All about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. Raise your hand if you know the next verse! If you just rapped, “And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there” you get a gold star. And now I’ll tell you how I become the princess of moving cross country twice in one year. Yep. True story. But, first here is a video tour of Sunny, our FL apartment, before I started packing it up!
Note: It’s real life folks, my sports bra is hanging on the hamper, I say “freakin'” and “awesome” way too much. And our bedroom is ugly. That’s all.
NOTE: If you follow me on instagram, then you’ve probably already seen most of these pics. Road trip 1: We actually drove from Texas to Florida twice in 2 weeks. We drove Andy and his car back right before Thanksgiving because he had to start his job pronto. I drove with him in his car and flew back to Ft. Lauderdale. We drove from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to New Orleans in one day. Wowzer. We stopped for din at Chik-fil-a, ate chocolate and took a stretch break in Wal Mart at midnight!
I hadn’t been to New Orleans since I was a kid so I was pretty stoked to spend a few hours wandering the french quarter, having a coffee, and meeting an old man who claims he his a professional boogie dancer and carves crazy awesome canes. He is also the only person I’ve ever met who writes in English cursive from right to left. #Igothisautograph #dontbejealous We wandered through art galleries and walked along the Gulf. 
After New Orleans we had a few DQ treats, stopped for pics at the Texas sign, and made it to our sweet friends house where dinner and dessert were waiting : ) The next morning was breakfast at Bouldin Creek (another one of my faves!) and a one way flight back to Ft. Lauderdale for me.
Road trip 2: The weekend of 12.7.12, Andy flew back to Ft. Lauderdale to drive the Budget back to Texas once and for all. We had a moving quote done just to compare prices and it was going to cost $3,364. We decided to DIY the move once again. The only difference is this time we hired 2 guys to help us move the furniture and boxes out of the Sunny and into the Budget. I did it the first time around, and I almost died. Not being dramatic. The route from our apartment to the Budget truck includes multiple doorways, an elevator, a couple of stairs, and lots of maneuvering around corners. We used movinghelpers.com, and it was totally worth it. At $25 an hour, I was sold.
I packed up all of the boxes, and wrapped all the mirrors and furniture for the movers to move (that saves you a bunch of money). Luckily, I saved a ton of boxes from the first move to Florida. I used a lot of my old moving tricks. Here’s a post I write the first time around called Packing 101: Tips on moving for free. Here are a few of my favorite packing tricks:
- Grab free boxes from the Liquor store to use for glasses
- Using throw pillows, towels, and rags as cushion for breakables
- Wrap large frames and mirrors in quilts
- Don’t buy mirror boxes (they are super expensive!) You can use a regular box and tape it up.
- Keep out a few essentials until the very end: packing tape, zip locks, paper towels, and a cup.
After the movers moved everything out of our apartment, we hooked up the car trailer, ate the last bowl of Captain Crunch, took one last elevator picture and we we were on our merry way, back to Texas!
Traveling in the Budget is slow going, we did not make it to New Orleans. In fact, we did not even make it out of Florida the 1st day! I did a lot of instagram-ing. (I’m thecraftblog if you’re an insta- addict too!) The next day we ate lunch at a yummy little BBQ place in Gross Tete (that’s really the name!), LA called Big Head’s BBQ. We totally suggest it if you’re road trippin’ on I-10. And they have fried okra!
The top left pic is me on hour 24 of driving from Ft. Lauderdale to Austin. I scared myself in the public bathroom mirror! We made it to Austin, TX at 1:30am on Dec. 9, 2012. We woke up that morning and moved into our new home, AKA a storage unit. The highlight was returning the Budget truck and chowing down on breakfast tacos at our favorite taco joint, Mi Ranchito.
And that’s the story of moving to and from Florida all in a year. As of now, we’re homeless! We’ve been looking at homes in Austin with a realtor and having some sticker shock! How much can a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home be? I guess it’s all about location. We want a home that needs some love, but has things like a roof! Anyone else ever moved to and from a state in the same year? How do you feel about the moving process? Are you a DIY mover? Do you love breakfast tacos? I’d love to hear…
Comments & Reviews
Ok, so now that I watched your video…I’m emailing you. I lived 2 seconds from you. Crazytown!
Holy Cow!!! Hopefully you find the perfect place soon. Turns out we are moving, too!! Gotta love a little last minute transition. Are you going back to Haven? I just bought my ticket today!
Wow, you’ve been so busy, girl! Welcome back to Austin and good luck with the house hunt!
