourselves in Florida with an apartment full of moving boxes, and wondering where we put something. We’ll just need to pull up the Excel file on the laptop and will be able to pinpoint which box it is we need to locate.

Blue File: This is where we keep all our documents that we will need on our journey: school papers for the kids, automobile documents for the DMV, hotel information for our stays along the way.

File Box: This is what we use to keep the papers we need to move with us but don’t necessarily want to put in a moving truck, such as banking information or credit card statements. As we sort through the filing cabinet, most of it is getting shredded or scanned.

Notebook: This is our checklist. Each room has its own page, where we list what we are moving with us, what will get donated, what will get sold, what will be given to Nick, and last but not least what we still need to do in that particular room, in terms of cleaning or purchasing replacement products, such as new blinds. The notebook will also be where we keep notes on what we need to do yet before our move, what documents we need to acquire yet, and what phone calls need to be made. We find that as our departure date gets closer, we are more distracted and likely to forget things, and this helps to keep us on track. It also helps to make it seem less stressful–by focusing on an item or two on the list, we are not feeing overwhelmed by thinking it all has to be done right now.

The key to a successful move is organization and planning, and we share this information not to overwhelm you with ideas, but to help you plan out your move. Have we moved without doing all this? Absolutely, usually our moves end up in throwing stuff in garbage bags the morning of the move, because we run out of time (and boxes), but it usually results in a lot more chaos than is necessary. Our current goal is to be fully packed and living out of suitcases by Tuesday, July 19. Thursday, July 21st our son will take away the furniture and mattresses that he wants. We will spend the night in a hotel, and then Friday, July 22, of course is moving day.

Thanks for following along,

Mark and Jen

May 22, 2011
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Setting Goals. Or Not.

[Artwork done by our lovely daughter, Princess Cate!]

One of the biggest challenges we have faced in our move thus far is finding the time to prepare for the move, while continuing to live our lives as normal. We have been fortunate as we have allotted ourselves six months for the move. Incredibly, four months have already passed us by, so we expect to step up the packing progress as our time here in Wisconsin comes to a close.

We originally set goals of packing areas by a certain date. That didn’t seem to work so well, so we moved to setting a goal of one packed box per day. This method seemed to flow until last week, when life got busy with prom, concerts, soccer, doctor appointments and rehearsals. The thing with setting goals, is that you need to allow for the unexpected to occur. One wouldn’t think this would apply with packing boxes. Unless one has a son who has to play with every toy for two minutes before it gets packed. 🙂 It’s all good, though.

We are stepping away from setting specific goals and just trying to concentrate on getting it either packed or moved out. The current area we are focusing on is the sunroom.

The desk area is unusable.

As this room seems to be the dumping ground for all miscellaneous paper piles, the challenge is to pack what is not needed.

Our oldest son Nick has already secured his apartment here, and will slowly be moving his belongings out in July. He was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of an offer that gave him his first month’s rent free, so this saved on needing to rent a storage unit and stay in a hotel for a week, as his original plan was to find an apartment for August 1. He will be taking our couch, a chair and other pieces of furniture, which will allow us to use our furniture (and more importantly our beds) until the very end. He will also be on the receiving end of most of the kitchen appliances and supplies, as well as whatever food is left.

In other news, we have paid our security deposit on our apartment, and will be setting up an account with Progress Energy so that it is all set to go when we arrive in Florida. Our goal is to spend our first night in Florida in our new apartment 🙂 We may need to purchase air mattresses to accomplish this goal, as we won’t be able to shop for our beds until we arrive. We will be setting up an account with Bright House for our cable and internet, but will wait until we arrive to make this appointment.

We have found a wonderful Yahoo Group, Clermont Connection Cafe, which has already given us a wealth of information, from lovebugs to wholesale clubs to doctor referrals. Everyone we’ve had the opportunity to talk to who lives in Clermont is very friendly and welcoming to us, something we’ve appreciated immensely. We look forward to being a part of this wonderful community.

May 4, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 3 Comments

Great News!

If you follow us on Facebook, you already know our great news: our apartment application was approved, and we will be living at The Gardens at Citrus Tower. Doesn’t the name just sound like someplace you want to live? Of course that’s not the reason we chose it! We feel very blessed to have completed the process so quickly, and we are relieved that we have a permanent address to call home once we arrive in Clermont. This will allow us to provide forwarding addresses before we leave, as well as set up the kids in school before school ends for the summer. It’s hard to believe the end of the school year is fast approaching, though we certainly are looking forward to what the summer brings us!

Tonight we attended an awards ceremony at Catie’s school for high grade point average achievement, and realized this would possibly be the last time we would see the inside of her school. At the elementary school where Ben attends, this will be our eighth (and final) year there. It’s hard to walk away from an institution that you have been going to regularly for eight years! We would have this feeling with or without the move, as Ben is in his last year, but it somehow seems amplified given the fact we are walking away from everything.

We’ve been experiencing a lot of “lasts”. We have tossed around the idea of composing a list of the things we want to do before we leave Wisconsin, similar to the Top 100 List we published for our Florida to-dos, but it possibly will not happen. It may be too depressing to see the things we never got a chance to do, and given the rising price of gas, it is very likely our summer entertainment budget will be minimal. Ben will have his camp trip at the end of May, and Catie will be going to Six Flags (Great America) before school ends, so the children will at least get a fun trip in each before our move. And of course, there’s Walt Disney World on the horizon! It is just going to be so AWESOME to be able to go there whenever we want.

