Moving

were they like "couldnt you have a lighter fecking bed base you arse!?"

New neighbours were moving in this morning as I slept one off. Groan.

Were they that loud? How loud does moving have to be?

I'll tell you one thing - if* I ever move again, I'm taking that bed apart and throwing it away (I don't think I can disassemble and reassemble it) b/c no one needs to go through that again.

It's this kind of bed base, by the way, that's why it weighs so much. Amazing storage!

http://x-land.org/_cache/Chauffage%20Piscine/img/gn_articles_Malm%20Ikea_0_1.jpg

Also, the lid is spring-loaded, so it kept popping open on them! Gah.

I am not yet a real grown up but when I become one I am not going to buy any furniture that cannot be disassembled and/or set on fire.

oh it can all be set on fire

Hahaha.

I think that the usual thing that goes with being "grownup" is having furniture that CAN'T be disassembled. Ikea is pretty 20-something-ish.

after a brief interregnum i once again own nothing that i cannot, in theory, move by myself.

in theory, this is cool, but maybe less so in practice

xp I'm so not real a grown up I just graduated from college and am living at home from my parents, a studio full of untreated pine Ikea furniture is my current aspiration.

*with my parents, typing is hard

a. and i are doing a 2-mile move (technically, 1.7 miles!) mid-month. we've been writing around for moving company estimates but no responses yet. we actually have very little furniture, and some of the more fragile/meaningful items we'll bring over ourselves. we used u-haul last time, and that ended up costing $100 and being a pain in the butt. i'm ready to be an adult and hire a fucking mover.

1. How old are you? ("you" = plural, stupid English)

2. Where do you live?

Also, my move was .10 mile

http://i.imgur.com/T4Lsr.png

(freebie for my stalker(s))

4 = house I've been renting for the last 5 years
2 = house I'm buying, to move into at the beginning of September

Distance between the two doorbells = 110 cm (43 inches)

But still, everything's got to be packed, all papers & formalities have to be changed - pretty ridiculous, but anyway.

http://i51.tinypic.com/rvvt40.jpg

I guess I needed a bigger mailbox.

ha. just smash the shared wall down and shove everything through. i once considered moving next door but it seemed too inherently ridiculous to bother with even though it was a better house than my own. now instead i'm moving 400 miles come september, no idea how i'm going to work out the logistics of that one. \o/

Good idea, but I can't, I don't own the house on the left! (would you believe I even asked the owner? :-) )

1. How old are you? ("you" = plural, stupid English)

2. Where do you live?

the bf and i are mid/late thirties and live in los angeles -- we're moving from north hollywood just down the road into studio city, a 5-to-10 minute drive.

A walking distance move is not easier to the extent one might think. The only advantage is that it saves the step of loading and unloading the truck. Which is huge, of course, but there are other huge steps, too. Also saves the driving time.

Currently about 50% packed. The main problem with the remaining 50% is that it is not yet clear if we move on Wednesday (two days away)or Sunday (6 days away). If it is Wednesday, I can continue to live in my pajamas and eat take out until set up in the new place. If it is Sunday, I have to be organized enough have work clothes and other daily living stuff set aside. I suppose I should just pack a suitcase and pretend I am living out of a hotel on a business trip?

A hotel full of boxes and little else, that is.

That is a sensible thing to do.

the company we're going with wants $285 for a 16-ft. van, 2 guys, and a 3-hour minimum, gratuity not included. we don't need all 3 hours, probably half that, but i guess it's good to over-budget for unforeseen problems. they're coming on a monday in the middle of the month, so there's probably not much negotiating beyond the quoted rate at this point.

That seems reasonable. The company I used charged $85/hr for a 3-person crew, 3 hr minimum, +$42 for the truck and equipment, which comes to $297 + grat. Research showed that $10 per person per hour is the standard base gratuity. It took 3.5 hours, due to the new place being on the 6th floor.

Jesus, I hired two guys who charged $60 an hour, no additional fees for their travel or the use of the truck, and they were done in 3 hours INCLUDING driving time. Wtf people? NB: my old apt was also on the 6th floor but it was an elevator building; also, I did a lot of prep for them thanks to said elevator, which allowed me to push stacks of boxes into it and deposit them in the lobby, ready to be loaded up. I figure I had 9/10ths of the boxes already downstairs when they got there, so they mostly just moved furniture.

Hahah Stan I thought I was the only nutter who did things like move 2 feet away (I have moved across the rd, and 2 doors down, in the past)

My new building has an elevator (no fucking way I'm living in a 6th floor walk-up!) and I was on the ground level at the old place, but due to a scheduling problem, I had to move in while the former tenant was moving out, which slowed us down.

Trayce, I moved across the hall once, and this time 1/2 block (.10 mile). It seems like for all the hassle I should have some distance to show for it, but I like my hood and the new places were considerably better.

Loving the new place - they kept most of the vintage structure and fixtures (nice stained wooden door and window frames, cool plaster walls, marble lobby) but added dishwasher, new windows and whatnot.

are there any "nude moving companies"?

