We are closing on our new house in less than 3 weeks! I waffle between excitement and panic; and there are times I feel simply overwhelmed. It’s a lot to deal with selling our house and buying another house, all while trying to keep up with the daily routines.
Sometimes it seems like too much – trying to work with our fearful Luke (my hopes of having him in his crate in time for the move are fading…more on that next week for the Positive Pet Training Hop) has been challenging. At the same time we’re working on the crate, I’m trying to work with him so that I can trim his nails. We used to be able to do that, but for some reason the “peanut butter plate” method stopped working. Honestly, I’m at my wit’s end with it.
Then there’s having a dog with cancer. Sheba is still doing well right now, but sometimes I see her slowing down a bit, and I’ve been finding new lumps on her. We are not going to do additional surgeries, so mostly we are just watching them to make sure they do not make her uncomfortable (so far, so good). I try to do her grooming in bits and pieces since she doesn’t love it, so that’s an ongoing thing. Which reminds me – Cricket’s nails need to be trimmed too! My “to do” list seems pretty endless.
Our packing has been gradual, I’ve been basically doing it slowly since way back when we started de-cluttering for showings. On a good note, the dogs are not stressed out by any of that, except for maybe if I’m carrying a big box around – the type of thing that normally would freak them out anyway.
The only time I really freaked out was when the Dadz and I went in the upstairs of our garage last weekend. He’s made great progress in the garage itself. We have an oversized garage here with a huge place for storage. You guessed it….it is filled with junk. I said to my hubby “Did we ever throw anything out???!!!” We still have plenty of time left and I know we’ll get it done, but I did have a moment there.
The dogs and I are keeping up our daily play routines (the yard is finally ice free!), and I’ve been managing to get some walks in too, in between phone calls, e-mails with our realtor, and packing. I have bookkeeping work I’m trying to catch up on also.
I want to keep up with the blog for as long as I can through all this. It might seem that taking a break from or cutting back on the blog would be a good way to free up some time, but this blog is my creative outlet and I NEED it in order to stay sane. I did, however, put off any sponsored posts/reviews until the end of March. I am getting behind on visiting other blogs, but I’m doing what I can when I can. For me, visiting and commenting is not just a way to promote my own blog by being seen out there, it’s a way I keep in touch with blog friends, and I enjoy it. BTW though, it is a great promotional tool…I recently had a company contact me to review their product when they saw a comment I had left on a friend’s blog!
We will be closing on the sale of our house and buying the new house on March 18th, all in one day. We sell our house in the morning, and buy the new one in the afternoon. Yikes….we’ll be homeless for a few hours! Therefore, I will be “off the grid” for a days around that time I’m sure. We’ll be without internet over that weekend, so I won’t have a choice! (I’ll still use my cell phone to do some visiting when I need a break from unpacking though!).
Those will be the most stressful days. The dogs and Samantha will be going to my sister’s on closing day. Thank goodness for my sister helping us out! She is taking time off from work to do so and it’s greatly appreciated. Those few days will be the most stressful for Luke. There’s going to be a lot of strangers around, moving furniture out of the old house and into the new. But we will keep our baby gates handy so we can make a safe place for him to chill out no matter where we are.
Another issue is that there is no fencing at the new house. We’ve bought two new 10 x 10 kennels to get us started until late spring when we can fence in part of the yard. But we’re not sure when we’ll be able to put those up. The current owners of the house are in Florida, but they will be coming back to move their stuff out the week before closing. It is definitely high on the priority list though, the dogs aren’t used to going out on leashes to do their business!
Last weekend we took the dogs up to the new house, just to let them walk around the yard and get used to the area. They had fun sniffing out where all the wildlife had been, and the Dadz and I enjoyed planning where their yard will be and other things we will be doing with the yard. The pond site is already picked as well!
Ah, the joys of being a dog or cat, and having no worries! Even though the actual moving days and settling into a new home will be stressful for them, they don’t have to anticipate the stress that is to come. Even though I have my moments where it overwhelms me, overall I am doing OK (it would be nice if it didn’t happen at 3 am though!). As the day gets closer, I am feeling more emotional about leaving this house, and I know there are tears to come. Hopefully I get them out of the way before the closing. I wonder if anyone has ever cried at their closing? Now I just take a deep breath when I’m #feelingoverwhelmed and daydream about our new house and all of the exciting things it is going to bring to our lives! That’s exactly what I bet the dogs would do if they knew what was coming.
