Three weeks ago, I made a post announcement that my family and I were moving across the country, from South Pasadena, California, to Raleigh, North Carolina. Our next chapter and our new home. At the time, I was in a panic over all the logistics left to do, like finishing packing (we weren’t close), and finding a place to live. Nearly a month later, I’m on the other side of all of that, and what a journey it has been. All of our stuff made it into boxes or into the hands of new people via selling or donations, and, even though it felt like it would never happen, we found a place to live. Keep reading until the end to get a peek at our new place, but stick with me until then to see how we got there. Because it wasn’t straightforward at all, and that was super unexpected.

How The Actual Move Went + Roadway Moving Review

When I left you last, I shared that we had decided on using Roadway Moving as our cross-country movers, rather than a PODS, which we used when we moved from Florida to California. For us, it had to do with convenience, confidence, and a little more hand-holding than the self-service nature of a container. Rather than have a point of contact for PODS, plus local movers to load it and then local movers to unload it, we were after end-to-end service, both because I couldn’t even consider adding one more phone number and appointment to my calendar, and that there’d be no accountability when there are three people to point fingers at.

Never having used a long-haul mover, I didn’t totally know what the process would be like, and truthfully, I feared that boxes would get lost, things would break, and my stuff would be held hostage until we paid an invoice that was well above what we were quoted. At least that’s what I always heard people say happened to them with moves this big.

Honestly, I was thoroughly impressed with how we and our move were handled. A few days before pick-up was going to happen, my coordinator reached out, and we went through all the final inventory of box counts and furniture items we were bringing. My price was updated so I knew exactly what I needed to pay (and TBH, I still kind of thought it would change after the fact because that’s the reputation of these kinds of things).

On moving day, the truck rolled up with a team of four. We ran through the house and all our stuff, and they got to work. Floors were covered, corners of walls and door frames were protected, and they expertly wrapped up my furniture with furniture pads, stiff cardboard edge protectors, and then plastic wrap. It was really impressive to see the care they put into protecting our things.

Once the truck left, I figured we wouldn’t hear from anyone for another 2 weeks or so, but five days later, I got a call that our truck would be arriving in a day or two. My husband and I were pretty shocked. If anything, it came too quickly, because we weren’t mentally or energetically ready to launch back into moving mode in reverse.

How Did Move In Go & Did The Price Change?

Exactly one week from pick up, our stuff was delivered to our new home. Unreal. I had an open line of communication with Luis, our end-point foreman, and he updated me all along the way and helped me coordinate everything. After a handful of hours, the team had unloaded our things, put them in all the rooms we requested, opened whatever box we asked them to in order to see where certain things should go, re-built anything that was disassembled, asked us if everything was in exactly the right spot in every room, and then took away all of the trash. Oh! Maybe what I’m about to say is industry standard, but every SINGLE item that went on the truck had a unique QR code and number sticker on it. We all knew exactly how many items were loaded up in California, so we knew that we had it all in North Carolina. They have to scan everything in as it’s taken off the truck, and I felt super confident we wouldn’t eventually realize something was missing.

The only issue we had in the whole process was three small damages (a small crack along the edge of our breakfast nook table, a small scuff on a nightstand, and one of the wheels of a metal storage shelving unit ended up bent somehow), which is unfortunate, but I’m already in talks with their claims department to address them. I’m confident we’ll get it sorted.

Oh, and the price I was quoted ended up being exactly what we paid. No less, no more (and I’m fairly certain we ended up having more on move-out day than we included in the final quote). At no point did I feel like I was being bamboozled, and, my friends, that’s an invaluable feeling when you’re flipping your life upside down.

How’s Life Feeling So Far In North Carolina?

We’ve been North Carolina residents for 9 days, so…it’s a bit premature to say. The first few days were full of big emotions. On our third morning, we were sitting in a cafe having coffee and breakfast, and the Miley Cyrus song “Malibu” came over the speaker, and I cried into my avocado toast. See the photo of my daughter above on our street, which still feels incredibly raw, and my first FaceTime call with Jess the other day made my whole soul pang with longing for the comfort of good friends.

