Moving In

The movers showed up at 8am sharp on a Friday morning and I had to quickly scoot out of the house with the boys. Once the movers charge through the door they go straight to work and you better not get in their way. All at once they invade and it was very clear our life at that house was o-ver.
Along with the mover guys was a woman. Her job is to pack up the miscellaneous items in the kitchen and whatever else she finds and does the last minute clean-up of our stuff. She actually put plastic wrap on a bowl of left-over soggy cereal and packed it with the rest of our things.
The movers come in with large crates and fill them with whatever they find to start moving things out. No boxes. Once the truck was full they drove about a mile to the apartment. They removed an entire window and lined up their lift to start moving things in.

Window removed. Moving in Toby's bed.

The truck and lift

Mover riding up the lift.

He was moving really fast! Sorry it's sideways.

Receiving crates

It's getting crowded in here!

I went about the morning trying to run errands and stall as long as possible until there was nothing left to do, then we finally went to the apartment. As expected, it was pure chaos. Every move is overwhelming and this was no exception. It's that feeling of not even knowing where to begin because literally EVERYTHING needs to be put away.

Staying bundled up with all the windows open in winter.

Some of the kitchen crates.

Guest room=Staging area for random stuff.

The woman was now at the new apartment doing her job of putting things away. She generally knows where stuff should go so she started filling closets with clothes and the kitchen with kitchen stuff. By the time I got there with the boys, drawers and cabinets were already filled. Of course, none of it was where I wanted it to go, but at least it was off the floor and out of the way. Despite being pregnant and trying not to overdo it with the move, I couldn't just sit there and not get our things in order. I went to the kitchen to start unloading a bin and the tiny woman put the grip of Death on my wrist to make me stop. I don't know if it was because of my "condition" or because this was her job or both. At first I felt like, "Wait a sec, lady. Who's house is this??" but I gave in, put the stuff down and moved on to the bedroom closet to rearrange all the clothes she had already put away.

This went on through the weekend. Marc doing his thing and me doing mine while simultaneously taking care of the boys and trying to make the house as liveable as possible as quickly as possible.

By Monday I was really sick. So sick that I dare say no Maternal Auto Pilot to Ensure the Survival of my Offspring was going to kick in for me. I could barely open my eyes for a whole day. Thank goodness Marc was able to take sick leave to stay home. The next day I tried reading a book to the boys but had to stop halfway through because it was too exhausting. Did I overdo it? Probably, yes, but I just can't sit around with my feet up when my new nest is in a shambles.

Now that we've been here about 2 weeks, I have to say that I'm so glad we did this. One level is totally the way to go with young kids. I don't know how we survived a whole year with two sets of wooden stairs and no serious injuries, especially with Jonah just learning how to maneuver stairs at the beginning. It's wonderful having everything just a few steps away and although it's a large apartment, it's not overwhelming like the house. And I love the layout and location! I don't know if all Korean apartments are like this, but we have a lot of techy stuff on the walls. There is a small TV in the bathroom with a remote control mounted next to the toilet (just in case you're going to be there a while) and another TV in the kitchen which is also a screen to show when a guest is ringing at the main entrance or your front door. The doorbell sounds like a music box lullaby and continues on for about 20 seconds. And we have at least 5 remote controls that aren't even for the TV.

Truly, a King's Throne. The seat is heated and it flushes automatically. You can spray your bum clean and then let it blow dry at different levels of intensity. Only the best for discerning derrieres.

Another screen for seeing guests at the door, speaking with maintenance and probably ordering a pizza (it's all in Korean), a thermostat, and a light panel that allows you to turn on/off all the lights at once or pick the ones you want.

A knife sterilizer. Duh.

This drawer is meant to be filled with rice. With the push of a button you can dispense as much as you need. I have no use for this. Maybe I'll fill it with M&Ms.

I particularly love this. A "fancy" wall sconce with a bare spiral bulb held up by a screw. No matching cover to hide the ugliness of the bulb. No shade to soften the brightness.

This is a typical elevated platform to put a low table for the family to sit around on mats. We made it a play area for the boys. Yea for storage drawers underneath!

A couple of minor "bummers" about the apartment are the floors and the shocking lack of outlets. The floors must be nothing more than stained balsa wood. Drop a Lego and you have a dent and a permanent scratch. And Heavens-to-Betsy there is a speck of sand under the wheel of the vacuum because that speck is going to leave a huge scar on this delicate floor. We pretty much have to accept the fact that the floors are going to be destroyed by the time we move out of here. They also show everything. I think its partly due to the fact that we live in a rural, farm area that's already very dusty and dirty, because our floors accumulate so much dirt. We don't wear shoes in the house, but somehow there are always piles of dust and debris everywhere. As for the outlets, there are plenty of the Korean 220v outlets, but only one set of US 110v outlets in each major room, not including bathrooms and halls. Its a good thing I don't have a big hair-styling regimen because I'd have to do it in the kitchen. Since all of our plug-in stuff is 110 we have to move heavy converter boxes around when we want to turn on a lamp/washing machine/vacuum cleaner. It's not the end of the world, but kind of a pain.

Anyway, I think this was definitely a smart move. Even if we're only here for one more year and have to move again, I'm glad we did it. We're about 90% finished with putting everything away and it already feels like home - again!