Not everything you see in porn movies is true, Latham Green.

Finally closed the real estate deal from hell! Result is house we love at a fair market price, though from her demeanor it seems the seller thinks we stole her damn house from her.

Moving happens Monday and will involve consolidation of BOTH the mister's and my places. It will be a long week, but at least we'll have it over with in one fell swoop.

Finally closed the real estate deal from hell! Result is house we love at a fair market price, though from her demeanor it seems the seller thinks we stole her damn house from her.

Moving happens Monday and will involve consolidation of BOTH the mister's and my places. It will be a long week, but at least we'll have it over with in one fell swoop.

oops sorry for the double post.

I moved on Friday and it was so frigging hot in Missouri I thought I was going to puke.
Got it all done, though. Feeling good in the new place.

the company we're going with wants $285 for a 16-ft. van, 2 guys, and a 3-hour minimum, gratuity not included. we don't need all 3 hours, probably half that, but i guess it's good to over-budget for unforeseen problems. they're coming on a monday in the middle of the month, so there's probably not much negotiating beyond the quoted rate at this point.

― don't believe the HYP (get bent), Sunday, July 3, 2011 6:52 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That seems reasonable. The company I used charged $85/hr for a 3-person crew, 3 hr minimum, +$42 for the truck and equipment, which comes to $297 + grat. Research showed that $10 per person per hour is the standard base gratuity. It took 3.5 hours, due to the new place being on the 6th floor.

― Jesse, Sunday, July 3, 2011 9:24 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Jesus, I hired two guys who charged $60 an hour, no additional fees for their travel or the use of the truck, and they were done in 3 hours INCLUDING driving time. Wtf people? NB: my old apt was also on the 6th floor but it was an elevator building; also, I did a lot of prep for them thanks to said elevator, which allowed me to push stacks of boxes into it and deposit them in the lobby, ready to be loaded up. I figure I had 9/10ths of the boxes already downstairs when they got there, so they mostly just moved furniture.

― you're in the club and the light hits your ass like pow (Laurel), Monday, July 4, 2011 1:20 AM Bookmark

These are all better than quotes I've gotten -- anyone want to let me in on the names (assuming NYC)?

No name, I just a couple of pages'-worth of ads on CL and then call the lowest ones and get them to confirm/deny the exact terms, then agree on a time for them to show up. Honestly.

* I just scan a couple of pages'-worth of ads

CL has a lot of sketch on it though, and those guys aren't necessarily insured. Plus I already had a pretty bad experience with non-mover movers (one guy didn't show up, other showed up drunk).

Hahahah "insurance".

Hey, I don't begrudge anyone their cost-cutting measures, but I prefer to have an insured mover.

Sure but then I don't have any numbers you want.

the "licensed and bonded" thing is crucial if i'm gonna trust anyone else with the contents of my entire life.

Have hired cheap bad movers before. Never again.

What do "bad" movers do that's bad besides not show up? Which is bad enough! But like, do they break things? Drop things? Do you have them pack anything for you, or do you do all the packing and have piles of boxes ready when they get there?

I'm cheap, obv.

i used quotes from cheap movers to get the quotes from brand name movers down. got them from 850 to 500. cheap guys were 400 i think. expensive guys did all my packing for me. good use of £100 imo.

for single person loads with international moves, there are "movers" that basically call a courier for you and have them collect boxes you have packed, and then another courier delivers them at the other end. basically you're paying for the courier to hold your stuff for a week or two while you move to the other country yourself.

and then there are proper removal guys who will pack your stuff, put it on a lorry, drive it to their own warehouse, then put it on a lorry a couple of days later with stuff from other people headed in the same direction, and then unload, unpack, and take away the packing materials.

"Bad" movers can certainly break stuff -- obviously the amount you care about this depends on what you own. We don't really have any non-Ikea or non-secondhand furniture, but we are having the movers pick up a really nice couch and chair from the inlaws nearby, so we want to be a little more careful with that stuff. But presumably you don't want your dishes all cracked, your mattress torn, etc. no matter how cheap it is. I guess there's also more extreme but unlikely stuff -- theft, dangerous driving on the way, someone who's just going to be a dick. Last time the guy who showed up late and smelling of alcohol also was rather physically weak and took lots of breaks. In the end we wound up having to (1) hire another two guys from a nearby warehouse and (2) return the truck very late. Plus I was sick during all of this and moving shit anyway. It was a bad enough experience that I will never again hire someone I don't have some kind of vouching for and preferably a license.

Bad movers drop things, break things, and seem to have a general disregard for your belongings. They may also not have a proper truck (or know how to pack it safely), no hand trucks, no padding blankets, etc.

There is also the whole issue of liability if a mover gets hurt.

a guy i dated about 10 years ago called a cheapo man-with-van to do an apartment move from lower manhattan to western queens. we were ready to go on the day, but he never showed up. we had no car, so we had to move most of the stuff in taxis, and his brother-in-law arranged a u-haul (which we ended up waiting a long time for) for the bigger stuff.