In, in, in at last!
We finally got our DSL hooked up yesterday, so I should be a little more regular in my postings now.
I don't know why I expected movers to be any different from any other tradesmen; and this week showed that they're all in the same league. While I was busy trolling eBay for house items, I also was intersted in bidding on a couple of big ranges -- and I stumbled upon a web site that was like an auction clearinghouse for shipping: if you want someone to bid on a shipment, you post it and moving specialists bid on your shipment; you can accept or not accept the bids.
On a lark, I posted our apartment move and ended up getting a very reasonable bid which I accepted. In retrospect, I should have been more careful about screening movers. Wednesday, the appointed day, came and went with no sign of the mover -- and when I tried to email him, I got a bounceback (no answered phone calls either). Around 10am, when we finally realized that he wasn't showing up, I made a series of frantic phone calls to other local movers to see if we could arrange for someone else. I got lucky and found a firm recommended by my friend Liza that was free on Thursday; we booked them for the next day.
The only good part of all of this was since I had taken the rest of the week off from work, I had a good half a day to finish up the last packing. We had most of the things packed, but there were still some loose items here and there. This turned out to be very useful, since the new movers were charging significantly more money and luckily everything was packed and ready to go when they arrived (which they did -- hurrah), so we didn't have to pay them to stand around while we finished packing.
If you've ever used professional movers, you'll know what an amazing difference it is to see professional move a household vs. your friends and neighbors. These guys would take three very heavy boxes at a time on their backs and just run them into the truck. They had this amazing wrapping process for the furniture: they'd put furniture blankets around the piece and then cover it all with huge rolls of Saran wrap, sealing in the blankets. It was very effective, and all of our furniture arrived without a scratch. The only problem with any furniture, actually, was the large armoire we bought this year -- it was too tall to make it in the apartment, so it's now sitting in the garage to get listed for resale on Craigslist. Amazing to think that we could actually fit something into the studio that wouldn't subsequently fit here.
We spent our first night here on Thursday, surrounded with boxes and sleeping on the mattress directly on the floor. Walt's and my bedroom doesn't have any bars in the closet, so we can't hang up any clothes; we're keeping them in the boxes for now. Despite all of that, it feels great to be in our new home at last. Fie on those horrible Russian tenants!
The only issue for the short-term is that we have neither kitchen nor bathroom. The kitchen cabinets are coming on the 28th, so those should be in by (hopefully -- if our contractors show up) by the end of next week or so. The bathroom tile guy just showed up to start work today and has laid out the tile on the floor. However, we had to pull out the sink and toilet for him to work, so we've basically got no functional bathroom. We also can't walk in the bathroom with the tile layout as it is, so we can't even access the bathtub (the one original bathroom item we're keeping from the hideous de-model someone put the room through previously). We're having to run down to the basement to use the bathroom down there (or sneak into Burke's when he's at work, since he's more conveniently across the hall). I can tell already that I'm going to get really tired of takeout, since without easy access to a sink we can't really even have homemade salad dinners, because prep and cleanup are a real pain.
One last note on the kitchen. The new refrigerator arrived on Wednesday (the one contractor who did deliver) and it was in great shape (except for a broken interior drawer, which we noticed later). The stove, however, is another matter entirely. The shipper called today and had some long story about how they need four people to carry it up the stairs (she claimed it was "four flights" which only works if you consider a "flight" to be about 6 stairs) -- and anyway, said that there would be a $800 COD charge when they redelivered it. I practically hit the roof, since I already had to pay more than the advertised shipping price for this range because I told the seller on the phone that we had stairs. I'm going to call the place from which I purchased it tomorrow, since we're at an impasse with the shipping company. What a mess. I just hope we don't have to contest this entire transaction.
It's been interesting to see how Devon has adjusted to the new space. We've been here a lot during the renovation, so she's quite accustomed to it now. She really likes the increased space -- she runs around a lot in this apartment, doing laps through the kitchen, living room and hallway. It's still rather spacious, since we don't have much furniture (and frankly, most of the furniture we do own is crap -- we'll be slowly trying to replace it); so it makes it even more fun for frolicking.
She also loves the al fresco takeout dinners we've been having on the living room floor. I've been putting down my yoga mat in a vain attempt to preserve our new rug. But the novelty of regular takeout, eating on the floor and running through this big space has not worn off in the slightes.
I'm not sure if Devon realizes that she has her own room or not; she just knows that her crib and toys are all together in a room. Last night when we put her down to bed, she was really pretty relaxed about it. We couldn't quite follow the usual routine since there was no bath option, but it was fairly close. She actually went to sleep just fine and stayed asleep -- until about 2am or so, when she woke up crying and seemed kind of freaked out to be by herself (the room has a very loud echo, too, because of the floors, so it sounds like a giant resonator, making one feel even more lonely). This apartment is also freezing -- no insulation and it was cold and foggy yesterday. Walt brought her into our bed, where she proceeded to kick both of us for the rest of the night. We're hoping that tonight she sleeps all the way through.
