Hi everyone, This is an email Jeff sent to me on Tuesday, Aug, 8, the day after the movers brought our shipment from the U.S. to our new home. On moving day, I was in Barcelona, on my way to Norway to meet up with a friend for four days, so Jeff sent me this email to let me know how the move went……
Whadda day! And our first happy hour!….Hi darling, It’s 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 7 – I’m trapped by a rather impressive thunder/lightning storm tonight, and wanted to keep you up to date on today’s move-our-furnishing-into-the-house activities.
The three delivery guys (Jeff, Joel, and Florian) appeared on schedule about 2:00, with the humidity at 82%. Wow, what a busy day!!! They put me in charge of checking off boxes and furniture items on a written schedule that included 120 items! At times it was all I could do to check off the boxes as they filed by. At slower times I carried boxes upstairs one by one, duly noting them as I made it to my premier étage (second-floor) work station.
At first the guys were all business, but as I stumbled with my French they came to accept me as a temporary one of them, and the comradery started flowing.
These guys (from Toulouse) were very good, and were open to my micro-managing when fragile items came along.
Our leather sofa did not fit in the stairway to the deuxième étage (third floor), and so I had to tear out the door and frame to allow the guys to take the sofa to that level.
We did get Li’l Eos (Vibeke’s convertible) out and about. I personally drove her around Roundabout #2 and back, and she rests safely in the garage during the storm. That was fun! In other news, your roll-top desk seems to have arrived without issue, as did everything else that I’ve looked at so far. The boxes came in fast at times!
In the 20-foot shipping container, all of our furniture and boxes were piled on a wooden platform built over Eos — the container was specifically for our load. (That’s Li’l Eos in the truck). This may even be the same container that they used at the Sausalito end. Amazing shipping techniques these days. Just be thankful everything made it in tact — I think.
The three guys took enough of a shine to me that they accepted my invitation to a beer-a-thon after a few hours of work. I poured (left to right) Jeff, Joel, and Flo a round of our bottled beer—a half bottle each—which they re-e-e-e-ally liked, and we also shared a pound of cheese. Joel recognized the cheese was Compte, and recommended another type that we should try. I also let them smoke, since all three partook. They had more work to do, and even so, the leader — Florian, on the right in the photo — “left the door open” for a second round of beer after they finished the day’s work.
After another hour of sweaty labor, he, Jeff, Joel and I found ourselves on our dreaming deck downing a few cans of our favorite, excellent Dutch beers from our grocery store.
How fun to sneak by with my barely passable French with these guys and get a few chuckles out of them. At the end of the second round, they were off, with a return promised for a few details like assembling the bed on Thursday. This event would not have happened in America!
The guys had never seen the walled city from someone’s home! So they, I’m sure, enjoyed our socializing, and they appreciated the 100-euro tip I gave each one.
Then the skies clouded over and I was in storm drill, closing windows just before dark.
I wish you had been here to experience the slow-motion train wreck — which our house totally will be for the foreseeable future.
By the way, they were willing to move the 9-foot armoire out of what is eventually going to be our laundry room and into the salon. The armoire looks great in the salon, even though it’s not where it will be eventually. Its size so deserves a big room like the salon. The guys made short work of it too, even partly disassembling it.
Several time I just couldn’t watch them move furniture, like the sofa and your roll-top desk.
The house is definitely taking shape, although it looks horrible at the moment.
The storm passed quickly but sleeping was a little rough on one of the beds Dr. Cabibel left for us. Plus, twice somebody thought it’d be a good idea to shoot off a few big fireworks about 10:00 p.m. very nearby. Sheeeeesh!
But, overall, I awoke with great enthusiasm to put the million pieces of this house together, knowing I may have 20 years to do it.
The neighborhood chickens are up and at ‘em. I’m off to “walk” (not “run”) my errands, and then I’ll be back at it!
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