moving

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 12, 2008, 01:34:03 PM

Have to sit down and take a break from the madness for a minute.... Whew! Next few weeks are going to be insane. It sounds easier to move with movers, right? It should be at least? After all, aren't they professionals at this? Well, I liked the way we moved last time... a 26' Penske truck and a few friends from church... we weren't even packed when they showed up around 9 in the morning, and by noon, all our earthly possessions were on board that truck. This time requires thinking and planning and trying to work out a feasible schedule; it's a tad bit exhausting. Because of the snow, they want to spread our pack and load over three days as opposed to a one-day pack, and a one-day load and move, which is going to really press us for time on getting to the company on time for DH to start when they want him to, as well as getting to the new place in time to unload on the tentative arrival dates of our stuff (of course, everyone tells me that they never arrive on the first day of the delivery spread, but our luck, they would and we wouldn't be there yet!)

I'm getting to the point that rather than organize our stuff, I want to just chuck all of it... and we don't even have all that much stuff.

Sigh. Be glad when it's all done. Guess that's my bellyaching session for today.

StinkerBell · February 12, 2008, 01:38:45 PM

>>>>>>>>>>BIGHUG<<<<<<<<<<

February 12, 2008, 03:12:24 PM

Organize your stuff??? that is a new one to me when move I jsut throw everything into boxes and use a box for each area. For example the kitchen drawers all go in one box, pantry in thier own boxes, my "junk" off the top of my dresser all inone box, stuff fromthe closet in another etc. That way I know that if I remember something being on top of my dresser all I have to do is find that box and I lable the boxes kitchen, moms bedroom, bathroom etc. that way when they unpack the truck it goes into the correct room at least. I tend to throw stuff away as quickly as possible, I used to move a lot and so it just makes it easier to look for garbage every week before garbage day. The minute I decide I am moving I start looking for stuff to go to the second hand stores and keep a box for that and then load it into the car everytime I go to town and donate it. I did a bunch of htat last year when I as getting ready to move to my land and you know I am inspired to start looking around again for stuff to donate although I did a great job of clearing stuff out this past summer I think this house is pretty full and there is bound to be stuff that can go. Sending my adult kids stuff home to thier house is an ongoing thing too, my daughter just finally took her wedding dress home after almost six years of being in my guest room closet, I told her she had to take it because my friend who is coming had to have that space. The fact of the matter is though that she has a huge house with an upstairs and downstairs so she has more storage room than I do anyway. Try to get a lot of rest moving really isn't all that good for pregnant people. To tiring and stressful. The trip will be plenty long enough and tiring enough and don't lift anything to heavy that is why there are movers!!! Put lots of boxes and garbage bags in each room ad just pack as you feel inspired. Don't clean ANYTHING until everything is out, you just have to do it all over again,and pack cleaning supplies, broom, vaccume and mop last.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 12, 2008, 04:09:10 PM

Well, part of the problem is that they don't want us to box ANYTHING, and we'd already packed most of our stuff besides what we use every day when we thought we were going to have to move ourselves back in December. The grouchy old goat they sent out to survey our stuff kept complaining about how we had stuff in boxes already. I told him if they wanted to repack it all, be my guest! Anyway, he gave me a big list of what all they won't move and what I have to do and how I have to prepare stuff in the kids' room to be packed, etc. Kind of a pain. We really don't have that much stuff... we have less now than when we crammed it all in a 26' Penske three years ago. It doesn't help that there are different construction projects going on all over the house, and none of the construction stuff besides tools is going with us...We won't have the luxury of staying after the movers to get odds and ends tied up... everything has to be done in advance because we're going to have to truck it just to get to Oklahoma on time for the lease signing, etc. He told me I have to empty out all the drawers upstairs because the stairs are too steep and narrow to carry the furniture down with them full... I thought, "Idiot. Take the drawers out and then put them back in when you get down." Our furniture is not that big or bulky that we should have to take everything out. He was also chewing me out because in one of my desk drawers, I had a few rupees from my trip to India a couple of years ago... he threw a fit about us having "money laying around all over the place" (DON'T I WISH!!!) Argh! I'll do what I can do, and whatever doesn't get done will just have to be. Still, I'm so glad to be moving. Hope that the weather will clear, thaw and dry up a little between now and the pack/move days.

ScottA · February 12, 2008, 04:18:43 PM

I feel for you Homegrown. Back in 1987 I took a job with General Dynamics. They hired movers to move us to Connecticut. I had to go ahead and stay in a hotel for a month, my parents let the movers in our house. When our things arrived we discovered they had not packed anything except to simply dump stuff into boxes. Lots of things where broken in the process. They even broke one dinning room chair and lost another chair completly. Our stuff arrived several days late so we ended up sleeping on the floor in our new house for a couple of days. Good luck with your move I hope it goes better.

