Hope & Happiness in Hampton, Georgia: Ice, Ice Baby

When we woke up on the 29th of December and headed over to the Hampton City Hall to turn on our utilities, all seemed right in the world. We were in our new home, my family was down there with us to help us get settled in and all of our belongings were going to be delivered on the 31st. However, once we left the Hampton City Hall, all was a mess in the world! The gas was not administered through the city like we had originally thought. Instead, we had to contact a gas marketer and they had to contact Atlanta Gas Light and they had to come out and turn our heat on! What a disaster. So we called up the gas company that our Realtor recommended and were told that the earliest they would be able to send someone out to turn on the gas would be January 3......WHAT?! No heat, no stove and no hot water for six more days. This had to be a joke. We fought, we pushed and tried to make up an emergency that would qualify us to receive emergency gas turn on service with no luck.

This news wouldn't have been as terrible, if it wasn't unseasonably cold in Georgia. Our house was hovering right around a cool 49 degrees when we had gone to check on it that morning. With no light at the end of the tunnel, we decided that the only solution for us was to buy a space heater and hope that would help. My parents picked one up for us and told us it was our "house warming" gift. Literally. They are so full of jokes sometimes. We needed to get in the house and get it all cleaned so that it would be ready for the movers to come on the 31st. So we cleaned. And we froze. And froze. And froze. We checked back into our hotel for an additional five days and kicked ourselves for not being more prepared. A mistake that we will not make again.

Needless to say, the arctic temperatures in the house combined with the nightmare that we had on our move down had me shaken. But, God is good all the time. Our realtor called us later that evening and let us know that she would be bringing over some more space heaters to help warm up the house and they were going to take some money off our rent for the inconvenience (which was totally unnecessary since it was our fault but still greatly appreciated). With lighter hearts, we agreed to make the best of our situation and to look forward to starting off a new year in our new home.