Moving Update

We finally got the truck shipped off. Months ago I settled on a company to transport our truck from Honolulu to Denver and was all set to go until I did some research about them online. I found this great website, called Transport Reviews. This is a site that customers can post and read reviews on just about every transport company that is in business. As I started reading the reviews on the first company I was dismayed to find that they had only received 2-stars out of 5. I went even further and found that most of the problems stemmed from horrible customer service. I started digging around and investigating only those companies which had 5-star ratings. I made myself a list of those companies and read through their reviews, leaving out anyone who sounded rude in their responses back to customers. I finally settled on All America Auto Transport. I have been dealing with Mike and he has been wonderful.

Dh arranged for our household goods to be picked up, the car to be shipped and for our move-out inspection from housing. Everything seems to be rolling along nicely, but I still have moments of panic when I think I have surely forgotten something.

I arranged for us to move into a corporate lease in an apartment complex in Charleston for 2 months. The unit is fully furnished, including linens and dishware, and includes all utilities. It is priced higher than our SC BAH, but we will be receiving HI BAH for the first month, so between the two months it will even itself out. Our goal is to find a house to purchase in the first three weeks and close by the end of November. Our lease will be up December 9th so that will give us time to do any painting and pre-move set-up.

Grandma in Kansas has kindly offered to keep both kids for us for the month of October. We will leave them with her when we drive through and then she will drive them out with Grandpa towards the end of October. Dh and I are very excited to have some one-on-one time. It will make the house-hunting go a lot smoother as well. Grandma has a garden and Grandpa has a workshop, so both kids will have plenty to do. Dh and I only get alone-time about once per year. In 2004 we were able to fly Grandma out to be with the kids so I could fly to Scotland to spend 2-weeks with hubby during a port call. In 2005 we went on a 7-day cruise for our 10-year anniversary (again flying Grandma out). In 2006 I was able to fly to England to visit with dh. The visit only lasted 2 days as his schedule changed and they had to leave sooner than we thought. Grandma and Grandpa were both able to come out for that trip. In 2007 we did not get any alone time as we took a family vacation in April and then moved to Hawaii in July.

The only complaint from the kids is that they want to be with us to choose the house because they want some say in their bedroom choices. I told them they will get to choose bedrooms from the house we have chosen after they return and I am sure they will be happy with the selection. The houses in SC all seem to have 2nd living rooms or FROG's so we are looking forward to having an actual schoolroom. I am looking forward to having a real yard and a driveway that I can pull at least 2 cars into. I am also looking forward to being out of the main traffic loop. We are hoping to find something within 30-minutes of dh's work, but still be kind of out in the country. I am hoping to be able to find a place close to a riding stable so dd can ride more than once per week. She will probably have to work off some of her lessons, but she loves everything to do with horses, so I am sure it will not be a problem.