February 12, 2008, 05:28:32 PM

Eesh! What moving company did they use? (Dare I ask???) Scary thought! I'll be here during the packing and loading so hopefully we can avoid some of that! Thankfully we have very little that is of any real value to anyone but us... our house is furnished in a hybrid between mid-century college student and refugee camp, so let's hope there's not much damage they can do. Our glasses are jelly jars, etc. I don't own any fine crystal or china. I'd like to someday. If they mess up my tiller or any of the tools, they're dead meat, though. DH would probably do bodily harm if they mess up his grill, too.

Hey, Scott, sometime after we're settled in and find some land, would you mind if we drove out to see your cabin? Of course, I can see the pictures online, but it is always nice to see the real deal, too... and by that time you'll probably have a list of what you'd do differently, etc. We're hoping to build the 14 by 24' little house, but not exactly sure how we're going to go about it.

ScottA · February 12, 2008, 05:58:40 PM

The mover was Mayflower.

Sure you are welcome to come out and see the cabin.

MountainDon · February 12, 2008, 06:42:49 PM

Concerning movers and packing...

All the packing is handled on a local level and so it's up to them, or it's their fault when things are not packed correctly. I don't mean to place the national name carriers blameless for packing problems. I just mean to point out that's a variable that changes more from city to city than moving company to moving company.

CWhite · February 12, 2008, 07:05:07 PM

Homegrown,
My sister had a very bad experience moving about a decade ago. She moved 6 hours away from her starting point, and the truck arrived after an unscheduled, overnight stop that resulted in the truck being robbed, and some of her most sentimental and valuable things were taken. IT was very obvious that the movers has planned and executed the robbery....
Long story short, she wears some pretty nice jewelry that she treated herself to after the settlement....

But, the real story was when she moved about 12 hours south to Florida after that experience, and left ME to see to it that the movers got her packed up and loaded into the truck, as she was already on the beach and couldn't be bothered with the actual move....princess....I had quite a time with them.

First, they arrived with what I really thought was too small a truck. They had been told there was a piano, but not that it was a baby grand, and they did not expect to have to transport everything from a huge, 2 story house to a smaller house up a very tall flight of stairs when they got there.

The poor guys were really careful, as I watched every move they made, and before they left, I explained that as hard as I had been to work with, I was the nice sister. I told them about her other move, and promised them that if anything went missing on the trip, she would own the company shortly afterwards.

When they did get there, sooner than she expected and with more help than she expected, my sister told me they were the nicest movers she had every worked with and that they acted scared to death that they might scratch something....apologetic even for tracking sand into the house...

I just had to smile. My work was done.

Christina

February 12, 2008, 07:19:08 PM

Well-done, Christina! I'm kind of gutless... anything that I think is really valuable is probably going to go with us... Besides, pregnant women don't seem like much of a threat, I think. Thankfully DH will be here with me when they pack, so hopefully between the two of us, we can keep them in line.

My aunt and uncle moved from Missouri to Tennessee one time (Mayflower) and my aunt was furious (still is... never get her going on it!) that they chunked some of her expensive antique porcelain music boxes, her most prized possession, into a box without even a sheet of tissue paper. Of course, they were destroyed. Later, she opened up a box to find something wound up tightly in multiple layers of tissue only to discover it was a plastic yogurt carton lid that had been left on the counter top. She still almost cries when you get to talking about moving because of that (which is why I never mention moving to her, LOL!) Our mover is Atlas. I wasn't too impressed with the local agent... but the relocation service in general seems pretty accomodating so far. I hope that the crew that comes to pack and move us is better than the guy they sent out to survey... he was a crabby old fella that smelled like an ashtray. It's nearly a 900 mile move, and there is a three-day lag time between loading and the beginning of the delivery schedule... then they have a week to get our stuff to us. Like I said, though, at least we don't have a lot of stuff that thieves would find valuable, so hopefully it'll all be good.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 15, 2008, 09:03:36 AM

