Day 6: Loading and Unloading

The sun comes up early when it's moving day!  I had reserved a truck for 7am so our work crews wouldn't have to spend too much time away from their families (most of the folks helping were from church, though I had a friend from work, and a neighbor pitched in as well).  The good news: the Uhaul location is between the old house and new house.  The bad news: They didn't have the truck I wanted when I made the reservation, so I ended up with a very puny 14 footer.   After seeing what was left in the living room, I thought, "This should still fit in a single load, since I had taken a half-dozen loads of boxes and things earlier in the week.  If it doesn't, I can over-flow into another van trip or something."   That turned out to be pinnacle of under-estimation.  (We ended up needing three full truck loads and two full van-loads on Saturday.)

The beautiful thing was there was lots of help to get things out of the house and into the truck. Jen had contracted three teenagers to help.  I had a father-in-law who does a great job of putting the puzzle pieces together to be efficient with space.  Then there was 6 other adults on the team.  Makes for a quicker back and forth to spread the work wealth!  (I'm so glad everyone came, it would have taken much longer with a smaller crew!)

The objective was big things in the first load, but it became evident that we weren't going to make it all in the first load once we got to looking at the dimensions of our prized card catalog.  That was when I committed in my mind to the card catalog.   When I was helping load up food storage and basement items, it became further evident that we weren't going to make it all in the second load.   The third load was almost strictly basement storage and appliances (washer/dryer), bicycles, gardening stuff, and other pre-packed items stored in the basement.

There were only two snags at the new house, and I think there's a remidiation plan for both.  Snag 1: The piano wouldn't fit around the corner at the front door.  Remediation 1: Remove the door and stair banister to lift the piano over the front step into the living room to make it more maneuverable.  Snag 2: The box springs to the big bed won't fit up the stairs.  Remidation 2:  I think I can cut it in half and reinforce it again a once it's upstairs.  They show how on YouTube at least, so I know it CAN be done.  Therefore, I can do it too!

My assessment after the fact?  We needed a bigger truck.  The tool on Uhaul.com doesn't account for Mormons with food storage in their household size to truck size estimation statistics.  Perhaps a two bedroom apartment and 2.5 bedroom duplex plus a basement are completely different things.  Given the way we filled the 14' truck (which is really like 11'+3' for the loft), I don't think we would have even fit everything in the 24 foot truck that claims it's for a 3-4 bedroom home.

What we got vs. what we needed.

The good news is that the smaller truck left shallower ruts in the front yard when we backed right up to the front porch.  The bad news is that we had to use up all of our reservation time (through 2pm) doing loading/unloading, except for a brief reprieve for Jen's homemade pizza for lunch.

More good news: Heidi and Scott did a stellar job helping close-out the kitchen in preparation for us handing over the apartment next week (stove/oven, cabinets, sink, floors, walls).  More bad news: there is still lots to do for cleaning.


Things we had to do after the truck was returned:

• Yard cleanup
• Basement cleanout
• Bedroom curtain removal
• Bedroom final dregs boxup
• Bedroom sweep-out
• Bathroom curtain remove

Remaining to be done next week: 

• Clean upstairs wood floors
• Wash walls, doors, and door-frames
• Clean bathroom
• Clean stairs
• Vacuum carpet
• Spot-clean carpet
• Wash windows.

Then we'll be all prepped and ready for handing over the keys.  If anyone is coming to town for Thanksgiving and wants to put in some service hours, let me know!  We'll find a job for you next Saturday.  :)