Dec.12th: The Moving Truck Arrived

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.

The Move Continued

Friday December 5th: we settled in at our Hosts home; which was our home away from our new home for the next four days. Determined to get some rest but also get our home ready for receiving our furniture. Basically this would mean painting a couple of the rooms. Lloyd from Redeemer Church would be helping us with the painting. Lloyd was one of many who had been helping with the various tasks that needed to be done at our new home before we could move in.

Saturday morning we headed out to do some shopping and then headed to our home to be. I was overwhelmed with how clean everywhere looked. If you remember from the pictures of the house it was in quite a sorry state. Several of the ladies from the church had been in a cleaned everywhere. The carpets had been removed and the floors ready to receive the laminated boards that we had chosen to replace the filthy carpets. The floors are lovely, the walnut colour looks very rich and was a great choice. As we went through the house we took note of all the wonderful work that the ladies and the men had done for us:
All the magnetic winter windows were in place.
The carpets steam cleaned.
Nails and screws and tacks etc. taken out of walls and walls patched.
Furnace and ducts cleaned.
Sink and faucet replaced in main floor washroom.
Appliances in their place from a Sears delivery.
I'm sure many other items of repair were all complete by the time we arrived.

All that was left for us to do was to paint the upstairs orange bedroom and the living room. We had gathered some colour chips and decided on the ones we liked ready to get paint the next day or Monday.

That was it for Saturday. Sunday afternoon we went to church. Monday with Lloyd's help we bought primer and began the job of painting the upstairs bedroom. In the afternoon we delivered the motor home to it's winter parking at a small farm south of PA. In the evening I headed to the Church for the LWML Christmas Dinner.

Tuesday Richard and I went to and bought the necessary paint for the two rooms. Lloyd was already working with the primer upstairs. We realized that a second coat would be required on the downstairs room. So off to supper we went, we had an invite from Neale and Janette. After supper we began with the second coat on the living room. Lloyd had finished the upstairs room which was now blue and had begun to help with the living room, which will be a mint green.

Tired but feeling well pleased with our work of the day we headed back to our hosts. Rowland greeted us at the door, he had been worried about us as they did not expect for us to return so late in the day. We had been given a key to their house and did not realise that they would be concerned about a late return. With many apologies we went to bed as the next day would be an early start the furniture was arriving the following day, Wednesday.

That is a whole new story.

Day Three of the Move

Finally a few moments to let you know how the move played out at least day three!

Day three we were up really early; waited for the Ontario Power guys to move their vehicles in order to move the motor home out of the parking spot we were in. Once on the road we decided to see how far we could drive, actually how long I could manage. The walkie talkie batteries were died so no communication between our two vehicles. That was fine, Richard had a plan, if I needed to stop for any reason I was to turn on my flashers, which he would see, and pull over at the first opportunity. Well it sounded good until I actually tried to gain his attention. I needed a washroom break;
flashers on...
1 1/2 hours later...
I was desperate...
finally my signal was seen!

We decided that because of the perishables in the motor home we would munch as we drove; lunch consisted of chips, chocolate and water. At about Roblin, Manitoba I once again needed a washroom;
flashers on...
1 1/2 hours later and a few horn beeps...
I was almost beyond desperate...
On no! Where was he pulling off...
A Superstore Gas; no washrooms here...
He had still not seen my flashers or heard my horn...
Quick instructions we are going to Wal-mart to buy batteries and to use their washroom facilities; he was filling the motor home, unlike a car that fills very quickly the motor home takes forever because it has a huge tank. Finally we headed for Wal-mart. We decided to continue traveling, eating as we drove; supper consisted of chips, chocolate and water.

In Yorkton we change our positions; I drove lead with my flashers on and Richard drove behind me with his flashers on and no headlights. We traveled the rest of the way to Prince Albert. When we reached Malford, Saskatchewan I buzzed him on the walkie talkie (yes we did buy batteries) and told him he better chat to me as I was finding it really hard keeping my focus on the road. We pulled into Prince Albert 15 hours after we had left Kenora, Ontario.

First we had to find our new home and drop the cats off and leave the motor home outside the house until the following day. We did take some of the perishables into the house but not many. Then we headed for Mervin and Gerdie's home (our hosts for the next few days).