A few weeks I sent out a letter to some bloggers that I haven't seen around these parts in a while (though admittedly, some I do see on Facebook 4 times a day), asking if they would like to write up a guest blog post telling me home they are doing.
So far, I've only gotten one post back (but have heard from a few others). So, here, without further ado, I give you: Fancy Schmancy.
Hi, Eric. Thanks again for asking me to do a guest blog. Sorry this is like weeks later than your deadline, but this is the first chance I've really had a clear enough head for this, and my son isn't home hogging the computer!
I moved recently. I decided now would be a good time to get a sleeper sofa for the living room. I found one on Craig's List in really great condition for really cheap, one town over. I went and checked it out about 3 weeks before I was ready to move, it was awesome! It came from a smoke and pet free home, and they were willing to hold it till I moved. They warned me it was REALLY heavy, it took them 4 guys to bring it down into their finished basement. I paid them for it and decided I would figure out how to get it when the moving weekend came.
Moving weekend came. For Friday, I hired professional movers for a couple of hours to get the huge, heavy stuff. The moving company had a minimum of 2-1/2 hours I had to pay for, whether they worked for 2-1/2 hours or not. I also hired a gaggle of my son's friends to move the rest of the stuff that afternoon and evening, but I wasn't completely confident in a bunch of 16-year-olds. Sometimes their little brains and raging hormones outweigh their muscles.
The moving company I hired sent over two completely competent men. Seriously, I cannot say enough good things about these guys. They worked hard, they worked smart, they didn't complain, and they were extremely patient, kind and polite. If I could have afforded for them to do the whole move, I would have gladly done it in a heartbeat! Alas, I didn't have that kind of money to play with. My idea was to get the big stuff out of the old place and into the new place and see how much time and money I had left before I decided whether to let the movers or "the boys" go get the couch.
The movers got everything I needed them to get out quickly. The storage facility was 1/2 mile away, and they got everything loaded into that pretty quickly, too. I had at least an hour left of my minimum, and I knew for a fact they wouldn't need that much time to go to another 1/2 a mile to the new place and bring in 4 appliances, one small china cabinet and 3 dressers. In a haze of hope and desperation I made the decision to pay them for another hour to go out and get the sleeper sofa. Technically, we were right next to the highway, and the house where the sofa was is right off the highway. Mapquest said it was about 8 miles, should take about 12 minutes in each direction. They said they would follow me in the huge moving truck, but just wanted a general idea of where they were going and my cell number in case we got split up. No problem, I wrote down directions on a piece of paper and put my cell number at the bottom. They looked at it before we were about to leave the storage space and suggested I might be out of my mind. What? The exit we were going to get off is called the "Tunnel Road" exit. The house was on the other side of the tunnel. The tunnel didn't have enough clearance for a HUGE moving truck. CRAP!
Here is a picture I took of that exact same tunnel last summer:
I called the people who were still in possession of the sofa to make certain they were indeed on the wrong side of the tunnel. They were. They suggested the same route I was thinking of - an alternate road that would require us to go through yet another town to get there. Mapquest suggested the trip would now take us 20 minutes instead. Mapquest has obviously never driven through my town with stop signs and traffic lights to get to an extremely old, narrow, twisting and turning, hilly, New England country-bumpkin, tree-hugging, granola-crunchy, Birkenstock-wearing road complete with original stone walls and fields and barns and horses. It would have been a beautiful, relaxing, Sunday drive in the country if it were not for the fact that it was Friday and I was paying these guys by the hour. And the fact that the huge moving truck was being driven by an extremely cautious and careful driver who literally had to go 5-10 miles and hour to navigate that road. Hindsight is 20/20. In the rush of adrenaline before we set out I was like, "let's go DO THIS!". By the time we got to the house to get the sofa, I was still like, "Okay, let's still do this..." I was already committed to it, and still looking forward to having it in my new living room.
We got there, got the sofa loaded into the truck, and navigated the same horrid bitch of a road back into my town to my new place. Once there, my adrenaline kicked back in! Woot! Let's get everything in! They decided to start with the sleeper sofa since it was the last thing put on the truck. It Wouldn't Go In The Front Door. The front door is a storm door leads to an enclosed screened-in porch. The screened-in porch leads to a little foyer with a closet, and then a hard left into the living room. They took off that storm door, that regular door, and also took out the light fixture. They couldn't get it in and around that corner.
Next they tried the back door which leads into the kitchen. They took off that screen door and regular door, too. The porch that leads up to that door had too low of a ceiling, even if they could have turned it. They could not manipulate that darn thing in any direction through any door to make it go into the house. After 45 minutes of this, I asked them to stop and just leave it on the side of the house. I know when to call it quits. They still had to bring in the rest of the furniture and appliances! They tried as hard as they could, it just wasn't going to happen. I even had them look at the hatchway when they were bringing down the washer and drier, there was no way they were going to get it into the basement, either.
After the move, "the boys" brought the sleeper sofa out to the fenced in back yard. I want to add that these same boys
worked their butts off for me moving the rest of the furniture and boxes. They had an equally hard time getting my regular sofa and loveseat into the house, thank goodness there were removable legs! In return for their hard work, I not only paid them - I gave them a spot in the basement to hang out. And a really great sleeper sofa in the back yard! I give you the "yard couch". Only a couple of people have actually used it, so far, but it's only been 2 weeks. I'm thinking that my son's party this coming weekend is going to possibly have a "sleeper" or 2 on it. It's like camping, only better!
Sleeper sofa $ 50.00
Movers $300.00
__________
Yard Couch $priceless
I got an update from Fancy Schmancy on her update. Looks like someone did crash on it this weekend.