You can do this – I have all the faith in the world in you 🙂 And don’t think it’s easy for a dog! I remember Harley struggling to try to understand the chaos and the madness. I tried to explain it to him – but I don’t think he really “got it!” Just try to keep your eye on the prize – your new home, and that will keep you smiling. Rooting for you my friend! Much love…
Thank you, Cathy! Now that the day is getting closer, I’m thinking more and more about the new home and worrying a bit less. I know there will be a couple rough days in there, especially for the dogs and Sam, but as long as we have each other, we’ll all get through it, right? I know you got through it, and you made a much farther move than what we are making, so if you did it, I know I can! Thank you so much for your love and support….that really does help!
You sure have your hands full; but I know that when it’s all over with, you’ll be stronger for having gotten through it. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed myself lately, but not by things that need to be done. My blog and checking everyone’s FB posts and Twitter tweets keep me from totally losing my mind and my patience.
Yikes we got overwhelmed just reading this! Hopefully by writing it all down it took some of the stress off. We highly recommend you taking a few days at the least away from blogging. Packing and taking care of the dogs are way more important for now. Love Dolly
You are right, and I will definitely take some time away to focus on more important things, I just don’t want to do it until I absolutely have to! 🙂
You are also right that writing it all down did help!
Moving is such an exciting but stressful time. Every one of our dogs has gone through periods when they did not want nails clipped. We try to make sure our clipper is sharp because I know if it gets dull, it can be more uncomfortable for them. Until you get your kennels up, try walking them on your property like you are going on a walk and maybe with a longer lead. Might help the potty issue. Good luck with everything. Life is kicking my butt right now so I totally understand falling behind with blogging.
That is great advice about the longer leash….thank you! We had a very long one for swimming so I kept that out where we can find it easily. I think taking them out one at a time might help too….they tend to distract each other when we have them all. Sorry to hear you are having tough times now too, hope all is OK.
I hope everything goes smoothly! I hate moving lol. We recently started dremeling Mr. N’s nails and so far, he’s liking it a lot better than clippers.
Hang in there, Jan-you will get through it, even if it doesn’t feel it now-and will have great times to look forward to, creating a new home in the new space. But there may be tears indeed, there were tears at my closing on the house in Leb I am sure-at least afterwards, definitely the night before saying goodbye to it-and I am shedding some for yours already, so I know you will! But it’s all happy memories in the end, and more to be made just in a different place-with a beautiful yard to do it in!! 🙂 I love you and Tom and all your gang!!
You’re not alone in this! My realtor called and all of the paperwork got done and we’re closing early–as in FRIDAY! I still won’t be moving in for a couple weeks–and Barley’s going to be getting her teeth cleaned at the vet so that she doesn’t have to see people coming and taking her stuff out of the house (and I’ll be too distracted to worry too much about her). I’ve spent way more time on the phone than I wanted to this week. Good luck! We’ll both get through this and have lots of wonderful new stories to tell soon, I’m sure!
Oh my you have a TON on your plate!!! Take a breath….one thing at a time…if you look at the big picture you will go nuts!!!! For me, I have tried to cut down to only blogging 3 days a week (I often do more but I only commit myself to 3), that might help!
It will all work out……it most definitely will! Sending calming (((hugs))))
Thank you, Caren! That’s a good idea, to set a smaller goal, like 3 days per week and then if more is done, great, if not you still feel like you accomplished what you set out to do. I do 5 days/week now but I’m thinking I’ll cut back to 4 at the most maybe starting next week, and until after we get settled in.
Oh I remember moving…it’s been many years, but I remember how I said I was going to be so organized and try to do things smoothly…and for some reason, it never goes the way you plan. But it goes. And so it will for you. So take a deep breath and try to relax about it. I know…easier said than done. ~Island Cat Mom
Gosh, I was in a very similar boat 5 years ago – selling one house, moving into the new one, dog with cancer, trying to keep the blog going, etc. So I feel you on the being overwhelmed thing! I always get through overwhelming times with lists and lists!
And you survived – so there’s hope that I will too! LOL Oh yes, there are lists – many of them! It always gives me satisfaction when I can check things off.
I am so proud for you! I can’t imagine how nervous I would be to move. That is probably why we are dragging our feet.
At least you are being forewarned that it will be stressful! My hubby and I were laughing about the fact that we didn’t anticipate that, but as soon as we got in the middle of it all, everyone would tell us “oh yeah, buying/selling a house is one of the most stressful things you’ll ever do”. Um, yeah, we figured that out – now!
But even if I knew how stressful it was going to be, I would still do it – it will be so worth it when we get in the new place. I can’t wait.
We went through the moving and selling almost 4 years ago and I have hardly recovered! I found the pets all did better then I did!
One thing I know for sure is that we will not do this again unless we absolutely have to! LOL I imagine the pets will probably get through this way better than I will, and I should probably stop worrying about them!
You have a lot on your plate so I think you are entitled to feel overwhelmed. I hope the move goes as smoothly as possible and in a couple of weeks you’ll look back at this time of transition with a smile.
