Reset Part 4: Welcome Home

Right after Labor Day, at that time, my current employer allowed me to work my last two weeks of employment remotely. It was fantastic and just what I needed. This gave me the opportunity to get my car shipped via truck transport, save money on the room I was renting, and relocate myself so that I would be in town and present for the final closing and home inspections.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am for my former leaders. I won’t name names, but they know who they are, and there was only a couple of them who really went above and beyond to help me. They were there for me as people, not as their titles, not as a corporate entity, but just as themselves. I can never repay them for their kindness, their actions, their words, just everything. They went well beyond the job place and me and Marzz benefitted tremendously from it. So, for those folks, we love you and thank you!

I found Reindeer Auto transport from a quick online search. I compared them to a few other companies, and they ended up being my choice because their price was reasonable, and their timeline was the fastest. It cost me approximately $1,700.00 USD in total to ship my mid-sized sedan. They gave me the option to ship it “open” or “closed” truck, which I of course chose “open”. They picked it up on September 13th. My friend and former co-worker was kind enough to assist and drive my car near my old apartment in Burbank, which is where they loaded the vehicle for transport. I of course placed an Apple Air Tag inside, so I could peak in on the progress.

The way it worked with Reindeer Auto was they provided a short window of about three days and said your pickup and then your deliver would fall within those date ranges. So, for example, my pickup, they said it would be between September 12 – 14. They ended up splitting it right in the middle and picked up my car on the 13th. As for the delivery, they said any time between September 19 – 21. And just like the pickup, they nailed it right in the middle and delivered my car in the late afternoon on Tuesday, September 20th. Just in time, one day before we closed on the new home and would need it to help transport items from the Extended Stay hotel to our house. The driver who dropped it off was very nice. Along the way, my car apparently had a battery issue, so he needed to use a portable jump pack on it everything he had to rearrange it on the truck. I apologized to him, I’m sure that was frustrating for him to deal with, and it was something I was unaware of was an issue. He literally parked his very long semi-truck and trailer on Westwood Bld, which is a very busy street in front of the Extended Stay hotel. He called me and luckily, I was tracking my Apple Air Tag, so I knew he was close, and I was already making my way downstairs. Basically, he wanted to unload as quickly as possible in the street, rather than squeeze into the parking lot. I was fine with this plan, and we pulled it off rather easily. At first it was weird driving my car in Florida. It really hit that this was happening, and this was going to be our home. Come to find out, this was only the first of several things that would make me feel this way in the beginning.

We had a little over a week before we officially closed on the house from the time I arrived in Florida. One thing that I didn’t expect to be difficult, was to resist the urge to start buying stuff for the house! For example, we wanted a new refrigerator and a few pieces of furniture, such as a new bed and mattress. As I mentioned before, and anyone who has every purchased a house, knows the lender is watching your spending like a hawk and you need to tread lightly as not to disrupt your credit score or spending habits. One wrong move and it could cost you the house, and after waiting ten months, we weren’t about to do that.

So, this amounted to a lot of “window shopping” and making lists of things to come back for later, after we successfully close on the house. Some of that was fun, but again, a lot was just frustrating because you were at the store, the item was there, but you couldn’t buy it.

We did roll the dice pretty big on the refrigerator. The fridge we wanted was on sale, about $1,000.00 USD off the normal price, plus we noticed it was out of stock many places. We happened to go into Lowe’s hardware near Orlando to ask them about it. The man there looked it up in their system and said that the Winter Garden location has one, in stock, right now; and they had a special going, you get free secondary front panels.

Let me explain. The fridge we wanted was a Samsung, Bespoke, 4-door French door style that has individual panels on the front. The panels come in either glass or steel and the selling point of this model is that you can “customize” the fridge to your own liking by changing out the panels at will. Normally you have to purchase them, but as part of the sale, they were offering it as a rebate, so you get a set of 4 panels at no cost! This was nearly a $400.00 USD value. Combine this offer with the already discounted sticker price, and the fact it was in-stock so we could in theory have a fridge when we moved in, made this situation something we felt we needed to roll the dice on.