But we’ve done this before, 8 years ago, and I know it’s a process. We didn’t feel at home in Los Angeles for close to 2 years, and I need to remind myself of that. I am actively in the grieving stage of our move, while also trying to be grateful for the opportunity to change our lives. We’ve explored some really beautiful parks and trails, had a Sunday coffee shop meet-up with an Internet friend of mine, and met extended family that came and helped us unpack kitchen boxes on their day off from work. It’s clear we are wildly blessed, and even though we’re swimming in boxes to unpack and stepping over suitcases, I’m actively trying to take in these early weeks because I know I’ll look back at them fondly (or at least be endeared by them) in a few months or years.

Unlike in LA, we can zip around the city in no time. There’s some traffic here and there, especially during rush hour, but MY GOODNESS are the roads mostly peaceful. I hear birds chirping, we saw a BALD EAGLE and her babies in a nest, my daughter says “Mama, a hawk!” at least once a day. There isn’t much to complain about besides the standard pains that come with leaving people and places you love.

“Arlyn, Tell Us About Your New Place!”

Ah, yes…our new home. I used the word “journey” a few times, and I mean it. It was not easy to get here, especially considering we were trying to rent a home from across the country, nearly site unseen. This is not for the faint of heart, and if you can avoid this by any means, I highly recommend you do not do what we had to. Here’s a quick recap, so we can get into the good stuff:

We applied to FIVE homes. I’ve never experienced something like this before, not even in a highly competitive market like Los Angeles. The first place we saw and liked, the owner told us at the end of a very thorough live video walk-through that someone had already applied, and they were deep in the process of reviewing their application. Cool. I mourned that place for weeks because it was really stinking nice with an absolute dream of a kitchen.

From there, we found another spot that had potential, but when I had Ajai (remember her?!? She lives near Raleigh, too!) go take a look at the surroundings, she gave it a thumbs down because the unit opened up directly onto one of the busiest highways in the area. So we kept hunting, and thought we found *the* spot. It had built-ins around the fireplace in the living room, tons of square footage for all of our needs, a large kitchen with a sizeable island, and was in a great school district. The only red flag is that it had been sitting on the rental market for months and months, and the property manager conveniently kept side-stepping my questions about it. So we asked that extended family I mentioned we just met to go take a look in person, and they noted that the kitchen had a very strong smell of mold. NOPE! We withdrew our application nearly immediately because that’s just not something we wanted to deal with.

In desperate need of an address to give the movers, we ended up putting in an application for the place by the highway because it checked most of our boxes, but then they told us someone else had already applied. Sigh. That same day, I dug up another beautiful rental a bit further west than we wanted to be, but the look of the place was enough to make us not care that much. Well, the next day, the property’s realtor got back to me that we were rejected, and after some pressing, we found out it was because I was self-employed and the home’s owner didn’t “think that would work out for me.” I’m not entirely sure that was even legal, TBH, but whatever.

At this point, I had worn a hole into my kitchen tile, pacing back and forth in panic. Our movers were coming in less than a week, and we DIDN’T HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE!!!!!!!

But then, I decided to reach out to a property that kept popping up in my searches that I had ignored because it was right by a big mixed-use/commercial development, and I was originally after something that felt more like my previous neighborhood. But once we did a video walk-through, we both knew it was the one for us. And the development right outside ended up being incredibly convenient for everything we could possibly need, and it was super walkable, which isn’t common in this area.

It wasn’t perfect, and not every style choice was our style, but it checked the boxes of most of our non-negotiables, such as square footage, bedroom and bathroom count, school district, and cost.

Are you ready to take a look?!?!?

Welcome To Our New (Temporary) Home

I saw temporary, because the plan is not to stay here for longer than a year or two. Our goal is to buy a home of our own, and we’re using this time to get a feel for the city and neighborhoods and figure out where exactly we want to be. This is pretty tricky in terms of designing, considering I sold almost everything from our main living spaces, and I know anything we get for here may or may not work in a future home. How do I decorate a temporary home without being wasteful both in terms of money and resources? The plan is to buy a ton of second-hand, btw, but I’ll talk about that more in a future post.

