All the household goods were delivered on Tuesday.
We had spent the night at a hotel in town. We got up early to get some muffins, coffee, sodas, etc. But as usual, I was trying to do too much in too short a time so the morning was off to a frantic start. We did arrive at the house with about 10 minutes to spare, scooped the cat into the laundry room for her own protection, and put up the signs for each room.
0800: Waiting. Waiting.
0815: Jack Bauer calls the moving company. The movers are loading the truck and we are told not to expect them soon.
0816: I begin to wander around.
0900: I stop wandering when the movers arrive with 4 crates on a flat-bed truck. That cannot be all of our stuff. Turns out, it's not. There is another crate and our sofas and chair-and-a-half. Phew!
The first thing I am asked is if I have done this before. I don't take this as a good sign. Either they want to take advatnage of me or they don't know what they are doing. There are three of them and no one seems to be in charge. Luckily, I am in a completely bossy mood so I tell them what to do but they don't listen. I try to show them around the house so they will know where things go, but they are not interested. This is not going to go well.
Jack sets up outside with a clipboard and pen and checks off numbers as boxes are moved into the house. I stand inside and direct the stuff to different rooms. After about an hour of this, I am convinced we have dyslexic, memory-impaired thugs unloading our goods. I remain patient but firm with them and that seems to work sufficiently enough.
By 1130 they have all 4 crates unloaded and into the house. They leave to get the remaining goods and tell us they will be back by 1300. I run out to get some lunch for me and Jack. Those monkeys can feed themselves while on their 1.5-hour break.
So lunch. Yeah. We live about 12 miles from town. So a quick run to get lunch when I have no idea where a sandwich shop is takes about an hour. It is almost 1300 by the time I get back to the house. We are able to sit on our barstools (some of the first things to be unloaded) at our kitchen counter and eat our Schlotsky's Deli meal in peace and quiet for a ferw minutes.
1300: Our neighborhood remains silent. Since we are expecting them to do a full unpack for us, I don't want to start opening boxes.
1330: Two hours after they left, the movers return. With TWO crates and our sofas and chair-and-a-half. Now that makes more sense. We all get back to work. Jack's checking, I'm directing, and they are putting things in the wrong rooms. How nice. I get that straightened out with the oldest of the movers (who tells me that he is retired from the moving business, but is ust helping out today).
Anyway, by 1500 things are mostly in place in the house. They start to put things back together. For tools, they have a philips-head screwdriver and two allen wrenches, which of course, don't fit our screws. Jack manages to find his own tools, including his sets of allen wrenches and the furniture manages to get back together somehow. Even the dining room table slides appear to function just fine.
We double check to make sure we have all the numbers accounted for. We only have to search for a few numbers and they quickly turn up.
Then we begin to note the damage on the stuff not in boxes.
- Floor lamp from Pottery Barn: Base sheared off.
- DVD stand: a crude cut made to the backing making it into two pieces. Will need to be covered in order to be usable. Of course, the hardware would have to show up before it could be used at all.
- Queen mattress: Pillow top with multiple slashes on it from thugs opening boxes with reckless abondon.
Vacuum cleaner: Filter is missing from the front of the unit, making it completely unusable (perhaps it is packed in a box somewhere). FOUND!- Black shelves: One piece that holds up the unit broken. I suppose the 4-shelf unit could be used as a 3-shelf unit. That is if the hardware shows up somewhere.
With the movers gone, Jack and I set out to make our bed and find a few essentials, like the coffee pot, but we are exhausted. After Jack picks up the dogs from day care, we go out to a good Mexican restuarnt close to the house. We collapse on the couch to watch Dodgeball. The doggies are so exhausted they barely stir when a neighbor shows up to deliver our garage door openers.
And finally, after months of sleeping in hotels and in strange beds, we get snooze for a few peaceful hours in our very own bed. Back to work unpacking in the morning.
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