Le jour du déménagement - Moving Day

We received some very good new this week from the moving company.  Our things had arrived in France two weeks early and they had already cleared customs!!!  Forget what I have previously said about the SF and their customs department.  We were originally told that our things wouldn't arrive into port until June 20th and then they would have to clear customs and make the 3 1/2 hour drive from Marseilles.  I hadn't really expected to see our things until the beginning of July.  Don't get me wrong....I am grateful, but given my past experience I didn't expect to have something go through so flawlessly!!!  I am guessing that moving companies inflate the time they quote you just to make you so grateful when things arrive that you forget the pain.  Kinda like child birth!!   I will just make a note here that my aero-bed and swifter that arrived by air shipment took five days to clear customs while an entire 20 foot shipping container cleared without a second glance!  The only problem this presented is that the rental company, who had responded to our desperate cries for help furnishing our apartment and had done so within a 24 hour notice, had expected us to actually keep the furniture for longer than 7 days.  The rental company was amazing.  They never blinked an eye and just came on Tuesday and packed everything up and carted it away. 

I have never lived in an apartment or in Europe and so I wasn't familiar with the common use of hoists used to yes, hoist your things up a rickety metal ladder to your floor.  I can tell you that it is one thing to see a bunch of rental furniture riding up and down a sketchy looking lift and quite another to see your personal belonging riding up 8 stories and saying a silent prayer that a strong wind doesn't suddenly begin to blow.  For the most part, it is best to employ the same tactic that mother's use when their teenager begins to drive....CLOSE YOUR EYES AND PRAY that your precious cargo arrives safely at home.

So this picture was taken on the day that the rental furniture was being picked up.  First, the hoist ladder is raised to the floor and then they lean it against the railing wall and lock it in place.  The platform I am just guessing is about 4 feet wide squared with metal flaps that they extend on both sides so that the platform is about 4x6 feet wide.  There are no railings or bungee cords attached to your boxes they just set it on the platform and let-er-rip!!  It really is better not to watch.  Leave it to the professionals!

This is Justin practicing his gymnastics is the great expanse of our living room after the rental furniture had been removed.  They picked up our things on Tuesday and we had to actually blow up the second aero-bed to sleep on for one night.  Not a bad night's rest!!  Below Justin is dancing with Coco. Why do you think that is weird!!  Don't judge!!  When you are spending 12 hours in a completely empty apartment with nothing to do but sit on the floor and twiddle your thumbs, you think of crazy things to do like dance with the dogs.  I think there is great value in spending time without a single thing to do in an empty apartment. 

Now this is me excited that our truck has arrived, the hoist has been set, and we are getting ready for move-in day!!  I was excited that the hoist that the moving company brought was just slightly more stable looking than the one that had arrived the previous day, but don't let me fool you....it was equally sketchy.  I am guessing this hoist platform was about 5 ft x7 feet.  I decided that for the sake of the blog, I needed to take a few pictures of the hoist to give you an idea of the experience.  I think the crew must have thought I was taking pictures of their work making sure it was done correctly.  But no, I was getting pictures for the blog.  That is WAY more important. 

Here comes the sofa!!!

It made it....but now....How to get it into the apartment!!

After watching the rental company try and get a sectional sofa into the apartment and down the narrow hallways, I began to have real fear over how my big American leather sofa was going to fit through the hallways.  I pre-warned the moving crew that I was really concerned that the sofa was not going to fit.  They were confident BEFORE they saw the HUGE sofa riding up the lift but I saw the wide eyes and the side-way glances they gave each other.  When they took the sofa off the lift, I saw the head crew man shake his head in that way that only means very bad news.  They got out the measuring tape, measured every doorway and window against the measurements of the sofa and I could tell there was just absolutely no way this mammoth sofa was going to fit into the apartment.  They had left the sofa on the balcony and decided just to let it sit for a minute or two while they finished unloading some boxes.  I think they were hoping it would just magically shrink or go away.  There were two men handling the unloading at the balcony...the head guy, the guy in the picture with dreadlocks, and another more awesomer guy who you can only see his hand.  I wish I had taken a picture of this man because he was almost the first Frenchman I have ever kissed!!  After about ten minutes had passed and he had been staring at the sofa and I could tell he was trying to solve this puzzle, and then all of a sudden he says, what I can only imagine is brillant because he of course spoke it in French, to the head guy and then VOILA, they twisted one way and then another, and that MAMMOTH sofa slide into through the doorway without a scratch, dent, or the removal of any of it's arms.   I am telling you that I watched them measure the doorways and the sofa from every angle and there is no way that thing should have ever fit.  I'm not calling it manna from heaven, but I am just as sure that it was a MOVING MIRACLE!!  I was so happy that for several minutes all I could do was smile and clap my hands and like I said, I nearly kissed my first Frenchman!!!

I would love to show you pictures of my completed house, but it is only about 95% completed.  I packed enough clothes to wear a new outfit for probably a year.  I thought I had taken only the important stuff, but clearly I had a very over inflated idea of what is considered essentials.  I still have three bags of clothes that require unpacking and frankly I didn't feel like moving all the bags around to hide from the lens of the camera even if it were for the sake of the BLOG!!  You say three bags, that's not so much, but they are three large storage bags that you suck all the air out to make it smaller....Yeah, three of those bad boys and the closet space that is laughing at my face.  Maybe I will get another moving miracle and they will all fit!!!  I'm guessing I will have to just put some of my clothes in storage in our cellar in the basement and just be grateful for the one true moving miracle!!