Here she is:

Let’s start in the dining room. While I’ve never had coffered ceilings on my “must have” list, I do really appreciate woodwork, so this was a big, exciting moment for me. It’s all quite traditional, which is a considerable change from our two homes in Los Angeles. I can see our Christmas tree in the corner, and the fireplace flickering during the holidays. The space is LARGE, and I’m excited to get a table with more seats so I can feed more people!

The lighting and finishes aren’t my taste, but I’ve never shied away from swapping out fixtures because that’s an easy fix. Some added draperies, furniture, and soft goods are going to absolutely transform this place. I have no plans to paint (though some peel-and-stick wallpaper might make an appearance somewhere), but instead, I’m challenging myself to work with the warm, creamy walls and make them feel intentional. My next post will walk through some plans, so definitely come back next week for that.

The dining room is open to the living room, which centers around the fireplace. If we owned this place, I’d put built-ins in those nooks, but as we’re just renting, I’ll just have to get creative. Hint: My armoire might finally have a home (it doesn’t fit in our new bedroom, sadly). Don’t mind that enormous bundle of wires coming out of the wall. We’re trying to figure that out because our landlord’s solution was just “Oh, cover that with furniture.” Huh?!?

I’m realizing now, as I look at the photos of the kitchen, that I didn’t take every angle, and I’m missing a part of it. Whoops! But it has a little area to have our breakfast nook, and many more cabinets than we had in our last place. It even has a proper pantry, which I’m stoked about.

Our bedroom is smaller than our last home, and we’re trying to figure out furniture placement here, but it gets beautiful light, and the A/C blows right in my face at night, which is my dream come true.

My daughter’s room and bathroom are fairly basic, and I dream of what changes I’d make to the latter if we owned this place, but it has everything we need. Me and her are already scheming about the unicorn and rainbow Chasing Paper wallpaper we want to add to her room—she picked it herself. 🙂

Above is going to serve as my office, as it’s too small for a proper guest bedroom, but I’m excited about what I can do in here! Small but mighty, friends. And below is our downstairs guest suite, which I know my husband is dreaming of using as his photo studio. Yes, the left shade is broken (a common pain point in this rental), but we’re going to do some switcheroos between rooms to fix that.

Before I leave you for now, I want to share a bit more about what to do (and not do) if you’re ever in a situation like us that you have to rent a place to live while not in the same city, because I learned a lot in the process. Here’s my top advice:

• Absolutely, positively, never EVER send any personal information or money to a property representative or owner without doing a live video walk-through, making sure the property you’re seeing exactly matches the photos on the listing. There are so, so many scams out there.
• If the property has a realtor attached to it, be sure to look them up under the state they’re claiming they are licensed in. It’s super easy: Just Google the real estate licensing database by state, and you can look them up by first and last name. The listing may also include their license number. Make sure that the number matches who is actually representing the property, and that they are active.
• Do not be scared to ask a lot of questions. Have them send more detailed images of anything you want to see more closely, study the rental listing history, and listen to your gut. If something feels fishy, it probably is.
• Find someone, ANYONE, to walk it for you if you can. A friend of a friend. A cousin of a coworker. A real human that you have some sort of connection to. This isn’t always doable, especially if you’re moving to a new city where you know no one, but if you dig around enough, you just may find someone willing to walk it for you.
• Become best friends with Google Street View. Study the surroundings, click up and down the streets, and follow the roads to see what things look like, what’s nearby, how busy roads look, etc.
• Do a deep dive on Reddit about the area, the address, the development, the realtor, the assigned schools…literally anything you can find. When your ability to drive around in person is cut off, this is crucial to get a real sense of the neighborhood.
• Use trusted platforms such as Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Realtor.com, etc. I know plenty of people who have found places to live on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, but not site unseen. Too risky.
• Cross your fingers and hope for the best…but be familiar with the logistics and cost of breaking the lease. We made sure we were fully comfortable with what it would cost us to step away from our lease if it ended up being a disaster. Luckily, with the exception of some funky things that needed attention when we first got here, our place ended up being great so far. It’s only night two, as I write this, but we’re already settling in and feeling good.

So that’s where I am with everything. I’m excited to get unpacked, get some furniture in here, and start feeling like a human again. It’s a whole new life, a whole new world, a whole new home. Like I said, come back next week as I dive deeper into our design plans, and do a more in-depth tour of all the things.

Until next time, friends…