the big move

So, I finally have a few minutes to post details of the move. I started something twice last Thursday night but this new laptop with Microsoft Vista was giving me headaches (maybe it's just me but the thing keeps opening and closing windows "thinking" it was my intention because the mouse was pointing at something). Anyway, here is what happened to us last week and I hope others involved in this move will learn from our mistakes!

On the day of the move, the trucking company called and told us they didn't have a driver. After the initial shock, we made a lot of calls to ensure we would get the container later that day. We had a lot of things set aside as "possibilities to pack". After evaluating our furniture, boxes, and plastic tubs, etc., we determined we would rather ship everything then to sell the furniture handed down from our family and buy new. So, we called the moving company and told them to send the 40 ft container instead of the 20 ft. We paid extra of course but feel it was worth it. Also, this way we could take our bicycles because I am partial to my Raleigh beach cruiser...

Long story short, the biggest mistake we made was believing the container would have ramps so we could easily walk in and out with everything we needed to pack. The container was on a flatbed truck as expected but no ramps. The college kids we hired as movers had to lift everything almost over their heads to get it into the container. I'm 5 feet tall and the bottom of the truck came to my forehead. I didn't think they would be able to handle the appliances, but we had them start with the heavy items then the boxes then furniture. Everything fit snugly in the end which is good because at first when I saw the size of the thing I thought for sure we would end up with a pile of broken items from all the rolling around. Patrick did a great job of putting large items on the outsides and smaller items in the middle. We'll still have to see what arrives intact and what we will need to replace from damage...

The moving company claims that most local movers will bring their own ramps but of course the college kids have only done local moves so they had no clue about loading containers. Patrick and I aren't confident that all will arrive in one piece but we have decided not to worry about it since we can't do anything about it now...

I am not sure I would do it the same way if we could do it all over again because some of the quotes I received from other companies included movers and they weren't much higher than what Charles Zeller quoted for our move. I think next time I would still use Charles as a broker in San Jose but I would hire a different company here in the States and pay for professional movers. Oh well. We debated this whole thing for a long time and it will never be perfect so like I said at the beginning, "I just hope others learn from our mistakes!".

By the way, I packed the USB cable for my camera so I need to buy another one before I can put anymore pictures up.