Yesterday...

My Stuff Has Arrived..... and now the hard work begins.

Now, if all of my helpful friends could fly out for a visit and help me continue to sort through the 294 boxes/items that have been brought into the house!!  Can you say overwhelmed??

The main crew from Sourdough Moving arrived around 8:45 AM.  Three strong young men appeared at the door and did a walk-through to get a feel for the rooms.

The truck arrived a little after 9:00 AM.  I had forgotten how long the trailer was.  The driver did not want to jockey the thing around to get it backed up into the driveway at the garage, so they unloaded at the bend in the driveway and walked everything into the garage.  They really exceeded their 10,000 steps if they were monitoring their steps.  I had thought that they would bring the lower level stuff through the garage and the upper level stuff up the outside steps.  I was wrong, they brought everything into the garage until it could hold no more, closed the door so the heat could build back up (the garage is heated and it was hovering right around freezing all day) and then we would sort though everything and stuff would move into the space that it needed to go into.

So things would come in and then disappear, more stuff would come in and then disappear.. then more would come in and find a place in the house.  The overflow is taking up half of the garage so all of Rob and Kate's cars that are here are living outside for the time being.  And this happened over and over and over.  This crew took breaks... the packing crew did not take a break all at the same time.  They would keep working and each take breathers every now and then.  That is how they packed and loaded me in three days instead of four.

Little by little furniture appeared and went into the room in the house where it belonged.  I think there was only one piece that I brought that did not fit in the room it was supposed to go into but it moved into another room where it has already found another use.  It was every bit as weird a feeling as seeing everything you own disappearing into a truck and then driving away to see things being moved out of a truck and into your garage.  My job was a sheet of paper with numbers on it.  As the men would come in with stacks of boxes on the dolly they would read off the numbers from the little pink stickers and I would cross them off.  There were quite a few that had no numbers, but I was warned that might happen.  The moving companies have, in the last few years, changed the adhesive on the little stickers as people had complained that the old ones were very hard, if not impossible to remove, especially if they were left on for a few years after the move.  But now, some of them fall off in transit.

I did find it odd, however, that everything on the front end of this move was done pretty much in order, boxes were packed, numbered, inventoried and loaded on the truck pretty much as the work was done.  But the numbers came out of the truck all jumbled and all over the place. I know that they were packed very well, however, as the crew on this end indicated that there was very little shifting over the 5 weeks the stuff had been on the road.  They said that they were quite impressed with the loading job that had been done.

There were some damaged items.  Most were insignificant.  As couple of plastic totes, one large one and one small one had shattered.  The first was a small one with small, framed pictures inside and the entire tote had cracked into pieces.  It had been loaded in such a way that the stuff inside the tote had remained together and undamaged.  The other was a larger tote and only the lid had shattered.  I am thinking that freezing temps during the last couple of weeks probably contributed.  Another tote lid had become warped.  The only damage of any significance was the marble center of the round barrel table that had belonged to my parents was cracked.  Again, freezing temps may have played a role in the damage.  Rob says there is a place here where we can probably get it replaced.

All in all, I was happy to see so little damage immediately.  As I unpack, there may be more, but then everything was on the road somewhere and sitting somewhere in freezing weather for over 5 weeks.  But hopefully not much.

I did have to laugh, as we were going through the list of crossed off numbers and looking up the contents of the numbers that we did not get crossed off, the majority of them were boxes of or totes of fabric.  Imagine that.

They did set up my bed and what a pleasure it was to sit on a bed that was not laying on the ground.  And it was soft and snuggly and did not make a strange hollow sound when I sat on it or moved at night.  I got it plugged in and searched through many boxes to find one of the remotes for the adjustable features.  At first it was not responding and I was thinking that it had been broken, but after a couple of seconds, the movements began to happen and the vibrating feature seems to be stronger than it was before.  Perhaps trip jostled the vibrating motors around some or perhaps the fact that it is on the solid floor of the lower level or both have made a difference, but I loved being back in my bed.... my own, beautiful bed.  The setup in the bedroom is working out nicely, thus far.

The dining room is filled with boxes.  Most of it is kitchen stuff, or so it says.  I had brought along the bakers rack from Parkesburg.  I was not sure it would fit in the space, but it is perfect.  I am looking forward to setting up this kitchen.

I did manage to get before pictures of the rooms.  I will post them and then as they are now and then when they are completed.  I am thinking Christmas has come early and will keep happening as I unpack each box and continue to unpack over the next weeks, months or even years.

The dogs spent most of the day penned up on my bathroom.  They barked for a bit and then whined a tad and finally slept during the quiet times.  I will have to scrub the floor as Winston must of the missed the pee pad when I did not get them out in time and I was not always available to take them outside regularly.... hence the being penned up in the bathroom with tile floors.

Their fat, padded dog beds had come on the truck.  Last night, after I had gotten my bed set up with sheets and all along with a couple of lights, I dug through some of the boxes to the spot where their beds had been tucked away.  I brought them into the bedroom and placed them where I would not fall over them in the dark.  Then I came in here (the craft room where my big TV is living) to watch some TV and kick my feet up before going to bed.  Usually the dogs are under my feet, but last night I noticed that they were not.  Upon getting up to get ready for bed, I found them each curled up on one of their beds and sound asleep.  They did not move a muscle as I prepared to go to bed.  It must have been a hard day for them.

Rob was here with me most of the day.  He had some things that needed to be dealt like getting snow tires installed on his new car and getting a prescription for Kate.  He was a great help. moving boxes out of the way, taking the moving blankets off of furniture as it came in and getting lighter pieces into their proper room.  Then Kate picked him up and off to an evening Tai Chi class and dinner.  They have a very busy weekend with a guest instructor for a Tai Chi workshop all weekend, so I doubt I will see him until next week and maybe not even then as their calendar is always full of activities and next week is particularly busy.  So I will be doing some serious unpacking in the bedroom, the kitchen, and craft room.

I will keep you updated as to my progress.  But I am certainly beginning to really feel at home, now.