Well, I knew when I last blogged that this past week was going to be crazy and boy, it was a doozy! But, we are at the other end of it and all is well….
Monday morning, July 20th, at 8:45, the electricians and the power company were at our door and our power was shut off so the electricians could finish their work. Steve and I left the house to do our signing for the close of the house and we hung out at Steven’s place the rest of the time. Power was back on by 2:00 and James came over at 4:00 to put up new sheet rock and the first coat of mud. That evening, we had a woman we minister to,Vikki, over for steak dinner. She never has room in her little above-the-fridge freezer and she had purchased three family packs of sirloin steaks about three weeks ago and I brought them home to put in our chest freezer. But, chest freezer was getting unplugged the next day so I said, how about we cook up some of your steaks and then you won’t have to find so much room for the rest. So, that was Monday.
Tuesday was packing day – all day. And, we got much of the cleaning done and spent the night at Steven’s.
below is Steve on our last day to walk / pick up trash in our neighborhood.
Wednesday was moving day. It started at 8:00 with the professional piano movers taking away the grand piano. Boy, what a process. It will be kept in their climate controlled storage until we actually move to St. Louis.
Above are what we took to Steven's to use the four days we stayed with him.
Below is what we took to the duplex
Then, Steve and Steven went to pick up the U-Haul and Beckie arrived from St. Louis. We moved all the furniture in the morning to the garage of Aaron and Laura Howard who graciously offered the space after my Facebook plea. Thankfully, we don’t have a LOT of furniture but it was still tiring work and the heat made it harder. We got lunch at Jersey Mike’s and headed back to the house to load all the things to be taken to the duplex we are making our temporary home. Nothing heavy but lots of little things. We are keeping all the DVD tubs, CD shelves, musical instruments, tubs of family photos (ours and our parent’s) at the duplex in air conditioning. We brought over our bed and mattress/box springs. All of our food. (not dishes, though – we are using Marcia’s). The both morning and afternoon trips took about two hours each but the heat and humidity made it seem longer and harder. We just unloaded but did not unpack and clean. Except, Steve DID clean the refrigerator. Marcia has been gone since March so the fridge was a petri dish of bacteria! After returning the U-Haul, we four went to Steven’s to cool off and have dinner and then Beckie drove back to St. Louis. Steve and I went back to the Parker house so I could paint primer and a first coat (James had returned earlier to sand) and to clean floors. We literally fell into bed that night.
Below is the progress of the circuit breaker box
Thursday we returned to the Parker house so I could paint the second coat, to pick up our bicycles and load them onto our newly purchased bike rack, and Steve sweep the garage. And then we put the keys on the counter and locked up for the last time. It was a wonderful house for 24 years and very bittersweet to leave. Then, we went to the duplex and, with the amazing help of the two sister missionaries (Gonzalez and Miller), Melanie, and Kathy Stull (Marcia’s mom), we tackled the huge task of cleaning the place. Marcia is a lovely person but I wonder if she doesn’t have a bit of attention deficit because there was NO rhyme or reason to her place. First of all, trash and clutter everywhere and second, when things were “put away” they were in no logical order. All of Marcia’s things in the bedroom, bathroom, living room were boxed up and put into the kids room. We will use her kitchen things but I reorganized everything so the glasses are in one cupboard, plates and bowls in another, etc. And, we cleaned dishes with five months of food dried on them and cleared off a countertop completely covered with stuff – and not all kitchen related. All of our helpers were amazing and, by lunch, we could send them on their way. That afternoon, another church friend and her 12 and 10 year old grandkids came to help and we used their young legs to haul stuff up from the downstairs room where we had just dumped them the day before (too hot and tired to go up stairs). With their aid, the downstairs room we are using for storing stuff was put into good shape. Back to Steven’s for dinner and bed.
Friday Steve and I moved into the duplex by bringing everything we had at Steven’s over. We finished unpacking and putting away and by 3:00 in the afternoon, we were all settled in. The duplex is not in the best of neighborhoods but we feel safe and it is only for a few weeks, happily. Steven treated us to dinner at Culvers that night. I will create a new blog with photos of our temporary abode.
Saturday we drove to St. Louis and we looked at five houses. And, of the five, four were clearly not going to work. Too small, too wet (it smelled like mildew the moment we walked in and the basement walls were WET), no master bathroom, or a kitchen that was straight out of the fifties and way over priced. The one we did like we will make an offer and see how it goes. At first glance, it would not seem ideal. It is in the city and, getting there you drive by some rather run down neighborhoods. But, it is in a decent neighborhood and it has been completely re-done from top to bottom. It is small but we can fit in it. And, it is within 20 miles of the temple and our Emily and about three miles from Beckie. I will include photos once we know we have it for sure. Or, you can go to Zillow and search 4018 Bates St. St. Louis
We woke up this morning to a dismaying text from Beckie. Back on the 13th, she was exposed to a co-worker who tested positive for Covid 19. She was tested the next day but didn’t show any symptoms other than a cough which could have been allergy related. She got a negative result on the 20th so she felt fine about coming to Columbia to help us move. Any nausea or fatigue on Wednesday she attributed to the heat. But, when she started running a fever Thursday and Friday evenings and still completely exhausted, she went to urgent care this morning and was tested again and she does have the coronavirus! Thankfully, she doesn’t have severe symptoms yet and we pray she will not develop them. Steve and Steven and I will get tested tomorrow. Apparently, the best time to get tested is five days after exposure and Monday is that day. And, Steve and I will self-quarantine until we get the results back. So, stay tuned…..
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