Lights, closets and a new job

I need to learn to spread life events out over time. I always manage to either have absolutely nothing going on or the complete opposite where everything seems to happen at once. The past 9 months I've been jobless with plenty of time on my hands and wouldn't you know it, now that we're in the middle of a move I get a job offer. That's the way my life goes.

In all honesty I'm not terribly excited about the job. I have some reservations about where I'll be working, but I did accept the offer on Tuesday. I start on February 4th. They wanted me to start on January 28th, but there was no way I could with having to be out of our current house by the 31st. I'll be working in NAF Human Resources, which is what I did at Ft. Wainwright, so it should come back to me pretty quickly.

I really do need this job with everything we're having to buy for the new house. I love how many windows it has because it lets in a lot of light, but with that come lots of curtains. Then there's the kitchen, light fixtures, shower stalls, closets.....and the list seems to keep growing.

We've been having some frustrations with the new house. We had the final walk through 3 weeks ago and as of yesterday none of the repairs had been done yet. Meanwhile, we're waiting for them to get done and change the locks so that we can start moving in. Last weekend we were able to get in to put up some lights and start assembling our bedroom closet.

As I've mentioned before, they do things a lot different here than in the states. One thing that's very different is they don't leave you with a clean house - at all. Inside it's covered from top to bottom with white dust and the contractors have left trash and cigarette butts all over the house and grounds. Isn't that nice?

Since the house is so dirty it needs to have a complete cleaning before anything can be moved in. I'm sure it'll probably need to be mopped several times to get all the powder up. We had planned for some of Sam's co-workers to come over on Saturday to help move furniture, but that will have to be postponed since I haven't been able to clean yet.

A few nights ago Sam emailed the contractor and told him that we absolutely needed them to get done and out of the house so we can start to move. We have two weeks as of today, which is cutting it just a little too close for comfort. This morning we met the contractor, painter and electrician at the house to go over everything that still needs to be finished. Sam set up for them to change out the locks tomorrow and after that if anything still needs done they'll have to make appointments with us. I felt much better after meeting with them. At least we know that this weekend we can start the cleaning process and moving boxes over.

Thankfully, Monday is a holiday so Sam will be off work. We have a delivery for the washer, dryer and refrigerator set up for that day too. Also, the electrician and painter will be back in to finish up some projects that we requested. So....it's been a slow process, but it seems like we're finally getting somewhere.

I just can't wait for about 3 months down the road when we're finally settled and have our phone, Internet, satellite and kitchen installed and working properly. My poor, sweet husband has to set up most of those appointments since we're dealing with German companies. We're so thankful for Sam's secretary, Huri, who helps decipher our bills and even calls these companies for us. She's wonderful and really should get paid extra for all the help she gives on the side.

Back to last weekend - We had about 12 lights that Sam was going to install on Saturday, but his drill wasn't up to the job. These houses are built out of concrete and the drill just couldn't make any headway. So, Sam called James, who is the Asst. Director at SAS, to see if he could help out on Sunday. Sam works with some really nice people. James came out on Sunday with his hammer drill and they got all the lights up that day. We still have around 7 lights to buy and install, but it's amazing how much easier a job is when you have the right tools.

We lucked out on the closets. We thought they would fit with our ceiling height, but when we started putting them together we noticed there was only about 1/4 inch leeway between it and the ceiling. It'll be great once they're complete because it'll look like they were built into the room. If they ever have to be moved though we'll have to take them apart somehow.

Oh, one more thing...on top of everything we've have to buy for the house we can add one more thing - a door that fell over and broke in half. Technically it was my fault, but I was actually very frustrated with that situation because if the door had been on the hinges like it's suppose to be it wouldn't have been knocked over in the first place. I was mopping a floor on my hands and knees and bumped it with my foot. I didn't hit it hard, but it was enough to make it fall and split right in half. This morning the contractor told us they would be charging us for that door. No surprise there....

Well, that's what we've been up to lately. Once we move, we may be without Internet for awhile. I hope not, but I don't know how quickly things get done here. Here are a few pictures from last weekend.

Sam working on our closets Saturday evening.

The partially finished closets. We have to go back to Ikea for pieces they had to special order.

James helping Sam install the lights on Sunday.

The dirty living room cluttered with boxes that the closet came in.