My husband and I were bound and determined to make this move go much more smoothly than our last. (which was also a disaster) So we followed all the directions, had a relocation consultation and had all of our ducks in a row. We felt GREAT about the move....other than the fact that we were leaving San Diego.
THEN
The navy threw a huge wrench into our nice organized plans. Go figure. He was told to go to the relocation office and set up our move 10 days before we were leaving. Which we did, we actually went 12 days before just to be safe. Only to get online to schedule the move and have them tell us that if they pick up our household goods when we were moving out of our apartment they wouldn't arrive to our new apartment in Virginia for OVER A MONTH! which was no good because James is deploying soon after checking into his new ship. We absolutely were not living an empty apartment for a month. So we had to have them call us to tell us an earlier date that they could come pack everything up. (this was on a Friday) I got a phone call the following Tuesday telling me that they were going to come on Thursday! THAT Thursday! Which was a week before we were leaving, but hopefully our stuff would arrive in Virginia on time. SO we were like 'what the heck, lets just do it".
So we had a week with nothing in our apartment other than our bags, the pets and an air mattress....And still no move money! But I'll get to that in a minute.
Once we left San Diego, we drove to Vegas for a night, then to Fort Morgan Colorado, Chicago Illinois, Cleveland Ohio and then off to Norfolk, VA. It was a LONG drive!
When we reached Chicago, it had been almost a week and we still hadn't received any of the travel money which was beginning to make things difficult because staying in a hotel every night gets really expensive. Especially with 2 pets. After having my husband call them and finding out nothing, I started calling and finally got answers. He filled out for the move money to be advanced so we could have it before we left San Diego, apparently somebody in whatever office that is, didn't realize that and it was still sitting on someones desk. So we had to wait another 4 days to get the money put into my husbands account.
Once we got to Virginia we stayed at the navy lodge until we could find an apartment. Which took 3 days because we were SO sick of moving and wasting money on hotels we picked the first thing we looked at. A very nice girl we met at the PETA dog park, who's husband is also Navy, recommended it to us. And it turned out to be Okay. Its not as nice as what we're used to but, its only for 11 months, and James will be deployed for 8 of them. The place is super dog friendly and has a dog park in the complex, so Finn's happy.
We had to wait another week to have all of our household goods delivered....which was VERY frustrating but it felt good to at least be 'home' even if home was still empty. Once our things finally arrived it was bitter sweet because SO much of it was broken or damaged. Almost everything that wasn't put in a box, they broke...
- My Antique Dining Room Table had an entire corner knocked off
- The solid wood leaf coffee table's end brace was knocked off. Like, it snapped off, it didn't just come loose.
- Our 3 Drawer Dresser bottom brace was also knocked off and they taped it back together with packing tape.
- And lastly our king memory foam mattress has a tear the size of my hand in the cover and the liner. I'm not sure how we're going to fix that because I already looked and I can't find a new cover or liner and it was a BRAND NEW mattress it was only 4 months old.
We are currently in the claim precess....fingers crossed!
