Thursday: At this point in time, pretty much all the books were packed, but nothing else was. mistyshadows helped to pack some more boxes of books and CDs, DVDs, and other trinkets in the entertainment center. We bought sushi for ourselves and ate it at home.
Friday: Escaped from work a bit early. Made food and continued packing. mistyshadows came to help some more. mistyshadows is wonderful. We got some more stuff packed from the closets and bathrooms.
Saturday: M’s parents came over to help with various packing. Due to bad planning, we ended up with not enough paper to wrap all the dishes, so we took the 8 loads of laundry and packed the clothes interspersed with the dishes. mistyshadows showed up also and helped pack clothes from the bedroom. We delivered the half-full boxes of clothes to the kitchen to be packed with more dishes. Also the guy showed up to properly seal up the air conditioner opening in the window — it looks much better with a sheet of plexiglass there instead of cardboard and duct tape :)
Sunday: More packing, and mistyshadows again helped me with getting organized, and making sure everything in the house was on the list, and labelled with a destination room in the new house. After some talking, M and I decided not to have the TV and entertainment center in the living room, because it would pretty much dominate the space and make it a TV-shrine-room instead of a living room. Things were labelled. I got to sleep about 1 am.
Monday: M woke me up about 7:30. I wasn’t planning to get up until 8:20, but the movers showed up at 8 am so it’s a good thing I was up and dressed. BOY did we have a HELL of a time getting all the cats into the bathroom. Basically, since M’s back was hurting her quite badly, we decided that she would take a bath and hang out with the cats while the movers did their thing.
Getting Sophie and Harley to comply was easy… but since the movers were already there and stomping around, talking, etc… both Bunny and Simon hid behind and under things. I made the movers stay outside for like 15 min while I tried to get Bunny… I finally picked him up and delivered him to the bathroom without getting gouged or punctured. Simon was still not coming out from under the bed, so I closed the door to the guest bedroom as well and the movers proceeded to do their things.
Boxes flowed out of the house like water. Which is to say, smoothly, but not quietly, since the hand-trucks went THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK all the way down the cement staircase. It turns out that they did not want to pack the stereo/video components, so I just took them out of the cabinet and they proceeded to take the cabinet itself. (They did move the TV which was the biggest hassle of everything… I don’t mind moving some stereo components myself.) We had a minor scare when the Special Tool With The Weird Square Bit was missing, which meant that we wouldn’t be able to take apart the entertainment center… We could not figure it out, but after a call to mistyshadows, she confirmed that it was last seen there and she didn’t move it, so we should check behind the unit. There it was, behind the unit on the floor. I unscrewed it part way, the moving guy unscrewed it the rest of the way, and it too flowed out of the building.
I had a frenzied time unhooking all the computers and packing the keyboards and cables, so that they could take the desks. It turns out that they didn’t want to take the monitors (though they were able to take a much larger TV, go figure) so I will have to come back for those also. I finished the desks in plenty of time, since they hadn’t taken the queen bed apart yet.
When all obstacles were cleared, I took a trip to the store and Subway to get sandwiches, Pepsi and water for everyone, and the moving guys were very happy to have lunch brought to them. Last bit of loading was done. I left M at home with four cats, a laptop, and half a sandwich :)
At the new house, everything went pretty smoothly. I told people where to take stuff and they took it there. Probably the hardest part was the bookcases and books, which went to the spare bedroom. (Most everything was marked, but the few things that weren’t were easy to deal with). The big changes from the old place were: 1. No carport, everything needing “storage” went to the garage. 2. The entertainment center went to the garage instead of the living room. 3. There is only one desk in the spare room, the other desk is in the garage. 4. The queen futon frame came out of storage and into the spare bedroom, with no futon on it yet. 5. The futon couch frame which was being used as an extra full bed is now in the living room as a second couch, also with no futon on it yet. 6. Finally, the full size futon that smells like cat pee was left behind in the closet to be disposed of later.
(By the way, if you are interested in a new entertainment center or you know someone who is, please email me. Reasonable pricing available — mention this post :)
After the movers were done unloading, mistyshadows came to meet me, and while waiting for her, I checked the mail in the new mailbox. About 12 items were for the old owner, so I marked them “RTS- Not at this addr”. Among them were a taiwanese-american club newsletter, a clever-items-for-your-home catalog, an advertisement marked “sexually explicit”, three offers for pre-approved credit, and a rifle/hunting catalog. Hopefully he gets the mail forwarded elsewhere. One item was for me (from the title company). Forwarding of our mail should start tomorrow, I think.
mistyshadows and I went back to the old place to pick up M, the cats, cat food and frozen/cold food. (DID I MENTION THAT mistyshadows IS FREAKING COOL! THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!) The cats were freaked out from the house being full of noisy men and scary thumping banging noises, and then finding it empty, so they didn’t want to get into carriers, and by the time they were poured into carriers and transported 25 min to the house, they were all pretty freaked. Simon and Bunny immediately hid inside the couch (not *under* the couch but *inside* the back of it). Sophie and Harley took it in stride, but Bunny took two hours to come out, and Simon didn’t come out until after we were asleep (like 6 hours). After trying to calm them down and bribing them with treats, I went to the McD and secured some dinner.
Final thing before going to bed, I separated the clothes from the dishes and made two sets of boxes, all re-labelled, so I would have clothes for the morning. During the night, all the cats had to explore the windows and rattle the blinds, as well as grumble and hiss at each other when getting too close or fighting over bed space. I also got up a couple times to help M. I have no idea where my travel alarm or clock radio are, so I set both my watch and phone, but I was up and awake before they went off anyway.
Tuesday: The commute to work sucked, because 1. I missed the opportunity to get on 680 by being on the wrong side, and 2. I exited 880N too early, taking Montague instead of 237, which has traffic lights and also back-tracks a little. So it took me 47 minutes to get to work, when it should be closer to 40.
That is all for now. Thanks to everyone who helped, especially mistyshadows. The moral of the story is – 1. Pack Absolutely Everything Before Moving Day Comes, and 2. Hiring Professional Movers Is Totally Worth It.