Jul 9, 2013

Moving: Phase 1 - Baltimore MD - June 2013

I have to be completely honest, THe Hub and I have been married almost 8 years and very early on we discovered that as a couple, the act of physically moving our belongings across the country is NOT good for our marriage. After the first move, just 2 weeks after our wedding, it really bothered me that our first real "TEST" didn't go so well. What should have been an uneventful, 8 hour drive across the state of Tennessee turned into 12 hours of un-airconditioned hell for the Hub who was driving the largest U-haul known to man and towing his car,  as I followed im in my 10 year old car with NO AC and a particularly disagreeable disposition when it cam to climbing the "Hills of Tennessee". I think the nice way to describe that trip was "character building". As we laid down that evening, exhausted by what we'd just endured and dreading the day of unloading that lay ahead of us, we promised each other we'd set aside $50 a month for the next four years and that money would pay for professional movers!

Four years later we did just that. After being home for a month and packing all of our stuff into free moving boxes we sat back a and watched 3 men load every single one of our belongings (minus the cats, a television and clothes to last until our furniture arrived). Then, 3 days later, we watched 3 men carry every thing we owned up 3 flights of steps to where we would call home for the next four years. That evening we decided to up the ante What if we set aside $100 a month for the next four years? That would pay for people to pack our stuff AND carry it back down all those steps AND drive it across the country AND once again unload it. 

So here we are four years later and you ask, "Lili, what's kept you away so long?"

I've been moving a house... Well not ME technically, but A house has been moved under my supervision which can sometimes be more difficult than moving it yourself... Minus the packing, and lifting, and going up and down all those steps, and making everything fit into the truck... Hmmm... when you put it like thatI really haven't done much of anything over this last month!

THEY HAVE!!!
Pretty impressive huh!!!

Despite a little bit of last minute scheduling drama and a 2 day delay, this move and the guys that made it happen were pretty AMAZING!

The morning started bright and early at 8 am.  We shut the cats, and everything we didn't want the movers to take, away in the bathroom.
They parked the 18 wheeler as close as they could get it to our front door
They set up a staging area in our common hall...
And 6 grown men set to work on packing and moving our home.

I promise you, before this move I honestly would have told you we didn't have that much stuff. Let me tell you, 8,000 pounds later, THAT is a LIE!!!

Our bedroom...
Our kitchen...
The girls room...
There were boxes and men packing boxes EVERYWHERE!!!
This is Sabastian, our "Master Mover" (No that's his real title!) and he was a complete JOY to work with through out the move.

Meanwhile, as our home was delivately wraped in paper and tucked into boxes our job was to entertain 2 VERY BUSY little ladies.
I never thought I'd say this but a HUGE thank you to Disney Jr's newest princess "Sofia the First" 
There was a lot of snuggling
hide and seek
Some Moving Box Dancing... Of course!!!
And a once lost now found birthday balloon really made for some good times.
MJ got to taste her first french fries (from Wendy's).
After such an exciting morning a nap was necessary!
Even big sister took a few seconds to catch a few Zzzz's
While the girls were sleeping The Hub removed curtain rods and shelving from the wall.
E woke up just in time to find her kitchen on the kitchen counter (which she thought was super funny)
And then they carried it, backpack stye, out the front door.
After lunch and a break the real heavy lifting began.

Everything that is too big to fit into a box is either wrapped in a thick blue movers blanket
or shrink wrapped 
As you can see, this allows them to set it down until they know exactly where it's going on the truck without it getting dirty.
Finally, around 6pm everything had been packed and loaded
(Reminds me of Tetras)

The movers were gone and we were left in our empty home, which I think the girls thought was more fun than our home with all it's stuff!
The cats snuck around sniffing everything and looking around, then looking at us as if to say "do you realize we've been robbed.
It was a long and tiring day and around every corner a memory popped to the surface.
This is the first place our girls called home
I will miss my kitchen island, 
I will miss how close we were to everything.
I will miss my ORANGE wall!

I will miss this place.

Check out:
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Till next time,
Bon Voyage!

5 comments:

Marriah M. said...

This is making me dread moving our house, whenever that may be! Glad that it all went well, though.

Cozy C. said...

8000 lbs is impressive! Packers & movers are soooo worth it!

Anonymous said...

I will never move without movers again. we used movers the three blocks we moved this last time, worth every penny

Sally R. said...

You are still such a creative writer. When will you publish a book?

Kyle Jon and Katie Sue said...

Excited to read about Phase II. :) Love and miss you. We drove up 83 to 695 to 70 yesterday, and Anika said, "this is the way to Ellie's house." A long discussion about MI and moving followed. Miss you!