The move
This had to be my most expensive/extensive move yet, it's funny that it was just down the street. Friday night, Steve and I went down and had a look at the place. The walls are a mess! The whole place needs patching and painting. The old tenants didn't leave the place in a huge mess, but the place is pretty grimy.
I dropped Steve in St Bruno Saturday and headed back to NDG where I started cleaning the new place and continuing to pack my place. I got the floors swept and mopped and the kitchen cupboards scrubbed. I also discovered that we probably have a mouse. A mouse is fine, I have cats and they need something to do. Rebecca came over and brought a couple of beers Sunday night and we hung out for a bit. She came over to help me clean, but I'd had it for the day and was tired and lonely.
Monday morning was filled with lots of last minute things. I dragged all my junk from the storage area into the backyard, and packed and packed. Steve called at 9:30 to say that his movers had arrived and was very optimistic because they started to early. Maggie called offering to come over and I desperately asked her to bring beer and a sandwich. I hadn't eaten all day and I was starting to get a headache. She came through with croissants and salami and Sleemans. The movers arrived at 12:30 and the fun began.
The moving company charges by the hour + 1 hour for the truck. Three guys showed up at the door and started wandering through the apartment looking at my stuff. The next step was installing the cats in the bathroom. I put their litter and food and water, I found one cat, but where were the other two? The cat hunt was on. Maggie and I were very amused by the movers who were going from room to room calling "here kitty kitty" and making the cat calling smooching noise. Finally we caught the last one, at which point one of the movers asked to use the bathroom. He was out of luck.
The movers started with the boxes and then staggered from small stuff to big stuff. Did I mention that it was 32C and sunny? Maggie went out and got popsicles. Apparently, I had too much small stuff. The truck was full and my livingroom furniture was still all there, plus the storage area stuff in the back. Luckily, I live close. We went down to the new place to unload the truck.
Steve's move was not as successful. His movers were very slow with the moving and they only got to NDG (after a lunch break) at around 2. They ran out of room in the truck, so there's still small stuff at his house that has to be moved. Steve does have appliances, but my movers said that his movers were doing things wrong. Steve got three young guys that were kind of scrawny. They did manage to get all the appliances up the stairs though.
My movers connected their ramp to the railing below and passed stuff up to the balcony. It was smart because the other movers were quite busy on the stairs. Unfortunately, they put all my boxes in a small room that we're going to use for my computer. There are now boxes stacked floor to ceiling and four deep in that room. I have no idea where anything is and it was very upsetting last night when I was trying to find something. Oh well.
The second trip was made and it was quick and then back to the new place. Before the movers came for the second trip, Maggie and I let the kitties out of the bathroom. They were very upset that someone had come in and taken all of the stuff. We put them in the back room and then let them out when everything was gone. Poor things! They were running from room to room completely confused.
We got back to the other place and I bribed the movers to hurry with beer that Steve's friend, Ramsay, brought. We sat around doing the paperwork and drinking beer and then the movers left and we were left with a big moving mess. Ramsay and Maggie helped organize things a bit. We got the bed set up and made a few paths through the rooms. Ramsay and Steve put up shelves in Steve's den and piled all his boxes in there. After we exhausted our friends and they went home, we went back to my old place and I had a shower and we picked up the cats and a few things.
The cats are freaked out, but they didn't run around meowing and puking everywhere, so I consider it a success. Oopsa followed her normal morning routine this morning and came into the bathroom with me while I had my shower. We left the kitchen cabinets open and she's been checking out the one that I think the mouse is getting into. I have to seal up the spaces behind the cabinet to keep mousy out, but in the mean time, a little hunting might distract the cats nicely.
Tonight I have to go back to the old place and vac and mop and stuff. If I have the energy, I'll try to take down the ceiling fan too, but that might have to wait until tomorrow night.
I'm supposed to start my sales rotation today (we're also releasing this Thursday), but so far, no one has come to collect me from sales, so maybe they've pushed my rotation back a week. I don't know. It's going to be a very busy week and I'm really looking forward to the long weekend next weekend. :-)