I don't know why I expected movers to be any different from any other tradesmen; and this week showed that they're all in the same league. While I was busy trolling eBay for house items, I also was intersted in bidding on a couple of big ranges -- and I stumbled upon a web site that was like an auction clearinghouse for shipping: if you want someone to bid on a shipment, you post it and moving specialists bid on your shipment; you can accept or not accept the bids.
On a lark, I posted our apartment move and ended up getting a very reasonable bid which I accepted. In retrospect, I should have been more careful about screening movers. Wednesday, the appointed day, came and went with no sign of the mover -- and when I tried to email him, I got a bounceback (no answered phone calls either). Around 10am, when we finally realized that he wasn't showing up, I made a series of frantic phone calls to other local movers to see if we could arrange for someone else. I got lucky and found a firm recommended by my friend Liza that was free on Thursday; we booked them for the next day.
The only good part of all of this was since I had taken the rest of the week off from work, I had a good half a day to finish up the last packing. We had most of the things packed, but there were still some loose items here and there. This turned out to be very useful, since the new movers were charging significantly more money and luckily everything was packed and ready to go when they arrived (which they did -- hurrah), so we didn't have to pay them to stand around while we finished packing.
If you've ever used professional movers, you'll know what an amazing difference it is to see professional move a household vs. your friends and neighbors. These guys would take three very heavy boxes at a time on their backs and just run them into the truck. They had this amazing wrapping process for the furniture: they'd put furniture blankets around the piece and then cover it all with huge rolls of Saran wrap, sealing in the blankets. It was very effective, and all of our furniture arrived without a scratch. The only problem with any furniture, actually, was the large armoire we bought this year -- it was too tall to make it in the apartment, so it's now sitting in the garage to get listed for resale on Craigslist. Amazing to think that we could actually fit something into the studio that wouldn't subsequently fit here.
We spent our first night here on Thursday, surrounded with boxes and sleeping on the mattress directly on the floor. Walt's and my bedroom doesn't have any bars in the closet, so we can't hang up any clothes; we're keeping them in the boxes for now. Despite all of that, it feels great to be in our new home at last. Fie on those horrible Russian tenants!
The only issue for the short-term is that we have neither kitchen nor bathroom. The kitchen cabinets are coming on the 28th, so those should be in by (hopefully -- if our contractors show up) by the end of next week or so. The bathroom tile guy just showed up to start work today and has laid out the tile on the floor. However, we had to pull out the sink and toilet for him to work, so we've basically got no functional bathroom. We also can't walk in the bathroom with the tile layout as it is, so we can't even access the bathtub (the one original bathroom item we're keeping from the hideous de-model someone put the room through previously). We're having to run down to the basement to use the bathroom down there (or sneak into Burke's when he's at work, since he's more conveniently across the hall). I can tell already that I'm going to get really tired of takeout, since without easy access to a sink we can't really even have homemade salad dinners, because prep and cleanup are a real pain.
One last note on the kitchen. The new refrigerator arrived on Wednesday (the one contractor who did deliver) and it was in great shape (except for a broken interior drawer, which we noticed later). The stove, however, is another matter entirely. The shipper called today and had some long story about how they need four people to carry it up the stairs (she claimed it was "four flights" which only works if you consider a "flight" to be about 6 stairs) -- and anyway, said that there would be a $800 COD charge when they redelivered it. I practically hit the roof, since I already had to pay more than the advertised shipping price for this range because I told the seller on the phone that we had stairs. I'm going to call the place from which I purchased it tomorrow, since we're at an impasse with the shipping company. What a mess. I just hope we don't have to contest this entire transaction.
It's been interesting to see how Devon has adjusted to the new space. We've been here a lot during the renovation, so she's quite accustomed to it now. She really likes the increased space -- she runs around a lot in this apartment, doing laps through the kitchen, living room and hallway. It's still rather spacious, since we don't have much furniture (and frankly, most of the furniture we do own is crap -- we'll be slowly trying to replace it); so it makes it even more fun for frolicking.
She also loves the al fresco takeout dinners we've been having on the living room floor. I've been putting down my yoga mat in a vain attempt to preserve our new rug. But the novelty of regular takeout, eating on the floor and running through this big space has not worn off in the slightes.
I'm not sure if Devon realizes that she has her own room or not; she just knows that her crib and toys are all together in a room. Last night when we put her down to bed, she was really pretty relaxed about it. We couldn't quite follow the usual routine since there was no bath option, but it was fairly close. She actually went to sleep just fine and stayed asleep -- until about 2am or so, when she woke up crying and seemed kind of freaked out to be by herself (the room has a very loud echo, too, because of the floors, so it sounds like a giant resonator, making one feel even more lonely). This apartment is also freezing -- no insulation and it was cold and foggy yesterday. Walt brought her into our bed, where she proceeded to kick both of us for the rest of the night. We're hoping that tonight she sleeps all the way through.
posted by Devon Szalva at
8:35 PM
1 Comments:
My favorite quote is: "
The only issue for the short-term is that we have neither kitchen nor bathroom. "
(Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?)
I LOVE your good spirit in this, Blaire! You will get there and it will be all the sweeter after all of this agony.
By
Jim Sailer, at 5:57 AM
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