Moving out and moving in!

I posted the pictures last night as requested by the parents.  We are obviously not finished decorating, as we need some more furniture (...a kitchen table...) and we need some rugs and pictures.  We have a few pictures, but I can't decide where they will look right!  Ray bought the quilt rack from an antique store here in Fletcher.  I had been looking online for one (I really wanted a quilt ladder), but I came home from work one day and he surprised me!  I love it.

The moving out process:

Our apartment lease ended on our closing day.  We asked our apartment managers if we could have an extra weekend (even offered to pay for it) so that we could move out and clean.  They only gave us one option:  pay for another month at the month-to-month rate.  No thank you! So, we had to be moved out and clean the apartment by closing day and then move into the house on closing day.  Well, we did it and all went well! :)
We moved out completely on our own.  We rented a 16' truck (got a good discount because Ray's boss's wife is the manager at a storage company), loaded it and left it in the parking lot at our apt. for 5 days. We ended up having to rent a UHaul van as well because all of our stuff didn't fit on the truck.  So, here's what our apartment looked like for those 5 days:

We turned the living room into our bedroom.  It was kind of fun. ;) 

Loading the truck was a workout, but thanks to the help of an appliance dolly, we had no trouble or sore muscles!  Best $11 we've ever spent!

This should be an ad for appliance dollies!

I'm not going to lie, we were both grouchy all day loading the truck and had some pretty bad tempers flying, but at the end of the day... we were smiling and loving each other more than ever. 

The night before closing, we decided last minute to stay in a hotel so that we could have everything totally packed.  It was so funny when the hotel clerk looked at Ray's ID and saw that we lived just right down the road.  She told us to "have fun!"  I seriously think she thought we were having affairs or something.  Haha!  I took Thursday (closing day) off and Ray took a half day.  We met the lawyer at 10:00 and sealed the deal by 11:30.  It went so smoothly! We loved our lawyer and our agent.  Our agent even gave us a $50 gift card to Home Depot.  So nice!  Here's a picture of us signing.  This is when Ray realized he still had his name tag on from work! Haha.  

After signing, the race was on.  We had to have the van unloaded and back to UHaul and our apartment keys turned in by 5:30.  So, we grabbed a quick lunch and enjoyed our first meal at the house:

For me, moving in was so easy!  I just stayed inside and unloaded boxes as they came in.  Ray's friend/colleague and now our neighbor, Dennis, was there to help unload.  They did all the lifting.  I was so thankful!! And if that wasn't enough from Dennis, his wife brought us muffins and cookies that night.  We are so happy to have such sweet friends right down the street!  I think the hardest part for them was getting this old lopsided mattress up the stairs.  

We were done with everything...unpacking, organizing, etc. by Friday night!  I couldn't take the boxes and mess any longer than that.  ;)   

Please come visit us soon, especially as it gets warmer.  Ray bought a grill (we've used it twice already!) and our pool is just down the street, so the summer will definitely be fun! 

Now, Ray and I are making the "long" trip to downtown Asheville (we're closer to downtown Hendersonville now) to have a few drinks... after all, I'm officially on SPRING BREAK!