This was the day that I hoped would run smoothly. Once again I was sadly mistaken. We knew that at least one piece of our belongings would be too big for the living room, our queen size hide-a-bed, so we figured it could go upstairs in the spare room, guest room cum computer room, we should have had a tape measure with us when we bought the house!
Not only did the couch not fit in the living room the movers could get it no further than the kitchen, that's right, if we wanted to have this piece of furniture in our house it would have to live in the kitchen. Why you may ask? The back door opens into the kitchen, from the kitchen we have the door down to the basement, the opening to the front hall and another opening into the living room. The hall and living room through arches are only 28 inches wide, 2 inches narrower than the normal 30 inches. There was no way that couch was going anywhere and definitely not upstairs. Now it may still fit into the basement but that is full of boxes so we have not yet tried.
The couch was not the only piece of furniture that the movers said could not come into the house, and we could think again about taking anything over sized upstairs:
The Freezer: we had two in Nipigon, sold the smaller of the two; what a mistake that was. The freezer was supposed to go into the basement it is now on our enclosed front porch. The movers said it would have to stay on the deck with the couch but Richard insisted that it be placed in the porch. Richard had to remove the lid in order for the freezer to fit through that 28" opening, but it did to the surprise of the movers.
The Triple Dresser: I own a full bedroom suite of solid wood, this is just one of those pieces. The movers refused to even try and get it up those stairs, so it was placed in the dinning room until we could decide where it would live. The triple dresser is now in the basement it is part of the utility room and probably will remain in this house when and if we ever move again. Richard with the help of Lynda managed to get the dresser down those steep stairs and into the utility room. It will be used to house Richard's tools and any paper and laundry supplies. I have to manage with just the tall boy and bedside table to house my clothes.
The Queen Size Beds: Now the movers tried to get our mattresses upstairs but they gave up. "There was no way," they said, "that those beds are going to live upstairs." The mattresses were placed in the dinning room and the box springs where placed on the porch. Later that evening with the assistance of Pat and Merv (our first hosts), who kindly came around after work to help us move in, and Richard managed to get those two queen size mattresses up the stairs. Mattresses bend, box springs do not. We had to purchase two split queen box springs, I did not know there was even such a thing. For the first few nights we slept on our mattresses on the floor.
My Computer Desk: This piece of furniture was dropped as the movers took it out of their van breaking a caster, (this was not the only dropped item). Again the movers said it would not go up those stairs; Richard said we should take it apart, the movers still did not figure it would go upstairs. But it did. We are still trying to find the correct casters to replace the broken one.
Several of our boxes were dropped by the movers many of them marked fragile. We had one box of commemoration mugs which ended up dropped several times, I was surprised that it appears only two of the mugs broke. I have yet to check other boxes for broken items. I'm sure there will be others.
Everything except for the couch made it into our new home. We have boxes everywhere, the movers where not very good at placing boxes in the basement, or any other room for that matter, tidily. Boxes marked 'soft top' had other boxes placed on them. Boxes marked 'fragile' where not handled carefully. One bookcase arrived only fit for firewood, every shelf was broken.
I usually take our moves in stride but this one wore me down to the point of tears. I was tired of hearing the movers state; "That's not going to fit." "There is no way we can take that upstairs, downstairs." "The box only rolled once." "... replacements can be bought anywhere."
Before all the items were unloaded I was crying... Everything had been done so quickly, The purchase of our new home, packing, traveling, painting and moving in. I had reached my maximum stress load. Thank God for Merv and Pat. They arrived after everyone else had gone to find me dejected and Richard at the end of his rope. The first order of business was to get our beds set-up, upstairs. The three of them push, pulled and folded those two mattresses up those stairs, they accomplished one of the things that the movers said would not happen. Pat made the beds for me. Then she helped with putting some sort of order to the kitchen so we could at least begin the long task of unpacking. By the time Merv and Pat left we had a beginning or order to our home. The tears had dried and once again I was excited about our new home.
The Family and Christmas arrive... next installment.
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