Getting to Know Our New Home

Here we are at last! After long and adventurous journey to MA on the train we got to our new home. Home has loads of curb appeal, white siding on the walls, black roof, cute front porch. Inside newly painted, new cabinets in the kitchen and a laundry room! However the house was built in 1900 and unfortunately it suits more early XX century family than XXI one. Major problem is the lack of good sized wardrobes, the ones that are built in the walls are shallow and small. They are way to small to hold our pile of clothes for the family of five. You could tell “what’s the biggie get a wardrobe from IKEA.” The problem is the very narrow and steep staircase. In addition see my post about IKEA home delivery experience. So, for now we have our wardrobe boxes in our master bedroom. My biggest worry for the house is the leaking basement. In our first week we had lots of snow and the next day it got warm and rained heavily. Our next door neighbor, a wonderful woman, came to my doorstep to tell me that the basements on this side of the street tend to get flooded in the weather like that. So, I checked the basement but it was dry. Still, I got the boxes and suitcases from the floor to the tables (better safe than sorry!). In a two or three hours the basement had about 3 inches of water, all of the boxes that stood on the floor were wet. Fortunately the things stored in the basement were not of great value or necessary for daily life. Then we had a plumming problem. Whenever I did a load of laundry the suds from the washer appeared in the toilet, sink and a shower that are located in the same room. Nightmare, sometimes water from the washer’s draining hose was spilling over the floor. Nice, ha! The problem for that was really crappy plumming work. Instead of big size pipes the “specialist” used a skinny ones and put them below the sevage level and plumming had no vent. No wonder everything was backing up on us. However, we are very lucky to have a great house manager who helped fixing that problem with a real plummer. They finished the job in three days! So finally we have the thing in the working order.

So, now about our social life. Ha, ha, ha! So far it is almost non-existing. K.’s school is the biggest in town, the secretaries are friendly and helpful. She loves her new school, one day she told me that even when we move to our home she wants to keep attending the same school. Igo has a six day schedule, they have Spanish, which she did not have in CA, wellness (school has big gymnasium), art, music, and after school enrichment programs. This school has pre-k through 4th grade only, which is different from Kennedy (K-6th). We walk to school every day, weather permitting. Our little kids got into the preschool program, it is not like Newark’s junior kindergarten, it is mostly play and socializing. Preschool has a monthly fee. They love to go to their school, too.

While you in CA enjoy warm weather we are currently covered with snow. Kids love it, they have already been on a bunny slope to sled. We had some problems finding sleds at this time of the year, you know shopping seasons are way ahead of real seasons. Target had a lot of snorkeling, swimming gear stuff and nothing for winter. Finally we got some snow tubes and they had loads of fun! Those tubes go really super fast. At some point, after bumping heads couple of times M. asked for bicycle helmet. Unfortunately he did not use it because K. ripped the last tube on a rose bush. I ripped the first one when I was going down with H.. Now we got our internet order of 3 plastic sleds and when it snows some more we will go to test them. It is amazing how kids adapted to the cold conditions. On the slope they were natural, they even made a snowman in our backyard right after our arrival without our help.

If you are one of my friend who heard our horror story about moving from Knoxville to Bay Area I am happy to tell you that this time our moving company (United Van Lines) gave us a first class service. Two packers wrapped our belongings extra special carefully. They used half a ton of wrapping paper and everything arrived safely, to the last piece of junk that I forgot to throw away. Next day the loaders wrapped all of the bigger items in blankets, so we did not received any new scratches on top of the previously acquired. The truck driver took apart futon and beds and he put everything together upon arrival to the new place. My scrapbooks survived all of the journey in a perfect condition. Which makes me very happy. Our two cars got the same great service, everything was just plain, professional service. Hats off to you people! We loved the way you treated us!

Now, as you can see I am mostly happy with the entire move. The only thing that I miss it the proximity to shopping centers. Here it is far away, or farther away than in CA. My bigest regret is lack of Trader Joe’s stores. K. is deprived of her favorite (the only one she eats) brand of cheese. The major stores are about 10-15 miles away from my place. Groceries are not any cheaper than in CA. For example whole milk is over $4.00 for gallon, california oranges are $1.00/lb and worse quality than in CA. Costco is about 10 miles away and does not have a gas station. Darn it! Gas is about 50 cents/gallon cheaper than in Bay Area.