Now that’s an adventure! As newlyweds, we DIY’ed our move … no kids, hardly any possessions. Now, with five kids, I didn’t even DIY a move from one neighborhood to the next. I don’t mind packing but I’m not lugging couches anymore.
I have moved once as a homeowner and it was about seven miles. I couldn’t DIY it because two settlements were happening in one morning. We had to be out and then in in a mere four hours. Good luck with the house hunt. 🙂
I moved cross country twice in 6 months…lol! It was a grand adventure to save a marriage that wasn’t worth saving. When my hubby pulled a three week silent treatment, I got frightened for my life. I skirted things away to storage when he wasn’t looking and then rented a 6×10 uhaul trailer. I hired someone to load it for me and kept it on the premises overnight. When it was time for my daughter to get out of school, I threw the dogs in the Jeep, picked her up and then went to get the trailer hooked up. It took us twelve days to get from Everett, WA back to NC. We got delayed three times by snow storms and my favorite story of God working through us to help others was in Colorado. My daughter had insisted on purchasing the huge meal deal at KFC the day previous and it was to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next few days to help us get down the road quicker…lol! Anyway, when we hit Denver, CO a light snow started falling. I stopped to ask locals if I should stop and wait it out but they said the weather was fickle and that it would likely be gone when I went back outside. But they did warn if the sky turns white stop immediately. Well they were right…no snow when I headed back to the jeep so I surged onward. About 20 minutes later the snow started again, then the sky turned white, the road began to blend into the snow covered grass and then it was gone! We slowed down significantly and were getting passed by eighteen wheeler that couldn’t possible have been sure they were driving on the road. Eventually even those trucks were creeping at 5 mph. I followed in the path of a truck in front of me and a huge line of vehicles formed behind us. The closest hotel was 30 miles away and it took hours to get there…every car pulled into the hotel’s lot and we were all able to get rooms but everyone was hungry. It was late and all nearby restaurants were either closed or snowbound so no pizza delivery was available. We pulled out our KFC and fed the masses! It was a true loaves and fishes story because everyone had plenty and it just felt like part of God’s plan that we had it! We had only told one person we were coming home so when we arrived at my sister’s home and she wasn’t there…we surprised her with a pic of my daughter on her front porch! My sister’s landlord had a rent to own that was just days away from being ready and let us offload the trailer into it so we could save some rental expense and not have to move the stuff again. Thank Goodness for small miracles! I will never move again!!!
Jen, wow! What an amazing story! I’m happy to hear everything worked out!
Yes ma’am, I sure have (all my moves have been DIY)!!! Fact, made a HUGE move from Florida to Austin – my FIL. Cleared out a home he had lived in for 30 years (aka, never threw anything away), sold the house twice in one week and loaded up a U-Haul and drove back to TX. Thump, Thump, Thump through Louisiana! lol I hope you’re relaxing a bit! Housing south or toward Cedar Park is less expensive.
And now I have the Fresh Prince rap stuck in my head. Thanks for that. 😉
It definitely sounds like you have had an adventure. Good luck finding housing! I’m excited to see what yall find and what you do with it!
Fresh prince is catchy 🙂
Wow! I am inspiried by your story. After living my whole life in Wisconsin, I am about to move across the country to Florida. I am also planning to move the DIY method because we cannot afford it with a professional moving company. Another place we get free boxes is the grocery store. We’ll have to look into that website for hiring someone to unpack the moving truck since we do not know anyone in Florida to help us unload. All our friends and family are in Wisconsin. Glad you and Andy made it, and good luck finding a place to live!
That’s a big move! Good luck, Julie!
We’ll likely be moving next year (we’ve been able to stay put for the past three- yay). The movinghelpers website I’m sure will be a Godsend. I’m sick of moving heavy stuff with my husband. We both have bum shoulders. Good luck finding housing!
you are hilarious,, I love this post, I just found your blog and immediately think I have found my long lost sister ha ha.. sports bra on the hamper, yes… and your documenting the whole thing in pics makes it so real- the cereal in the mug. love it.
Sharon, haha! Happy you liked the post 🙂
What a year for you! We recently filled out a questionnaire asking who are favorite blogs were and you were included on the list – just wanted to pass on the info 🙂
Corie, that’s exciting news! What list was it? Thanks for letting me know 🙂
You are adorable! Glad you make it in one piece!
oh my word – what an adventure!! Love that it’s all documented so you can look back on this in a few years and say, “Wow – how crazy & fun!” Hope you can figure out housing soon!! 🙂
We DIY’d it, but it was only like 4 miles. Ha! And yes on the breakfast tacos. Welcome back!