We are slowly paring down our furniture. Our oldest son, Nick, will be staying in Wisconsin and renting an apartment, so he will be taking some pieces, but others we are putting on Craigslist and/or Freecycle. Right now our goal is to do one box each in the younger kids’ rooms, and they are doing a great job of donating a lot of their personal belongings. We are very proud. We started the decluttering process with the idea of keeping only the things we absolutely wanted, motivated primarily by the cost of the move. Now that we are locked into our price, we have found that our focus has not changed. We are still going through every item and deciding whether to keep or toss. We will get a small refund if we go under our estimated weight, but we really like the idea of being able to start over, and we want to do that with as little items as possible. We will have 2 walk-in closets, as well as other closets, but we are losing approximately 600 square feet than what we currently live in. It’s all good, we will be one less person with Nick staying in Wisconsin, so I don’t anticipate that we’ll feel crowded in.

Thanks for following along! Please feel free to friend either one of us on Facebook if you have not already. We will only keep our Wishes and Pixie Dust profile on Facebook through our move (and settling in period), though our website will stay up indefinitely.

April 29, 2011
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Taking Risks

We have been anticipating this move unofficially since 2007, where all of the planning details have taken place mentally, in our heads, and verbally, as we discuss the details with each other. It has been, and continues to be, an unspoken truth that there is risk involved.

To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. ~Soren Kierkegaard

We have great news on the apartment situation. We were able to get in touch with the apartment manager regarding the 3 bedroom apartment that will be available in July, and we have submitted our application in. The pieces all seem to be fitting into place: there is a waiting list for this type of apartment, and it was offered to all current residents first, but all declined, and the apartment manager had only put the apartment listing online an hour or so before we saw it. She said it’s not common for vacancies to be available, and for one to be available at just the time we need it, wow! We are praising God for His mercies!

So we are moving forward with our dream, and hope to hear confirmation next week. We are also very nervous. We have an excellent reference from our landlord, and we more than meet their income requirements, but we do recognize the fact that we are out-of-state residents, and may be judged more critically than potential renters who live in Florida. We will also lose $149 in application fees if not approved. We have known for awhile that the application fees were a necessity, but it’s hard to send a check for $149, not knowing if it will bear fruit or just be money lost. We refuse to think in the negative, however, and will assume the apartment is ours, and adjust our plans later if need be.

We also met with our Mayflower rep yesterday, who brought us some more cardboard boxes. There was an issue with the original price he quoted us, and he was very nervous, but as it turns out, all is well, and our new price is $3 cheaper!

Thanks for following along~ We hope soon to have an update on the apartment situation.

Mark & Jen

April 26, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 3 Comments

Random Thoughts…

As we continue with our packing and moving forward with our dream of relocating to Florida, we thought this would be a good time to update you on different things related to our move.

Packing : The boxes are slowly being packed, and we continue making our weekly trips to Goodwill. We are up to 47 boxes packed. 🙂 We have all our holiday decorations and supplies in plastic totes, and we have decided to transfer them to moving boxes, for two reasons. One, it helps us to cull what we have, and two, it prevents probable breakage and ensures our holiday belongings will not be rolling inside a Mayflower moving truck! We have not yet decided if the totes will be moving with us, or if we will buy new ones in Florida.

We did not reach our goal of completely packing the downstairs by Easter, but we have made a considerable dent in it. Our oak video cabinets, secretary, and wooden fish stand are on Craigslist, but we have not had much success in obtaining a buyer. We will leave them on there for now, but will soon be reaching a point (because of space issues) where we will need to make the decision to donate the items and forego the cash we may have earned from the sale. Another option is a rummage sale, but we really do not feel it is worth our time and energies to pursue this, to possibly earn a few dollars.

Medical : We are making sure that all our medical appointments are scheduled in before we leave. We are really fond of the doctors that we are established with here locally, and it will be hard for us to make the adjustment to find new ones in Clermont, but we don’t want that to be a pressing issue at first. Vision and dental appointments have been taken care of, and the children will be obtaining physicals this summer before we leave. This is a requirement of the school district in Clermont. We are just waiting to finalize our housing plans in May, and then we will be able to obtain the appropriate form needed.

Soccer : Our daughter is gearing up to begin her soccer season: she will be able to attend all practices and games except for the final tournament, which we believe will be held on the Saturday after we leave. The schedule is not up yet, so we don’t know for sure. We will need to purchase new cleats and shin guards this year, but she loves soccer and plans to continue it in Clermont once we move, so it is a worthwhile expense. Due to our move, Mark decided not to coach her team this year, a decision we feel is best for all concerned.

It’s Getting Closer! We are getting more and more excited as our moving date draws closer. We are thankful that we have had time to sort through all our “stuff” and weed out the unimportant things. We feel that we are on a good time table– we are under three months but we have a lot accomplished. No, we did not meet our downstairs packing goal, but we are not far off from it. In the month of May we should be able to finalize our apartment choice, which is awesome!, and while June and July will be busy months, we will not be frantic and stressed out because there is so much to do. Jen plans to do some scrapbooking in May and June, as the craft room/sunroom will be the last room packed. We have discovered that staying organized is the key to a successful move. We have tried to anticipate all our potential expenses and needs, set up a time table and work a little bit every day doing something in preparation for the move. A box packed, or a file folder of papers shredded is one less thing that needs to be done in July. Every night we listen to one of Lou Mongello’s podcasts, which really inspires us to keep moving forward and realize our dream of living in warm, sunny Florida with Disney World just a short drive away.

Thanks for following along!