Post-move stress disorder (PMSD)

After a year and a half of planning, working, sweating and worrying, we expected to be celebrating one of the biggest accomplishments of our lives after we moved in. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out this way. We're still hanging on to the hope that one day soon we will get some joy out of our new home.

Our plumbers and electricians have proven themselves to be incompetent. Two weeks after we moved in, we still have an unconnected sink and another sink that leaks. The electricians, after admitting that the first crew who installed our wiring were drunk on the job (yep, for real), don't seem to feel any sort of urgency to finish their work. On top of it all, they leave a path of destruction wherever they go (a broken light here, broken lightbulbs there, etc.). They flick our breakers and boiler on and off at will, leaving us with systems that don't work when we want them to and no hot water this morning. The minute they finish their work, we will be complaining to the Better Business Bureau.

We've hinted at our flooring troubles, and I wish I could post our recent photos (I can't find my laptop at the moment, unfortunately). As we mentioned in our previous post, our flooring company left us with completely deficient floors before we moved in. They avoided our builder's calls for almost two weeks before finally responding after he escalated the issue to the company's president. They are scheduled to refinish the second floor today; we'll see what actually happens. Once the second floor is complete, we will have to move everything off of the first floor to the second floor so that that floor can also be redone. We've decided to just skip the third floor; it's not as bad up there, and we'll just do whatever we can to clean them up ourselves. Again, we will be contacting the BBB to lodge a complaint.

Our lovely stairs have, unfortunately, failed inspection. It's a very long story, but the stairs from the second to the third floor must be removed (!), corrected, and re-installed. We don't know yet whether we will just move some clothes downstairs and sleep among the boxes, or whether we'll stay elsewhere for the week. We have a bunny to consider, too.

In the midst of this, we've been sanding, staining and varnishing what feels like a million feet of baseboards and window and door frames. We're pleased with the results, but wonder whether our backs will ever forgive us.

On a happier note, we have continued to unpack as much as possible in our kitchen, which we truly love. We have many photos to share as soon as my laptop turns up. Stay tuned!