Moving Day

Hey neighbors, I'm Martin Acres Home!

And I’m filling my days with little tasks. Before the real movers arrived, I had kitchen supplies to put away, chandeliers to finish installing and cleaning that called to me. 

This chandelier had been a house guest in a giant box, in my Longmont house for 8 months. Would you believe the obsession of the chandelier began the day I saw it (or something similar) hanging in a home on the Mapleton House Tour last year? True to me, I didn’t stop looking for it until I found it online and shipped it. I called it a me-to-me Xmas gift in 2016 and allowed myself the benefit of denial – a necessary evil when telling oneself that it is not part of the budget I was supposed to be adhering to in the remodel plans.

Then came carpet pad and carpet. The installers from Carpet One were fabulous! They loved on my dog, lugged heavy and awkward rolls of carpet with smile and finished exactly when they predicted they would.

I love the new carpet. And was getting close to tears at seeing the house looking like a house finally.

This is the master bedroom.

The upstairs living room is looking cozy too.

We were gearing up for the City of Boulder’s somewhat final inspection. Outside, Ken was hard at work with the skid-loader and grading was getting finishing touches.

Then… It was moving day!  Much anticipated and simultaneously dreaded. 

We met the movers at the Longmont house, directing the removal of the remaining boxes and all the furniture, from the garage to the truck. It was slow going. The movers took their time and Mark remained in place to help, while I scooted back to Boulder. Then I got the call; The movers were enroute and it was 12:05 pm. They called to say they were stopping for lunch and that they had decided they would not want to move some of the heavier items upstairs. 

Ok, let’s recap. When I contracted the movers, they asked for a list of heavy and/or awkward items. I sent it. Also sent photos. Now they were reneging because one claimed to have a back injury and was scared of squashing his fingers while going up the stairs. Really?  Yup.

I informed him that expectations were that the items, heavy or not, were to be placed in the appropriate rooms of the house, whether or not stairs were involved. He hung up on me and a minute later his boss called – to tell me I was bullying his burly movers! I could not make this stuff up!

The move concluded in 8 hours. We struck a compromise with the chest freezer being lifted up two stairs to the mudroom, but the bookcase not going up any stairs. The best part was the price. Quoted at $650, we ended up being charged $1120 and that was discounted after I complained about being charged for their lunch hour!

Who do I NOT recommend for movers?  The Good Move LLC. Whiny little girls who bid reasonably to get your contract, then move slowly and up-charge at the end. More than enough said.

Then the real chaos began. What was a beautiful, mostly vacant house with a new carpet smell, became a holding pen for boxes of all different shapes and sizes, an explosion of bubble wrap and packing paper and a giant tripping hazard! But on the plus side, we had a real bed and by nightfall, it sported clean sheets and a down comforter. It had been 9 long days since I had slept on my awesome Tempurpedic mattress and I was exhausted.

No rest for the wicked, as they say.

The City’s mandatory “street tree” was arriving tomorrow and according to the master landscape plan it was to be planted in a newly created berm in my front yard.   Ken to the rescue! One hour before tree delivery, he moved mountains of red earth, pushed and flattened and heaped the existing soil into something that closely resembled the shape that Becky had outlined on my landscape docs.