Oh man!!! I’m so stressed!!
Our house goes on the market next week, so this week is cleaning/prepping/packing MORE/picture taking and setting up the house to be shown…
We decided to do for sale by owner, our house is in a pretty hot market so we expect it to go pretty fast. But we can’t buy anything until our house sells and right now we haven’t found anything. On a good note my parents are going to let us temporarily bunk with them if we need an inbetween stage (most likely after our house sells we’ll be moving in with them till we find a new home). I’m going crazy trying not to panic. 🙁 And moving cities is such a pain in the butt!
Oh, poor you, you definitely have it worse than we do! We can at least let our realtor handle a lot of stuff for us (though it would be nice to have all the money that she’ll be making!).
I’m glad you have a place to go in between too though…that wasn’t an option for us so we had to find a place to go to before we could sell this, which of course added even more stress to the process when we fell in love with a house and had to worry we might not get it if we couldn’t sell ours!
I guess it’s pretty darn stressful no matter how you do it! Good luck….I hope things go well for you and you’re able to sell quickly.
I can so relate to feeling overwhelmed. Lately I feel that way a lot. Sometimes a few tears help, but mostly I try and take a deep breath and think about the most important things I need to get done. FYI we still have boxes in our garage that we never unpacked from our move 8 1/2 years ago. 🙂
Hang in there my friend. This too shall pass
Yes, lots of deep breaths, and prioritizing both really help a lot!
Thank you – it will be a relief when it’s all over, but it will be so worth it too!
Moving is tough, but remember, it could always be worse. Mom moved over the Atlantic and back twice and that is tough. Selling all your electronics and furniture, listing what is in every box for customs, packing so nothing breaks on the long journey. Our only tip for you is buy a ton of cheap paper towels and pack all your dishes, glasses, etc in that. When you unpack, it will be clean and ready to use and when you are done unpacking, you will have load of paper towels to use as needed for messes for months if not longer. it is also a bit more padded than newspaper.
Oh, I know, we are lucky – it could be so much worse. We’re only moving 5 miles away and that right there is so much easier! We were able to rent a storage unit in between our current house and the new one, and we’ve moved a lot of small stuff into there, so we’ll only mostly need help with big furniture and last minute stuff right before closings.
Great tip on the paper towels – thanks!
You just reminded me why I have stayed in the same house for all these years and why i want to be a dog.
take a deep breath and relax, it will all come into place. It’s exciting and scary all at the same time. Hang in there.
So much going on with you. It is hard on some dogs for sure when they move and their routine changes. Yes, to be a dog and not have so much worry all the time!!
Sending hugs your way. One day at a time with Sheba. When we had Benny it was so hard every day but he got so much love and hugs it was good for all of us
Lily & Edward
I know just how you feel. We’ve lived in the same house for a long time, but we had to sell my aunt’s house for her when she moved into an assisted living home. Her house was an hour away (with no traffic), filthy (and I mean measurable filth behind anything and everything), loaded – and we had 3 weeks to empty it, clean it and bring it up to code – and we only could go up on weekends, traveling back and forth each day, which meant only 6 actual DAYS to do all this AND move her into her new place AND go back and forth with the realtor. I had to go through every little thing for anything of value because it was such a mess and she needed every dime I could get for her by selling whatever she didn’t want to keep – or things she didn’t even know she had. So I do understand how you feel! I’m sure it will be worth all your efforts and exhaustion in the end. I am sorry to hear that Sheba has more lumps, but I’m glad she isn’t feeling any discomfort. Our prayers will remain with her.
Oh no, that sounds like an awful and stressful experience with your aunt’s home. The last time I had to do anything like this was when my Dad died. I couldn’t believe all the stuff he had collected over the years so I vowed to keep my own stuff cleaned out (but failed judging by the stuff I’ve been throwing out now!)
This will be definitely be worth it though once we get settled in the new house!
Holy cow, you have a lot going on. I hate moving, as does everyone else in the world. But think how nice it will be once you are settled.
I agree that’s a lot… it’s not only packing things… it’s packing a part of your life in boxes… I cross my paws that efurrything goes well and you are only homeless for some hours before you can open the door to your new home. I always think to be a dog is a good idea… they have to do no laundry, they aren’t busy with cleaning and they want our attention no matter if we have the hands full with stuff or if we carry giant boxes :o)
Luke doesn’t understand that I can’t entertain him 24/7 anyway, never mind when I have even more on my plate. BOL! Luckily Sheba will step in to entertain him sometimes at least!
It has been kind of fun going through things that bring back memories from 10 years ago (apparently about 10-15 years ago is the last time I cleaned out!).
Wow you do have a lot on your plate at the moment don’t you. Fingers crossed it all goes well!