Wednesday, July 22, 2009

bed never felt so good

On Monday afternoon, our moving van arrived in town, but it was too late to go through customs for the day. (The appropriate customs office in Winnipeg works the very civilized hours of 8-4pm.) Early Tuesday morning, we were able to get approval from the customs folk and bring our belongings home. By then, I was longing to see my bed again...we spent a week sleeping on the floor. Even with a foam layer and a wool blanket, the floor was hard! (it did get softer after a week, I was so tired I might have slept on a rock if given the option...)

Then, everything was unloaded off the moving truck. This was somewhat stressful. Turns out one needs a permit to park a moving truck in Winnipeg. The local constable showed up nearly immediately after the moving truck parked in the back lane. (alley)

I had to rush inside and phone to purchase a permit from the Winnipeg Police folk. I've no idea how much it cost, because honestly, I was desperate for my belongings at that point...I think maybe $70 Canadian. This should have been done by the moving company, but I guess they didn't know about it either.

The movers were nice and fairly competent. We've gotten so we know the competent ones from the incompetent ones! The professor helped too so things were mostly unloaded by 4pm or so. Overall, the positives outweighed the negatives, but:
The piano got broken
The wheels/feet got broken off of two dressers and a bedframe.
A couple of other things got damaged.

All in all, not horrible, but definitely the most damage we've ever had in a move. The piano was also damaged in our move to Kentucky and took months to fix. Things will be expedited here because A) we claimed the damage very clearly on our paperwork and B) there are lots of piano restoration folk in Winnipeg. We're hoping that we can have the legs mended but honestly this is a messy one-- it's a good 3-4 inches of completely splintered front legs on a spinet piano. We'll see how this goes. We've used some vise like things to take the weight off of the legs for now.

All 5 spinning wheels (as far as I can tell for now) have come through just fine.

All I could focus on though was getting to sleep in a bed again! It was the first time in a week that I'd slept anyplace other than the floor, so I thoroughly enjoyed that last night. We are digging out our other belongings. I unpacked 4 dish barrels this morning (big boxes of dishes) and I'll unpack a few more boxes--likely spinning and knitting books, in my office, this afternoon.

Kristy (in the comments) is right though--we're in a great area foodwise! We're being sustained through large amounts of take out pizza and gelato. I went shopping today and bought saskatoons (berries like blueberries) at a market that focuses on local foods. After I bought actual food for the refrigerator, I also had to get a frozen yogurt with raspberries pushed into it, in a waffle cone. You know, just to break up the monotony of the gelato diet. :)

Next, we're having some trees trimmed/cut down in preparation for our new fence. The dogs can't wait for the fence. Neither can we...while I enjoy walks, jumping out of that bed and into my clothes for the first walk can be rough. On the floor, 5:30 AM? I was up. Now? The sleeping is easy...until 7 AM at least!

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10 Comments:

Blogger Nina said...

Mazel tov on the completion of your move! I am with you on the bed thing... I am way past sleeping on the floor these days!

July 22, 2009 at 4:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That extra 1.5 hours of sleep can make a HUGE difference. I'm glad you have your bed again. So sorry about the piano and other breakage, and thank heaven there are fixing resources available nearby.

July 22, 2009 at 8:40 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The stories about your adventure have been fun, but I'm glad you're getting settled in!

July 22, 2009 at 9:32 PM  
Blogger annmarie said...

so good to know that you're finally getting settled in comfortably. :)

July 23, 2009 at 6:35 PM  
Blogger Alison said...

Ouch on the piano! That one hits close to home. Mine just got careened into a snowbank when I last moved. Glad you got your things, and I'm impressed that the bureacracy was able to so quickly handle the permit process.

July 24, 2009 at 1:09 AM  
Blogger Geek Knitter said...

Bummer about your piano, here's hoping you get it fixed quick!

I remember being a kid and having no problems sleeping on the floors of different places... you couldn't pay me enough to do that now!

July 24, 2009 at 4:27 PM  
Blogger Nancy said...

Thank goodness you did the moving this cool July north of the Ohio River! That's really way too many broken items, but hopefully your declaring them broken right away will expedite repairs. Harry and Sally must be even more exhausted than their people with all those new smells!

July 24, 2009 at 9:13 PM  
Blogger vanessa said...

bummer about the piano.
thank goodness the wheels came through unscathed!

July 25, 2009 at 5:45 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Welcome home!

Getting the fence in was the first thing I did, too! Very important.

July 25, 2009 at 10:04 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I didn't know Google calls me Carolyn.

It's Me! Kerry!

July 25, 2009 at 10:05 AM  

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