I think that is all I have to tell you for now. Keep warm and happy and send good vibes to us. We miss you all! Feel free to drop a comment as well.

Nasze życie w nowym miejscu

Oto mijają trzy tygodnie odkąd przyjechaliśmy do Massachusetts. Na wstępie okazało się, że domek jest śliczniuni z zewnątrz ale w środku to ma naprawdę mało miejsca.

Pierwszą noc spędziliśmy na materacach, ale następnego dnia już mieliśmy nasze meble i wszystko co mielismy w mieszkaniu w Newark, Kalifornii. Muszę z przyjemnością oznajmić że firma “United Van Lines” była super pod każdym względem. Bardzo starannie zapakowali nasz dobytek, tak mówiąc trochę żartem to za starannie, bo każdy najmniejszy bibelocik czy szpargałek był owinięty w kilka arkusików papieru. Ale wszystko dotarło w takim stanie w jakim było zapakowane. Nic nie zginęło w przeprowadzce! Z początku nie mogłam znaleść termometru do mierzenia temperatury mięsa ale ostatnio wypłynął – był w pudełeczku z torebkami “Ziplock” (zaciskanymi). Meble, które były rozłożone na czas podróży, złożył nam z powrotem kierowca olbrzymiej ciężarówki. Jedyne co ucierpiało na przenosinach to biurko, które było z płyty paździerzowej, ale szczerze mówiąc to się tego spodziewałam. Kiedy już prawie wszystko mieliśmy rozpakowane to przyjechał człowiek i te pudła od nas zabrał, a był ich stos!

Z samego rana w piątek (8-go lutego) poszliśmy cąłą gromadą do szkoły, do której podlegamy z racji adresu. Pani sekretarka była bardzo miła, odpowiadała nawet na pytania nie związane ze szkołą. Zarejestrowałam K. do drugiej klasy a bliźniaki jakimś cudem dostały się do przedszkola przy szkole na zajęcia dwa razy w tygodniu. Super, bo już się martwiłam że dzieciaki nic nie będą robiły aż do jesieni, kiedy to muszą rozpocząć kindergarten czyli zerówkę.

Po pierwszych paru dniach w szkole K. oznajmiła, żenawet jeśli przeprowadzimy się do naszego domu to ona chce ciągle chodzić do Igo. Czy można chcieć czegoś więcej?

A teraz o naszym domu. Jest on stary, został zbudowany w 1900 roku, tak więc ma już sto osiem lat. Niestety nie był modernizowany przez ten czas i dlatego trudno się nam w nim osiedlić w XXI wieku. To co mi najbardziej przeszkadza to nie zaizolowane ściany. Dla ilustracji – postawiłam w szafce w kuchni butelkę oliwy z oliwek, kiedy na dworze jest poniżej zera to oliwa przechodzi w stały stan skupienia! No, po prostu mamy dodatkową lodówkę bez prądu!!! Na piętrze są sypialnie. Dzieci postanowiły, że będą spały razem więc mamy sypialnię dzieci, naszą sypialnię i bawialnię (pokój z zabawkami). Każda sypialnia ma małe i płytkie szafy wbudowane w ścianę. Z pokoju dzieci jest wejście na strych, ale po wąziutkich i stromych schodach. Strych jest nie wykończony, więc panuje tam ziąb. Wszystkie pokoje na górze mają niski sufit, ani ja ani mąż nie możemy się w pełni przeciągnąć bez dotykania sufitu. Na dole sufit jest wysoki, jest tu kuchnia, z za małą powierzchnią blatów i dość nisko wiszącymi szafkami, które są ładne – białe. Z kuchni jest wejście do pralni i do jadalni, którą przerobiliśmy na office/biblioteczkę/pokój komputerowy. Ile razy wchodzimy to tegoż pokoju to ryzykujemy stuknięcie głową o żyrandol. Z jadalni jest wejście do pokoju gościnnego (ciągle jeszcze w rozsypce i pudełkach)

A i jeszcze jest piwnica, która przecieka jak popada duży deszcz. Piwnica jest niska, ma chyba 170 cm wysokości w najlepszym przypadku. Nie ma półek, a nasze półki z XXI wieku, co to je przywieźliśmy ze sobą, są tam za wysokie. W piwnicy w kącie stoi beczka z olejem opałowym, ciekawe ile nas będzie kosztowało grzanie tego domu olejem?

