Nov 1-4, 2009
Nov 5-11,2009
Nov 12-15,2009
Nov 16-Dec 2, 2009
Dec 3-6, 2009
Dec 7 -, 2009
We’ve been planning this move for a long time, but it’s always been contingent on finishing the house remodeling that we’ve been working on for a longer time. The remodeling was nearing completion, so we called the Environs, an apartment complex in Westminster, CO, to see what townhomes they had available in the near future. They had three for the floor plan we were interested in, so, after examining the calendar and talking it over, we decided to apply for the one that would become available November 5.
Our application was accepted and planning continued. So did the packing. Early in this time period, I split my time between the programming business and photography and tried to fill at least one box per day. Once our application was accepted, the packing rate increased.
Early in October, we finally finished the last bedroom enough to have the carpeting people come in. They carpeted the bedroom and the stairway. It really looks nice. Once Carl finished a few minor touchups, the remodeling phase was FINISHED! We celebrated by having dinner at our favorite special occasion place.
Friday, October 23
I notified all my programming clients that our move was eminent, but I’d still be available by email and cell phone and would keep them notified of any changes in my contact information. I’ll probably continue doing at least some programming in Colorado.
With that done, I started breaking down and packing my office. That took a couple of days...
The two photos above show my office as it was getting broken down...
Friday, October 30
Carl picked up an auto transport from U-Haul and we started packing our 14 foot box truck with the first load of stuff. We started with my large desk. The top comes off, which helps, but we still had some problems getting it back out of my office... If I remember correctly, we had to lay it on its side with a blanket under it and slide it out the door and down the hallway, where we were finally able to get the hand truck under it.
The large horizontal filing cabinet that I have was even more of a challenge. It also wound up on a blanket and being dragged down the hallway. The rest of the computer tables and things in my office could be disassembled and shipped almost flat, which helped. We got all that furniture from the office loaded by about dinner time.
At which point, I jumped into Carl's car and drove over to Arby’s to pickup two salads while Carl moved the truck from the upper driveway to the lower one.
After dinner, we started loading some of the bedroom furniture. The mattress and box springs were all we managed to load before we lost too much light (and we were exhausted!!!) They don’t put the handles on mattresses in a useful place and box springs have no handles at all. I hate moving them! However, once these were secured in the truck, we quit for the night and headed for the hot tub...
Saturday, October 31
Today was a misty, chilly autumn day. But it was our main packing day, so we went ahead. One of Carl’s friends showed up about 9 to help. As long as the weather stayed at a fine mist - the kind that you can walk in for 100 yards before you realize you’re getting wet - we figured we could still load the truck. The bedroom furniture was soon loaded and we started tackling the piles and piles of boxes...
We got a good teamwork flow going - I’d select the boxes for the next load, Frank would load them on the hand truck and trundle them up the ramp and Carl would stack them tidily into the truck. Every now and then, I’d go out to the truck to see if I should send more light or heavy boxes and otherwise kibbitz...
The hardest items to place into the truck were the four chairs (two from my office and two from the back deck). They took up more than their share of the room, but we were still able to pile a bunch of stuff around them.
The truck was filling up to the point where we couldn’t all three stand in it at the same time when the rain started coming down harder, so we decided to take a break at that point. It was almost lunchtime anyway. We had gotten a heck of a lot done in just three hours. So Frank went on home and we had lunch.
Later that afternoon, the rain stopped for good and we went back out to see how the load was shaping up. More boxes and things went in, until it was time to quit. There wasn’t much space left and the boxes left in the basement could all easily wait for the next trip. We had loaded everything specifically slated for this trip plus a bit more. So, we buttoned it up and worked on other things...
I got my car loaded (it’s going on the car transport), mostly with more fragile stuff and the five plants that will come west on this trip. That left room in the front for the stuff we’d need on the road...
We had a quiet evening here, hitting the hot tub before dinner.