Monday, February 2, 2009

Moving and packing and jobs and friends

So, there's been a slight change of plans. We're still moving to Denver, and we're still doing it on the same day that we've been planning, but I won't be taking the new job that I was offered. I fully intended to, but when I gave notice at my current job, they asked me to stay on and work remotely, and offered some great perks to doing so.

At first I thought no way, because I was so in the mindset of having the new job, but then I thought about it and realized that actually, it made way more sense for me to stick with my current job than to take the new one. Every factor just spelled out that the current job was the way to go--I love the company and the people, I love the work, the benefits are fantastic, there will be a promotion shortly, there are no unknowns, and I'll get to work from home, which will be great in terms of having a dog now and kids later. And plus, Torsten and I will be working at home together, which will be lovely, though we fully intend to work in separate rooms, because he spends most of his workday on the phone (loudly), and I can't edit with that level of background noise.

So, after I made the decision I had to write a really awkward and guilt-inducing email to the people who offered me the new job, telling them that I wasn't going to be able to accept it after all. I felt really bad about it, but as my friends and family kept telling me, you have to do what's best for you, and companies are used to things like this happening. And in fact I got a very classy response from the guy who interviewed me, wishing me luck and telling me to stay in touch. So, I feel better now.

And this totally opens up our options in Denver. We'll both be working from home, so we need at least a two-bedroom place and preferably a three-bedroom so that we can each have our own office, and we have a lot more flexibility on location. Originally our thought had been to get a place within walking distance of my office so that we wouldn't have to get a second car, but now there is no office, so we can live in whatever neighborhood we want.

Of course, this kind of throws off our apartment-hunting plan, which was to go to my new office and walk from there, stopping into every building on the way and looking at available apartments. Now that we don't have a specific location in mind anymore, we're going to need to do more of a broad city tour to get a feel for the neighborhoods and where we might like to be. We're doing a bunch of research ahead of time and plan to make some appointments to view places before we arrive, but ultimately we're going to leave things open and see what comes along.

This weekend was a whirlwind of packing and logistics and seeing friends. There's nothing like a two-week deadline on your tenure in a place to make you realize how many friends you have there, because there are so many people that we want to hang out with one last time before we go, and short of having a giant packing party at our place, there's no way we're going to fit them all in. But we are doing what we can, and they and everyone else will just have to come visit us in Denver.

We did book the movers, and can we discuss what a stressful thing that is? We did a ton of research and found a company that is very reputable and gets excellent reviews and is well-rated by the BBB, etc., but OMG is it stressful to research movers. The internet is flush with warning stories about scams and movers who held people's belongings hostage until they forked over thousands of dollars in extra costs, etc. Googling interstate moves is like Googling your medical symptoms, or reading What to Expect When You're Expecting while pregnant--bound to convince you that you will never make it to the other side safely.

But we will, ultimately, and the hope is that we can experience a beautiful dovetailing of circumstances wherein we find an apartment and then our stuff arrives shortly thereafter, so we don't have to spend too much time in hotels and/or sleeping on air mattresses in an empty place. Moving is stressfully inexact; they give you a two-day window of when they'll arrive, and you can specify a preference but there are no guarantees and you don't know for sure when to expect them until like two days in advance. And then your stuff doesn't fill the whole truck, so they do a bunch of moves all at once, and it's hard for them to tell how long it will all take, and so they give you a window of how long it will take until you're reunited with your stuff, and the window usually spans a weeklong period.

I totally understand it, because moving is an inexact science, and movers are held hostage to circumstances, and the self-reporting abilities of the people whose stuff they're moving, and weather and weigh stations and all the rest of it. But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. What is making it easier, I think, is the fact that we ourselves are being so open-ended about this. We don't have a set date that we need to be there, since we're both going to be working remotely, and we don't have anyone waiting for us or anything, and we don't even have a place to stay.