Na szczęście ludzie tutaj są mili. Jak do tej pory poznaliśmy się z dwiema mami ze szkoły, poznaliśmy też rodzinę Polaków w sklepie.

Do sklepu spożywczego trzeba jechać około trzy kilometry, przez las. Do centrum handlowego (mall) jest około 15 km autostradą. Wszędzie jest tu las, domy są schowane wśród drzew. Jest tu dużo różnych stawów, pewnie w lecie będą komary. I to chyba na razie tyle pierwszych wrażeń.

Why I Will not Use IKEA Home Delivery Again.

This is someting that made me think: “What is wrong with me?”

Two weeks ago we moved from CA to MA, from small apartment to a house. That meant buying a few extra pieces of furniture. As a family on a budget we headed to IKEA Stoughton. I must say we do like IKEA, or at least liked it before this experience.

We put our kids in the Smalland and went on to find the desired pieces – bookcase with door, chest of drawers, tv stand, storage for kids toys (can you have enough of that?), all ended up with a little over $1,000.00. We had 8 boxes that we wanted to be delivered to our home. The cost was $99.00 and was scheduled in two days.

On delivery day we got time window 1:00-5:00 pm. You know what it means, you’d better stay at home all that time. So, I stayed. At five o’clock I called the delivery company to find out when I will get the delivery. Lady apologized and said that the driver is behind the schedule (it rained very heavily) and he shall call me later when he knows the time. He did and gave me another time – 7:00 pm. We got the delivery around 8:00 pm and it was a disaster. Out of the 8 boxes four were soaking wet and opened (closed with a tape). I heard from the driver that “they are slightly damp because of the weather.” I swear the truck did have a roof, but it must have been leaky. One look at the particle board piece and I knew it is just damaged so we refused that box. We did accept three other boxes that were wet and taped. Later on it turned out that one had damaged piece and the other missing piece, that must have fallen out from the box.

After about 40 minutes on hold to talk to a live customer service from IKEA I got the case number, then someone called me to let me know that I will get the replacement. This time delivery was on time, the fragile particle board box was intact but … the box with TV unit was broken and the door was chipped. Yet another half an hour on the phone hold and I got the information that I will get that door delivered by UPS.

The lesson I learned from that is

1. You can have a positive experience with IKEA if you do not use home delivery and do everything by yourself.

2. My guess is IKEA is using the cheapest contractor possible and the workers are not gentle with heavy boxes.

3. If you do use the home delivery do not accept any box that is opened or damaged since there is a posibility that some pieces might have fallen out.

Why It is a Bad Idea to Travel on Amtrak Long Distances.

Across the Country on Amtrak.Hello my Friend,

My family and I have moved from California to Massachusetts. Following our burning desire for adventure we took a train… and so the story begins.

After the night spent at the hotel we headed to the Emeryville station. We boarded the train and here was the first surprise for me: the bedroom was rather tiny and the shower in the compartment was just a joke.

Nether the less the train moved, super nice car attendant brought us breakfast, Little kids (twins) were very excited as the train proceeded. Serenity lasted from 8:10 am to around 12:00 noon (we passed Colfax, CA and were way before Truckee, CA). At that time we stopped, kids were good since they saw snow behind the window and just adored it.

Hours have passed, we had our lunch, we had our dinner, we went through two conductors while the train was standing. Finally the third conductor made an announcement that the situations is not pretty – the previous night’s snow storm snowed the tracks and some idiot (for the lack of better describing word) who was driving a bulldozer to remove the snow drove on the bridge and got stuck there. Therefore there was no chance for us to go forward until morning (February 2nd). As I mentioned above we were in a sleeper car, kids were already asleep so we decided to stay on the train and not to board buses that came to the rescue.

Many people, though left the train, most of them from the coach class who were heading to Reno for the Superbowl and did not plan an overnight journey.

On February 2nd, we woke up and the train was moving, not very fast but still …

The scenery behind the window changed, we were at Sierra’s higher elevations, all of the trees were wearing thick coats of snow. Some repair train passed us, the engineer friendly waved to us… and we saw the bridge, and we passed it. Finally we reached Truckee, again blanketed with snow, ice-sickles hanging from the cottages’ roofs…winter wonderland. As we reached Reno, NV snow was a history but unfortunately all of the beautiful views of Sierra mountains as well. We traveled with a good speed, about 70-71 mph throughout Nevada. But as you know it is mostly desert so there was nothing interesting to look at.

