There's Disaster Afoot!

        And even "disaster" is sort of an understatement. Where to begin? I guess I'll just go in order of how I found these things out.
      
        Moving is freaking expensive. Not only is there a lot of buying that has to be done if it's your first big move like it is for me, but finding someone to take your things cross-country is not cheap! U-haul was about $2000 to rent the truck for three days, and on top of that, the mover has to load it, unload it, drive it, and pay for gas (12mpg)! Then we thought maybe a POD, but that was $5000. To save money, my mom settled on a moving company called Colonial Van Lines. This ended up being a BIG mistake. First, they were supposed to pick my stuff up between 3pm and 5pm on Wednesday, and be delivered to my home in Phoenix between Monday and Wednesday (the 8th-10th). But, Wednesday at 5pm rolls on by, then six....they end up showing up at 7pm. That's not even the best part, at least they got my stuff. On Friday morning the movers called and said they would tell us when the truck left Chicago and then they could give me an estimated delivery date. DAYS pass, and still no call. Finally, on Wednesday (Doomsday), my mom called them, and they gave us an estimated delivery date.... wait for it... the 17th-19th! That's AFTER school starts, AFTER I start work, and everything I own is on that truck. I even need to buy new work clothes.  (If you have a few minutes, read the reviews for this company). So, that's that awfulness of this move, but that's definitely not the worst part.

       The worst part came to our attention on Wednesday, about a half hour before I had to take my mom to the airport. I took Carl out to go to the bathroom, and while I was on my way back in, a man called me over to talk to him. I knew that something was wrong as soon as he talked to me. Basically, he told me that I wasn't allowed to have Carl there. There is a 25 lb weight limit, obviously Carl is way more than 25 lbs. I just told him that I've seen other big dogs, and he replied with "those dogs are 'grandfathered' in." So I just told him I was babysitting Carl until Labor Day. This was absolutely devastating, as I'm sure you can imagine. And it was made all the more worse because my mom was leaving within two hours. While I cried, my mom started making phone calls to see what we could do. We did know about this rule a while ago, but our realtor told us that HOAs don't enforce those rules if you own, and then we saw a German Shepard there, so that just reinforced that idea. This was a huge mistake. But who else are you supposed to trust other than your realtor? It's their job to know these types of things. When he showed us the house, he knew very well how big Carl is and that he was coming with me. That is the most frustrating part of this: that we were so mislead by a realtor. And what really sucks is that I don't feel welcome or comfortable over there anymore, so I haven't spent any time there. I hate that this happened, because I really love it there, and we put so much work and money into it. It's a really huge hit. It kind of feels like this whole move has been f*cked since jump street. But I'm determined to stay positive. Since that first day, I've been doing a lot better. It feels like way longer ago than it was.

The not redone bathroom

Living room/Dining room area

         Basically, our only solution is to find another place to live. Today I went to look at one place. It was supposed to be two, but the second place didn't have a key to it, so I have to wait until they get a key. This place was so nice! It's like completely redone on the inside, with all tile floors. The only room in the house that wasn't redone was the master bathroom, which is kind of strange to me, but oh well. It's a lot smaller than my place now, and it's all on one level, but it's a lot newer on the inside than my place now. I'm going to look at a couple more places before I make any decisions, but I really do like this place. Here are a few pictures:

Awesome redone bathroom

The kitchen!