Is this home?

I am officially moved in to my new place (that I'm renting from the bank). I moved in Saturday amidst the COVID madness. And of course it was almost 90 degrees in North Carolina. Ninety Degrees before Easter.

It all just seemed so matter of fact. I scheduled an Uber to take me to the truck rental place. He arrived early, and I arrived at Penske Truck Rental at 6:45a. I waited outside until 7a when they opened. Due to COVID, I stood at the door and shouted out my information. He wiped off the steering wheel and I e-signed the rental agreement.

I'd rented a 12 foot truck but ended up with 16 feet and a ramp. The ramp was more of a hindrance than anything because it was so steep.  A few days before I purchased a $54 dolly and used that to haul my stuff from my apartment to the rental truck. At 9a, the TaskRabbit I ordered arrived to help me move my desk, stand-up desk topper, and bed to the truck. He was also able to dismount the TV, so that was nice or I'd have been sans TV for awhile.  I originally thought I'd load from 8a to 10a, but didn't end up leaving until 10:45a. I'm not sure why it took that long because the bulk of the stuff was out of my apartment after about 36 to 45 minutes. Yes, I timed it.

Similarly, it took under an hour to unload the truck. My realtor agreed to come by at 2p to unload the bulky things the TaskRabbit had helped me load. I didn't want a stranger knowing where I lived just yet.

Spectrum came around 4p to hook up my internet for a $50 activation fee.

24 hours later, the internet was out.

Now it's Sunday. I'm in the new place, no internet so no TV, and no fridge.  I twiddle my thumbs for a little bit; call Spectrum and schedule a technician for the next day; and finally decided to venture out to Redbox and pick up take out.

I ate some okay Chinese take-out and watched 3 movies.  By midnight, I checked on the modem and it was back online. I, at least, could go to sleep a little less anxiously.

It's Tuesday, and my fridge was finally delivered (at the door only). Thankfully, the only install required was for me to roll it to the corner and plug it in. I had no idea fridges had wheels! So that was easy! Thank the Lord.

I finished the rest of my online tasks, including flipping through the new home owner's manual and registering for a few product warranties; marked a couple things on my Google calendar related to home maintenance.

Yesterday, it took almost a full 8 hours to sort through and update all my accounts now that I'm in the bank bonus churning business. Boy oh boy, I hope it's worth it!  I know I won't be as jazzed to redirect my regular direct deposit for anything more than say... $200 in the future.  For the most part, I was able to balance my accounts and move money to the correct places. I left out about $5k to churn with the hopes of getting about $1k in bank bonuses in the next 6 months. That's a pretty good return considering all my net balances on my investments went down. 

Now that closing is done and all the shops are closed for any major spending, I (God-willing) should be able to move about $5600 to investments by early next month. One of my institutions is incredibly slow to post incoming transactions. But, that's okay.

Then I should have around $2200 or $2300 that I'm leaving out for big housing expenditures including a washer/dryer (abt $1100) and maybe a couch or two. I'm unsure about furniture. I am leaning towards a comfy couch for the living room but also stumbled across maybe some sort of pullout that I could get instead or in addition to. I have to think more on whether the likeliness of guests or overnight guests is high.

Remember that bank bonus website I got excited about. Well, they posted a link for good credit card bonuses. Chase was offering $200 off $500 in purchases. I applied for 2 of the cards and called today to find out I was denied. I just got disconnected from their reconsideration line after a 20-minute hold. I've spoken to so many customer service people in the last few days I'm about ready to be done. I think if I don't get the Chase cards, I might just call it quits on the discount game. I tried for the Lowe's card to get 10% off appliances and was also not instantly approved; they then required a lot more personal information than I was willing to give. Add to this my general no-credit card policy and the trouble I had with Raise discount gift cards and I might just draw the line in the sand. Never again with a gift card for an appliance.

Overall, I'm settling in nicely. I've only killed a few bugs. The weather is cool again. I have a fridge which means I can buy groceries. Call volume at work has slowed considerably. I'm still employed. Today was payday! I plan to rest and relax and enjoy my April staycation/government implemented shutdown.  And the fact that the job interview I thought I nailed didn't get back to me means one less agonizing decision to make or outcome to wade through.

My old life is officially behind me. My death date is in front of me, I just have to figure out how to occupy my time between now and then. :)