February 3rd. We woke up in Colorado in Glenwood Springs, we had our breakfast and then we stopped again…

The reason was broken rail tracks. Some time before our Zephyr reached that point, some freight train passed and unfortunately it had a flat wheel. I asked myself and a Union Pacific worker how is it possible for a train to have a flat wheel? Well, it is possible and the wheel is literaly flat. One of the wheels had a blocked brake, so it was dragged on the track without rotating. That had flattened the wheel which started to act as a hammer, banging the rail. Because of that rail had to be welded and two pieces replaced.

The train was standing, snow was snowing and I was thinking “if we had taken the plane we would have been in Boston already.” But we were on a train! We were having our journey of the lifetime…

Six hours passed, the rail was fixed but we still had to wait for a new conductor. It was just two more hours. New conductor came and introduced himself “My name is Gamble” the whole dining car burst into laugh. One passenger said “I would prefer if your name was ‘Surething,”

February 4th.

Our third night on the train, we reached Nebraska. Oh, the beauty of the bread basket! The land was as flat and even as the surface of your kitchen table and we could see the leftover of the corn fields and never ending rural junk dumped next to the rail tracks.

Somebody from the customer service came to the train and started to ask us what would we like to do in Chicago – continuing on the train or taking a plane. At that point I was in such a mood that I agreed to finish the journey on the train. We were assured that we will have the same seats on the next train as we booked, all we need to do is just go to the ticket office next day.

First good news! We reached Chicago! If the train was on time we would have been in Boston…

It was 11 pm when we reached the station, we got on a cab at once and at midnight we were at the hotel. Our first night in a real bed. Of course we got only two beds for five of us and the kids had to have a fight. When I requested extra bed I heard that they do not have any available at that particular night.

February 5th.

After a very expensive breakfast at the hotel restaurant we left our room, the “late check-out” was just an empty word that meant we could stay in the room for half an hour longer than it was a custom. We had a whole day to kill in Chicago and 10 pieces of luggage with us. Fortunately the hotel offered luggage storage for the guest and that way we did not had to haul those bags with us. We went to the Field Museum.

Oh! What a wonderful place! My husband and the older daughter were looking at the exposition “Evolving Planet” Little kids and I went to kids place where they played at Pueblo. Kids were picking corn, planting corn, storing corn, cooking corn. And everything had to repeated at least 25 times. They had a great time!

Before we knew it the museum was closing! We got back to the hotel, collected our stuff and headed to the Chicago central station.

My husband went to the ticket office and then he was sent to the customer service representative. The lady was really unpleasant, I had no idea there are unpleasant customer service people in US. I would rather have my hand slammed by the car door than talked to her again. She informed us that the only option now was to go on a coach class for the rest of the journey because the sleeper car is booked. Well, while we were on the train the car attendant (very sweet lady) told me that it is a common practice to downgrade your tickets when your train is that late. That is why my husband tried to call and ahead and arrange booking in the sleeper car, besides they knew the train #6 was late. When I asked the customer service “lady” when they booked the last sleeper place she just got more annoyed. I could not imagine going with 3 kids on a coach class from Chicago to Boston at night. Fortunately the same ticket office clerk became creative and he gave us tickets for the train to Washington D.C. with sleeping places. From there we would go to Boston.

We got on a train to Whington D.C. and as soon as we left Illinois and entered Indiana we heard the announcement “there is a flash flood warning for the entire state of Indiana. All trains must proceed at a 15 mph.” That meant additional 9 hours delay.

February 6th.

My daughter’s eight birthday was on a train, the staff in a diner car was horrible. Waiter was just tossing menu in front of us and then it took long time to get service. In Pittsburg we were put on a bus to Harrisburg, so we could reach our train to Boston. Bus driver kept the pedal to the metal at all times, he tailgated and speeded and got us to Harrisburg where we boarded the train to Philadelphia and from there to Boston. The last leg of the journey was in a coach class, I did not have a minute of sleep but kids did.

February 7th

We reached Boston at 8:10 am on Thursday, we were three days behind the schedule.

I strongly recommend flying if you are going to visit me here.

I am very grateful that my children were extremely good throughout that ordeal and I did not heard complaints from them.

If you do go on a long train trip take lots of paper for drawing, coloring, etc. and keep in mind that the air on a train is very very dry. We ended up using saline solution to make breathing easier.

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