Packers are coming a week from tomorrow. We're slowly but surely getting stuff done. I got a lot done yesterday, including a run to Goodwill, getting the oil changed in the truck, setting up an appointment to wire our trailer hitch (thankfully we've already got a trailer hitch), cleaning out the basement and taking a shop-vac to the cobwebs down in the laundry room. Also defrosted the upright freezer and moved it into the laundry room to make the rest of the basement look bigger, etc. DH is taking a half day off today, so he can get a much-needed haircut (he's starting to look like he's got a mullet), and so we can get the floor done in the office room. We also have to reconnect a sewer vent pipe that we temporarily bypassed (don't ask!) so that the pipes will quit protesting so loudly. As far as decluttering, all but the kids' room is pretty much done. Still have to paint the rest of the basement, and it wouldn't hurt to give everything all over the house a really good dusting. Oh, and then the basement ceiling where we tore it up to run a gas line to the kitchen, but that's on tonight's agenda as well. I sealed the rest of the kitchen grout, and today will putty a few holes that were in the living room wall when we moved in, so that I can touch up the paint tomorrow afternoon... as well as a few in the office. We didn't know the couple who lived here before us, but they'd been in this house for more than 50 years... there were literally THOUSANDS of thumbtacks, screws, and nails in the wall when we moved in; can't imagine what they were there for. So, the panelling is a bit scarred in places, and we were in such a hurry to brighten up the room in the first place that we didn't fill all the holes before we painted, like we should have. Getting really excited about being back home. The kids are wound up and bouncing off the walls for the last several days... they can't wait, but are nervous, too. It's getting a little tiring peeling them off the ceiling with spatulas every evening.

ScottA · February 15, 2008, 02:22:48 PM

Boomer Sooner. Bet you can't wait to get home.

Sassy · February 15, 2008, 03:50:00 PM

Whew, you're wearing me out, HG! My parents were in the military & they always had movers come in & pack everything - didn't seem like we ever had any problems - but then, I was 7 y/o & younger & probably wouldn't have been aware - it was always just an exciting adventure to me

Moving companies were probably better back then, too - hopefully everything goes well for you - not too much longer!

Don't worry about your DH's hair -I'm lucky if I can get Glenn to let me trim his 3x's a year! And his beard is getting really long, too

He's trying to look like the old sourdough 49er's

glenn kangiser · February 16, 2008, 12:04:28 AM

Too bad Lyon wasn't an electrical engineer, Homegrown. He could have wired his own trailer hitch.

Sorry about that, Homegrown, just razzing you a bit. You know the old song -- "A country boy can survive."

We'd git out the bailin' wire and black tape and git 'er done.

Probably not on our back in the snow bank at 50 below. Good thinking there, Lyon. Pay someone to do the small stuff. Soon it'll all be over with.

February 16, 2008, 12:12:11 AM

Quote from: ScottA on February 15, 2008, 02:22:48 PM
Boomer Sooner. Bet you can't wait to get home.

No, the correct tune would be "Ride 'em Cowboys". To the tune of "Boomer Sooner" you must sing the words below:
Mediocre, over-rated, mediocre, over-rated, mediocre, over-rated, mediocre, over paid!
I'm cowboy born and cowboy bred, better dead than Sooner red.
[Beat] Oklahoma, [beat] Oklahoma! [beat] Oklahoma! Stomp OU!

Sorry... I graduated from the "other" university of Oklahoma.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 16, 2008, 12:14:42 AM

And you're right Glenn, the thought on having someone else do the wiring, even though he could do it himself pretty easily was that someone else probably has a heated garage. We are still sitting in a couple of feet of snow.

Sick of it. They're predicting more over the weekend.

Sassy, I'm sure that the movers will do just fine. But I'm really ready to get 'er done.

ScottA · February 16, 2008, 10:29:26 AM

QuoteSorry... I graduated from the "other" university of Oklahoma.

Noboby's perfect

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 16, 2008, 06:25:23 PM

Quote from: ScottA on February 16, 2008, 10:29:26 AM
QuoteSorry... I graduated from the "other" university of Oklahoma.

Noboby's perfect

That's alright, Scott... I'm sure you're alright in every other way.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 18, 2008, 05:22:18 PM

Got the truck wiring done today. Stood around the mechanic's shop for more than an hour... there wasn't any place to sit. It was fun trying to keep a 5-year-old and 3-year-old occupied in there! Also went to the P.O. to pick up one of the relocation packages, but forgot that it was president's day, and they were closed. Guess I can stop by tomorrow when I go to vote. It was kind of funny... I saw Ron Paul signs everywhere I went today... I was a little surprised that there seems to be so much support for him up here. Thought I was totally surrounded by die-hard democrats for the most part, but was kind of pleased to see so much support for someone who is really neither Republican or Democrat (except maybe nominally.) Anyway, the move is going to happen whether we're ready or not!
The packers are coming Saturday, and I'm supposed to have everything that is not being packed on the big moving truck separated by then. Meanwhile, we're still working on house projects (and probably will be right up to the end!) We did get the vent pipe reconnected, and it's really nice to do laundry and dishes without all the loud gurgling that sounds like something is terribly wrong with the plumbing. Also got the realtor secured, and the rental truck, and a rental house in OK, and the gals from church are coming over day after tomorrow to help me paint the basement. DH still hasn't done the ceiling in the basement, but hopefully will get it done tomorrow. Tonight, we are finishing up the floor in the office and touching up all the paint. And, I have to seal the rest of the grout on the backsplash. I'm excited because the "to do" list is down to one page front and back! I'm off to finish painting the kids walk-in closet. I don't know why, but my husband was adamant that we "had" to do it, though I don't think paint in a closet is the type of thing to really make the house sell....