Now, as an overall review of this, it probably was not a great idea to risk our house for a refrigerator. But being the gamblers we are, we sure as hell did!

We drove directly to the Winter Garden location and purchased the fridge! As the young kid was ringing us up, even he made a comment that he didn’t think they had any in-stock. He seemed surprised that they did. His reaction only solidified our decision to make this purchase. In short, we scheduled the delivery for Friday, September 23, two days after we closed on the house, and it worked out great! Minus a hiccup regarding the water line. Apparently, that young kid who rang us up, entered the water line incorrectly, so upon delivery, the guys did not have the water line on their list, so we didn’t have water or ice for another two or three weeks after we finally got it all sorted out. But we absolutely love our refrigerator and as I’m sure you’ve gathered, it did not cost us our house or anything else, just the discounted price of $2,400.00 USD! Worth every penny if you ask me.

We also nearly purchased a bed and mattress. Well, we sort of did. We were “window shopping” at Mattress Firm in Orlando when we found a bed frame and mattress that we loved. We explained our situation and thought that would end the conversation, when the guy told us if we paid a $100.00 USD deposit, which goes towards the purchase, he could lock us in and get the order started so that once we closed on the house, we would just call him back and then pay for the items. It worked like a charm! We are now the proud owners of a Purple, brand mattress, Premiere 3, I think is the model. Along with an adjustable bed frame. So far, a few months in, I love it and have had amazing sleep with it. I recommend it to anyone in the market for a new mattress.

Those were the only two things that we made any movement on prior to closing on the house.

On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, we officially signed the papers and closed on our home! With keys in hand, we left the office, said goodbye to our realtor and headed to McDonald’s. lol. Yes, we were hungry but didn’t want a large meal. We actually tried to go to Burger King first, but after standing in the dining room for nearly 5 minutes, along with others who were waiting to order, we left; and ended up at the golden arches. While eating inside, it began to rain, very typical Florida weather. Both of us were elated and felt good to have the stress lifted off our shoulders. We each called our parents to let them know the deal was done.

Next, we headed to the Extended Stay to pack up all of the items that were in there and make the drive to our new home! With two full cars, the dog, and us, we headed home.

In true Florida fashion it rained the entire drive to Davenport. But once we got to the house, the rain stopped and shortly thereafter the sun came out to greet us.

Unlocking the door and stepping into our new home for the first time was a fantastic feeling. It was a mixture of emotions overall. On one hand, it was exciting, and felt thrilling to know this was our house. In another way, it felt like it was almost “old hat”, as if to say, of course this is your house. I also felt relived. All of our hard work, saving money, being financially cautious, physically boxing our belongings and moving them, coordinating the logistics of everything, it all amounted to this moment, to this reward. A new home, a new start.

Even as I write this in the middle of December 2022, I still feel good about our home and our decision to move here. I am still excited to wake up in our house and walk through our home. Even though we still have a lot to fully settle in, our home is great and brings a smile to me when I am there and when I think about it. The decision to buy this home and move is one that I am firmly confident that we made the right choice and that is a rare thing in life.

My favorite part of our home’s attributes is not the home itself, but the location. I love that we do not have rear neighbors and that the retention pond in the back invite’s birds and small critters for us to enjoy. I know that it won’t always have water in it, so it’s not a full-time pond, but even just grass is nice to look at, rather than a rear neighbor.

I will close this short series of our “Reset” with this post. Thank you for tuning in to read them. I know they’re not the most riveting things, but documentation of some of the highlights that we encountered during this process, which was, and still is, a big event in our lives.

For anyone looking to move across country, there are plenty of resources available to you. Now that our move is complete, I look back and feel accomplished. But when we first started this move, it felt overwhelming to go through the checklist of all of the things we needed, places to call, services to setup. Don’t get overwhelmed, get a plan. Having a well-thought plan will get you through almost anything.

A thank you to our family and friends who supported our move and helped in one way or another. Some by physically moving things, or supporting us through conversation, bouncing ideas off one another, helping to plan and research. We could not ask for a better network of people to support us through this major life change; and we thank you all.