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How To Move Less Than 3 Miles In Only 19 Hours !!!

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Moving day is stressful no matter what, it’s just a fact of life.  No matter how well prepared you are something always goes awry.  Take our recent move.  It was 34 years between moves and I really and truly don’t want to think that if we ever have to move again that it will be anything like our recent experience.

The movers arrived on time, three very nice, polite, congenial and thoughtful men, ready to move us under three miles in the estimated 6 to maybe 8 hours.  Nothing that went wrong that day was their fault.  The owner however sorely underestimated the size of our house and the amount of things in it.  That’s surprising being he’s been in the business a long time and should have realized that gee, there are things in closets and pantries and nooks and corners.  Live and learn though and believe me we have learned a thing or two.

We should have had a clue that maybe he wasn’t fully prepared for our move when two days before the move he sent guys to pack up  Deb’s  almost 2000 books.  He again underestimated and had she not gotten rid of  maybe a third of them, there would not have been enough boxes for them.  See her in the picture, that’s exasperation and frustration.  The book packing guys were nice but they were just a tad late and in a hurry… how much of a tad?  Almost five hours and when they arrived it was near 7pm and they were tired and we were tired and well, at least they got packed before the actual moving day.

On moving day everything was going smoothly for awhile.  Things were boxed and wrapped and on their way out of the house.    Deb and Chappy were already at the new townhouse.  My husband Bob shuttled back and forth from house to townhouse with things as did my daughter Patty.  Everything seemed on schedule.  I chose to stay at the house and do some last minute things and take pictures.

It did seem like a lot of things were backing up on the driveway waiting to be put on the truck.  But what do I know about packing a moving van, I have a hard enough time packing a suitcase when I’m going to the Vineyard.

Around 4 o’clock I decided  to leave and come to the townhouse and let my husband stay with the movers until they were done.

One look back.  Those stairs by the way are not see through, they are mirrored.  Those mirrors have been there 34 years !  Nice touch huh.

Deb, Chappy and Santa had settled in and were just waiting for the furniture to start being delivered.  Deb was able to organize the kitchen and refrigerator since those things had been shuttled over by Patty.

Sometime between 5:30 and 6 my husband called and said they were on their way over to the townhouse BUT they weren’t able to get everything on the truck !!!  WHAT !  What did they have to leave and when would they go back for them?  Let’s see… they had to leave all my husband’s office furniture, breakfront, curio cabinet, a few other items and oh yes…our mattress!  And… they’d be going back for them AFTER they unloaded the truck.  AFTER unloading the truck HERE, they’d have to go back THERE at god knows what hour.  Swell, let’s just annoy neighbors in both locations.

And the unloading of the truck began.  These guys were tired, we were tired and there still was a long time to go.  See that large TV in the left side of the picture?  That wasn’t supposed to be there, it was supposed to be downstairs but they couldn’t make the turn in the stairs with it.  It’s on a swivel base and it’s large and clumsy and so now it’s in the living room where it’s causing all kinds of space problems.

Oh, and that wasn’t all that couldn’t make the turn in the stairs. This is Deb and Chappy watching them bring in a  large sofa that was supposed to be downstairs too but because when we bought it everything was oversized we never gave a thought to having to fit it into a smaller space.  Want to know what we did?  When the guys went back to the house for the second batch of furniture they took the sofa BACK and left it with a few items we’re selling.    Never ever did I think that moving day would involve trading furniture from one house to the other.  But then nothing about moving day was as I had imagined it.

And so the clock ticked on and the late night of Nov 2nd turned into the early morning of Nov 3rd.  My husband and the movers went back to the house around midnight and returned around 2 a.m.  They unloaded the truck once again and this time it was filled with the really heavy and cumbersome pieces.  Two triple dressers, two tall bureaus, office furniture, filing cabinets and the piece they said was the hardest to move..our breakfront.  Somehow these guys never lost their cool..they were polite, friendly and considerate the entire time.  They were however not happy with their boss for not providing them with another guy and gee, maybe a second truck.  Not happy with the boss, none of us are happy with the boss especially since his underestimating time and cost was nowhere near the actuality of the move.

So…at 4 a.m. the move was completed.  That’s 19 hours to move a little less than 3 miles.  I wonder how many times I could walk those 3 miles in 19 hours!