Tomorrow, there's only 8 things on the to do list (so far) so another exciting day. I'm glad that the girls are old enough now that I can actually get 8 things done in a day. It wasn't that easy when we moved up here and they were really little.

OK, back to work!!!

StinkerBell · February 18, 2008, 05:27:49 PM

moving, Moving, MOVING,.....RAWHIDE!

**It just plays in my head every time I see the title to this thread.

February 18, 2008, 05:34:25 PM

Back when Clint Eastwood was still good-looking

Now I'm going to have it stuck in my head while I'm painting.

glenn kangiser · February 19, 2008, 01:46:58 AM

I could post a picture of me to help kill that thought.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 19, 2008, 11:02:05 AM

Glenn, my dad used to look like Tom Selleck. As he's aged, he looks (and sounds) more like Sam Elliot. When I was a kid, I thought he was the best looking thing in the world. Several years later, he started growing a beard, and I never liked it on him. He looked good with a moustache, but the beard always looked scraggly and had a lot more gray than his hair... he didn't look good without the moustache, though...Well, about five years ago, he got to wondering what his face looked like and decided to shave ALL of it off, beard and moustache and everything. (Unfortunately there are no pictures!) He went into work, and they were having a meeting that morning... he is a foreman for a steel construction company. His boss kept asking the other guys, "Where's Orian?" They all shrugged and nobody seemed to notice dad standing right there in the room, so he didn't say anything. Finally, they all filed out of the shop and dad was still standing there in the back corner of the room when his boss looked up and said, "Can I help you with something?" Now, his boss is also in a cattle business with Dad, and they've been friends for more than a dozen years, but even he didn't recognize him! Dad finally said, "Well, you kept asking where I was so I thought you wanted to talk to me." His boss recognized his voice and started laughing hysterically. Dad said he laughed for more than five minutes and had tears running down his face, and when he could finally speak intelligibly again, he said, "I always heard that all ugly men need beards, and no offense, Orian, but you need a beard!" Dad hasn't aged as poorly as Clint Eastwood, but I guess he's not too bad, as long as he keeps the moustache.

I noticed he hasn't ever shaved it off again, though once a summer he does shave off the beard to see what the rest of his face looks like. I said all that to say this: you sound like a realist. My dad still thinks he looks like Tom Selleck in his Magnum PI days.

glenn kangiser · February 20, 2008, 12:19:12 AM

Yup. My buddy used to tell me, If my dog was ugly as you, I'd shave it's butt and teach it to walk backwards.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 20, 2008, 12:47:27 AM

That's just cold. My husband told me earlier that I look like I swallowed a beach ball. I might have been offended if it wasn't so true.

We're up putting the finishing touches on the office and then I have to do a quick clean-up and prep everything for the gals who are coming over tomorrow to help me paint the rest of the basement... one of them used to run a painting business with her husband, and she's already telling me the we're doing it wrong because we didn't use a designated primer to prime (we primed it with a coat of the paint we're using on the rest of the wall....) I told her I didn't really care because I figured the next folks to buy this place would probably come and rip it out anyway. Besides, it worked just fine on the walls (also the same cheap paneling) we did three years ago, and they're not bubbling or peeling. In fact, the only paint we did that IS bubbling or peeling is in the kitchen where we bought stupid expensive primer and coated everything so carefully only to have to use about a dozen coats of red and still have it peel and bubble. Three more days and the packers are coming.... I feel like I'm counting down to a big exciting vacation. The other day my little one fell in the snow as we were getting in the truck and by the time I wrestled her into the car seat, she was crying from the cold. I couldn't help but bust out laughing when she wailed from the back seat, "Now my hands are all frozen!!! I don't want to move in two weeks or in one week or in a month!!! I want to move last week!!!"

The way this winter's going, I'm totally with her on that. They had temps in the 60s down there today, and we didn't get above 5 degrees until afternoon... and then I was afraid to leave the dog out for more than just a little bit in case crazy PETA lady saw him. Last thing I want is someone calling the cops on me three days before I leave town!

Anyway, DH is putting in the last floor board right now, so I'm off to help him reinstall the quarter round and move everything back across the room so that I can finish up the paint on the other wall (got two walls done already.)