So, you know, what happens happens. All we can do is research as much as we can, make smart choices, and hope for the best. And ultimately, we'll be together in Denver with good jobs and a place to live, and the exact details of when and how all that happens will become unimportant in the long run. I just hope that in two weeks I'm not eating my words.

33 comments:

  1. Since you're both going to work remotely, have you considered a suburb or a slightly different city? Colorado Springs is an absolutely breath-taking area and slightly less expensive then downtown Denver. You may even be able to buy a house right off the bat.

    Good luck with the move!

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  2. Or maybe you'll get to rent a 3br house! With a yard! For a dog!

    Sounds like you needs lots of GOOD LUCK and HAPPY MOVING vibes.

    **vibes**

    :)

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  3. It is great that you get to keep your job and work remotly. Jsut make sure that you get out of your house and meet people, when I work from home, I tend to hibernate and don't want to leave.

    I hate moving. I hoep that you do not experience what I experenced when I moved half way cross the country. It was to take two weeks for my stuff to be delivered....it took four. the trucks kept breaking down etc. It was horrible,

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  4. that's great that you'll be able to work remotely. i loved the job that required me to work from home. and like mandy said, now you don't have to live in downtown denver.

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  5. Oh my gosh - I would love to work remotely! That's so fantastic for the both of you, congrats on making an open ended move even more open! Only you two could do that! = )

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  6. Luckily we had a moving allowance that was reimbursed by my BF's company. I found our movers online and it ended up being so shady. The website was for a seemingly good company, but they end up just taking your information and contracting it to someone else.

    We packed about 95% of our stuff on our own, but there were a few things they had to put in boxes [window fans, for example] They were like, well the extra packing supplies that we had to use will be an extra $750...but what do YOU think is fair? We settled on less than $500 because we gave them some of it in cash, but if it was "our" money that we were using I would have been furious! $750 for some tape, bubble wrap and cardboard? And then they bargained with us?? SO FRIGGIN' SHADY!

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  7. congrats on being able to work remotely! that's awesome! good luck on finding a new home :)

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  8. OMG I am SO jealous! Good luck with the move and finding a new place. You come across as such a great person through your writing so you totally deserve it!! Wish you nothing but the best.

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  9. You boggle my mind with your coolness. Seriously, I am in awe of the fact that you're just picking up and following a dream. I am so, so excited to follow this story! I wish you a beautiful place, with hardwoods and natural light and two lovely offices!

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  10. Wow - you guys are handling the stress of all this change really well! If you do need to freak out, feel free to call. I'll e-mail my number.

    I would do some research before moving to Colorado Springs (as suggested by Mandy). It IS gorgeous; but it is also very, very conservative and religious. Like - super religious. Plus, you have all the Air Force cadets there. I think it is a nice place to visit, but my personality would not mesh with it to live there.

    Just some advice!

    GOOD LUCK - and how awesome that your old job didn't want to let you go! Woo! (P.S. would you mind e-mailing me the company you turned down? Just curious.)

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  11. Good luck with getting things together for your move to Denver! I live in Denver currently and love it so much. Neighborhoods I would recommend in the city: Washington Park, Congress/Cheesman Parks, and the Highlands.

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  12. How fantastic that you get to stay with your current company? Now you have some stability with the move.

    And the move will be just fine =)

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  13. With all the moving I've been involved with, I never really knew the details of prof moving companies. Sounds really stressful, I agree.

    I never really liked apartment shopping - I mean, couldn't a perfect apartment just find me without the effort on my part? But alas, it has never turned out that way. Good luck with the searching. I'm glad you have some flexibility with finding a place.

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  14. oh wow, that's awesome! yay for you guys!!

    have you considered getting a realtor when you're out there? they're super helpful, especially if you're trying to narrow down / expand your neighborhood options (and free! it's not like you have to pay to have one!)

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  15. Wow - Denver is really your oyster, isn't it?

    The thing I'm most thankful about for you guys is that you don't have a house to sell before you move. That seems to be our biggest roadblock if we want to move later this year...selling a house in a dismal market.

