The Move

"What's a box of brown?" 

Alan accepts enough that it should be put downstairs, but still chuckles. 

In the end it seemed the boxes we tried to make witty were just glossed over (e.g. "Athletic Plants"), while the ones that were just were what they were, were the big hits (e.g. "Wow, That's Random", "Ronseal"). 


 Anyway... the move went well. 

Paul and I picked up the U-Haul in the morning. ("I would go insane if we got the walrus!"  We didn't.) 

Had lunch at the choice of champions.  Where, eventhough I'd been living there for over 7 months, had never been.  And still, coincidence would have it, get caught by the Twins (who were also there for their first visit to that location). 

 

Back at the house, Paul cleared the newly fallen snow, and I took apart the last of the furniture. 

And then it happened.  I just went along with it.

Alan and Rachelle arrived first.  As the former  works on a strategy (as a "geometrist", he had plans to fit all our stuff into the U-Haul with no gaps), we begin moving things into car trunks.

More people appear. Grant and Sarah...  Rem and Steph... Olivia, Henry, Alice, Michael, Sophie, and Ken. 

Everyone is ready to work and, thankfully, experienced with moving so don't require direction from me. 

In what seems like no time, everything is ready for transport and there was actually some space left in the U-Haul!  

Everyone makes their way to the new house.  Coconut rides shotgun with me.  Starting late, I arrived second last.  Everyone already there (plus Catherine and Jaclyn) and had put themselves to work.

"The snow won't stop us!" Alan, unthwarted, had picked up a shovel and led the pack to clear the walks and paths to the house. 

The U-Haul circled the neighbourhood before finally finding a parking spot. 

We split up into outdoor, indoor upstairs, and indoor downstairs crews and started unloading. 

Paul and I directed the boxes down the human chain - our box labels might have made sense to us, but didn't make it easy for people to know if it should go to "the Gym room" or the "craft room", etc. 

Finally, we attempted the couch that had lived in Paul's garage.  Ahh!  It didn't fit!  Not through the side door, not through the front door... not even with the legs unscrewed.  Finally, defeat accepted, someone said, "It's obviously a garage couch." And that's where it went.

We bade farewell to a number of people and went with a smaller group to my parents' place for furniture they (and my sisters) have given us.  After unloading, this group set for home too.

Catherine and Jaclyn who had been holding the fort and putting together the furniture, gamely decided to stay.  (And I finally locate my camera.) 

We feasted on the snacks my parents had thoughtfully prepared and baked frozen pizzas. 

We found our fire alarm definitely works (perhaps too well). 

(Left: Jaclyn distracts the alarm as I open windows.) 

Finally, relaxing, we admitted we've really moved in. 

And, now there will be a lot of unpacking to do.