31-VII-2004.: The move
Twentyninth, she glued the tiles in the kitchen, about third of it, and ran out of glue. We didn't bring glasses when we were buying it, so couldn't read the coverage on the bucket.
Today I drew myself at the house since early morning (i.e. around nine). Mr. wire guy came just five minutes after I removed the padlock from the rear yard. He unlocked the meter box, and left. I was wading through the big room (detaching slats from that middle wall, the parts we tore down), and sanded some furniture to paint. We first cut off that bar hole and the wall below it. I almost damaged the thick two-phase (!) cable for the stove. Luckily, it had enough sclack, so I managed to push it up, above the opening and into the wall. Avoided pulling a new cable, and who knows whether that would be feasible without tearing more sheetrock off the walls, because there was no clear path, it was going through holes in the slats, and was pinned down by nails in places.
Around 14 our wire guy came and poked the meter box. Found that the metal prong burned out and also the wire leading to it, and this is an obsolete model, out of print, and needs to be replaced. He's got a nephew at Virginia Power... etc etc. I went to lunch, and an hour later, when we were back, new plate with fresh prongs was in place. An hour later he also came, then the official wire guy came, plugged in the meter... and around 17 we had power, finally. And, a minor miracle, everything seems to work, no blown fuses, no places wihout power. Even the AC works. Though it needs cleaning, there was a lot of dirt on the fileter. It barely cools any, but it keeps working. Even most of the lightbulbs work.
The phone guy came, took a look and left - said, when they put Bel Atlantic and two more companies together, some 4-5 years ago, to make Verizon, they knew whose lines were where. Nowadays not so much, and he surely got wrong maps with his workorder, because this is close to the border of what belonged to Bel and something else, and he put us in the wrong camp... so he couldn't connect us.
More calls about the power; today their wire guy was supposed to come and unlock the box, so our electrician could fix it and connect us.
Of course, every time we go there, we move more stuff.
Nina reports from the sea:
Te weater was bad te first days, and is not muc beter now. It rains almost eac evening, so te water is cold, and tere's scarce sun, so I don't have muc cance to tan. Today at least we spent a couple of hours on te beac and even had some sun, so I switced from pink-wite into cream-wite version of myself.
Te water is very salty, to difer from te one from Atlantic, and realy smels like sea. Te waves are ridiculous and it's a real pleasure to sit in te salows and wadle, toug it isn't bad in te deep eiter. In any case, te sea and nature are muc nicer tan in VB. Every evening we go for walks and I tink I already can orient myself in tis smal place. Despite bad weater, we're having a good time and would like to stay longer, but because of my teet we'l return on time... :(.
I didn't bring te camera, because alegedly two of tose sould have been here, of wic one would be at our disposal, but ten one of tem (te „ours“) stayed in Belgrade. Tat's wy we don't have too many pictures, but hopefuly we'l make a few tomorow, wen we plan to take a cruise in te bay. We return most probably on saturday evening. If tere's any cange, I'l let you know.
I'm in some netcafe now, because we didn't find a way to pay for net here... Tese Montenegrins are so backward (but skin you for everyting tey ofer).
Thirtieth.
The furniture paint is sensitive to scratches, because we omitted the ground layer. Went to have new one mixed, acrylic enamel lacquer (the first one was latex), which is harder. Sanding is no problem now, since we have a powered vibrator sander... and for screwing and unscrewing, the drill can do that too.
Sent pictures to mom and dad, not to Nina, as the connections for tourists are bad in Montenegro. She'll see them soon enough.
Thirtyfirst.
Last day in the apartment. Drove all the way to Norfolk to get a U-haul truck - nobody nearby had one. Left the car there and learned that I get it for only four hours, or was it six. And it was a diesel... Luckily, I managed to park it right in front of the entrance, and we did move most of the stuff before, by car. What was left was the bulky stuff - beds, desks, chairs, TV. The loading went quickly, the team is well drilled, but we do have lots of things to move. It's been a year since we last saw them heaped up, and it somehow appears to me that we bought more meanwhile. Well we stuffed it the best we could, will take the small stuff by car later. Left Lena in the apartment and drove to the house.
We managed to move it in one go. The weather was awful, muggy to the hilt, after yesterday's heavy rains. We were all bare water. We unloaded it rather quickly, unload is always quicker, specially with the truck's rear ten feet from the door), and then went to Lowe's and bought the fridge, washer/dryer. The carpets and carpet padding were also waiting. The loading went relatively fast, though without any forklift or power stuff, just dolly and muscles. We waited for a while to get the carpets, because the mats were on a different order, so the guys had to make a second trip with the dolly. The weather was actually nice, the only such day since 22nd. The guys saw what we have in the truck (two big boxes, five rolls of carpet, four rolls of mat), and ask „do you have any help for unloading?“. „Yup, I'm helping her and she's helping me.“ „Good luck!“.
Unloading the carpets was tough but manageable. Then we switched to the washer. It neatly fit into the front door, but not through it. Couldn't fit it more snugly even if measured by laser. Luckily, had a nice 2x4 left from the wall we started tearing down, so I took it out through the back door, walked around and used it as a lever to give it some extra push from outside. Then she took a longer slat and got it upright - and wow, it fits snugly on topside as well. The whole parade lasted half an hour, but eventually we got it in.
It was easier with the fridge, at least through the door - the inside was already cluttered with carpet rolls, all near the door.
Returned the truck with about 22 minutes late, what with the traffic etc, and didn't have to pour any gas into it, just spotted the slope on the uneven parking where the right wheels would be in a dip, and then the gauge showed even slightly more than I got it with.
Got a carton of Negra Modello, good mexican dark beer (a miracle, considering it's the same origin as that pisswater Corona) and drank some in the evening.
For sleeping, we just laid out the box and mattress of the big bed on the new carpet (which we did lay down). I slept on the floor. We kept the fans running all night, because the AC just didn't catch. It worked, sort of, but didn't cool anything.
We made a couple more rounds in the afternoon, and when we decided we're sufficiently dead tired, we just lied down in the big upstairs bedroom - me on Lena's bed, they on those italian foldable beds for guests.
After five years, we sleep under our own roof again. We just need to make it usable and pay off the loan, whichever comes first.
To add to the chaos, Verizon claimed that I don't have to return the modem, it's written off after a year (and I've probably paid it off). But no, a couple of days ago an empty box with a prepaid postage sticker arrived, to pack it in and send back to them. Or else owe them 100$. Well fuckya. So amid all this rush, one more drive, to Ups or Fedex, whichever they used, to send this. And keep the receipt, just in case they pretend they didn't get it.
Mentions: Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), in serbian