    Best of luck with packing and moving and we'll be watching for a thorough review of the moving company. :)

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  16. What moving company are you using?

    Also, check out craigslist for places, you can specify that you are looking for a pet friendly place, how many bedrooms you want, location, price range, etc. I use it to find my homes- its a wonderful search tool!

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  17. I think I may be feeling a twinge of envy for the excitement you must be feeling. Stress, yes, but ultimately excitement. And both of you working remotely opens up SO MANY possibilities. Have FUN!

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  18. As a veteran of the cross-country move, I can def relate to all of this. What a crazy and exciting time.

    And you already know this, but you are going to love working at home with Torsten. It will make it a little harder to meet people, but you will deal with that.ad

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  19. What a great opportunity!! I can't wait to see how it works out re the living situation!

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  20. Wow! I want a job that's that flexible!!

    As to seeing your friends, I recommend just meeting everyone for a happy hour somewhere that you like. That's what a friend of mine who just moved to LA did, and it was a nice, low-pressure way to see everyone one last time without having to plan dozens of different get-togethers.

    Good luck with the packing!

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  21. That's great that your current employer values you so much they're willing to let you work remotely! So exciting.

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  22. I am so jealous!

    This isn't about me, but seriously. Jealous. Working from home!? Sigh.

    Best of luck. Spend lots of time with friends. :)

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  23. Oh wow, I just caught up on the move and the announcement and everything. Big CONGRATS! How exciting, I wish you the best.

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  24. That's great that you can keep your job--it definitely leaves the door open for you to move someplace else if it turns out Denver's not your dream place (hopefully it is though!) and in this economy, I'm sure the other place has tons of other people who applied, so don't feel too bad about that.

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  25. Working from home and a dog?! You're living my dream! :)

    I remember doing the research on the movers and making final visits to all of my Boston friends a few years ago when I moved back to California. It's such a challenge, but totally worth it! (I'm sure you already knew that.)

    I have one bit of advice, in case it's helpful. Before the move I calculated that every pound would cost me $1. That helped me with decisions about what would move with me and what wouldn't, which is one of the least important and yet most frequently reoccurring questions during this kind of thing.

    Good luck!

    Oh and please, if you have photographs or wine that you care about at all, don't send it with the movers.

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  26. That's awesome that you get to keep your current job. Working from home will give you guys the flexibility to have a dog and kids! :-)

    I would not recommend Colorado Springs as the first commenter did. It is VERY conservative and VERY religious. There are very large churches (that can hold 100,000+ people) all over the place. From reading your blog, I don't think that you would be excited to live there.

    I would highly recommend living near Washington Park (Wash Park). It has a bunch of neat restaurants, the park is about 2.7 miles around and on nice days is busy with people running, playing with their dogs, playing volleyball, etc. Great area.

    I would also recommend Cheesman Park. It is more affordable than Wash park, still has a great park (especially for dogs) and then you are closer to Denver (short bus ride).

    The new up and coming neighborhood is the Highlands. I don't know much about it though.

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  27. Wow! Your people love you, offering perks to stay and such. Good for you and Torsten! Also, I agree with Mandy about possibly moving a bit outward from Denver if you can. Close to the big city but not immersed in it? Seems perfect.

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  28. you called - not emailed your new job? I can't imagine that is very professional - it's like breakup via text!

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  29. Time to get in touch with some Denver bloggers for neighborhood recommendations!

    Congrats on being offered to work at home! That will be great! It's hard to make the decisions, but you know what's right for you!

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  30. Oh my goodness, this is SO! EXCITING!

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  31. How CONVENIENT! That's totally awesome. I am so happy for you.

    and you're close to Texas now !!!!!

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  32. Congrats on keeping your job and working remotely - it sounds like a very good option for you...I'm sending some good energy your way for moving day!!

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  33. It sounds like everything is just neatly working out in your favor effortlessly, so I see no reason that would not continue. Good luck!!

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