Day 1
And up. And up. All the fucking stairs. Actually, the stairs weren't the problem.
My lack of brains was. So I lost my mind and didn't call to rent a truck until
later in the month. You know what that gets you? The small truck. No big deal,
we live in a Hobbit house anyway, right? Wrong.
When I say small, I mean the truck Sanford and Son had. Damn was this thing tiny. That alone wouldn't be too bad, since we could make multiple trips. Until of course they said, "and it has to be back by 2pm since we've got it already rented out." Dammit.
Of course we didn't have 100% of the house boxed yet, and a few guys couldn't make the day to help. So it's getting bad from the start. Before I can even get back to the old house, I have to stop at Other Dave's to pick up a couch. It's just 2 sections. Of course, 1 section is as long as a football field. This has now filled up the truck. So we go by the new house and drop this off.
This is where we find annoyance #2. As a result of not having all the painting finished, we have to store everything initially in the office. Whoever built the house obviously didn't have to move things into the house. Too many tight corners. Now to the old house.
The first thing we need to do is move the heavy stuff. That includes the fridge, the washer, dryer and 40 boxes of books of Susan's (apparently every year's edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica). Our first observation was that the fridge was taller than the opening for the truck. Ugh. So we have to shove it in at an angle. Then some boxes, and the W/D. Pretty much full at this point.
Meanwhile all the other folks are loading their cars full of stuff, which was great. So now over to the new house. Recalling the layout, we were smart enough to bring tarp to lay down on the ground to avoid tracking mud in. And now we had to get the fridge in.
Apparently really thin people lived in this house before. So we had to go around the house and come in through the deck. This required manhandling the fridge up the stairs and through the house. Keith decided this would be a good thing for him to do. Perhaps it was the medication talking. About halfway through this adventure, we heard the CRACK. Susan instinctively thought we had broken the fridge. Not a bad assumption really, but everyone else knew exactly what had happened. Keith had snapped in two.
He was literally kissing his toes at this point. Poor bastard. But he did managed to finish the job and we were all thankful it wasn't one of us. Back to the old house. Another small truck load, plus car loads. And back to the new house. Pizza on the way. So I manage to get the truck back on time, but we still aren't done. Most of the help had to leave at this point, and I don't blame them. Many were already battling colds and scheduling conflicts. Heck, that Dan Wascher made it was an interesting story all by itself.
And now we realize we have to go to Carlson's to pick up some of Chris's old stuff. My truck and Sheri's 4Runner, and we still can't get it all in. Partly because the hottub took up all of the room. That was an adventure by itself. Dave's view of what is "mostly drained" is different than my view. Dave is a tall man with apelike strength. So to him, 60 gallons of water isn't much to lift.
To me, this required some ingenuity. So with a block of cheese, a squirrel and a match, I was able to recreate the South Park Halloween episode with guest stars Corn. And then I found some logs and got to work on the hottub. I used the logs as wedges and eventually got all the water out. Then Sheri learned that spraying a flat object up close has consequences. Back to the new house.
And then back to the old house for the last big crap, the unpacked stuff and whatnot. So now we're in the new house. 7:30 and I'm tired of moving. 12 straight hours of fun, what more could you ask for.