Cvetkovic/Kassabian Collingswood Home

For better or worse the moving of our stuff was done on Thursday, June 26. Our story picks up on Friday night. Vib is going away early Saturday to attend the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim, California.

Our hero, Nick, is home alone to run a yard sale, complete emptying out the house, and getting it ready for the new owners to move in on Monday, June 30. Our Liz has to move from 417 Cherry Hill Blvd. to her new place in Collingswood on Monday as well.

How does our hero fare? The saga continues...

The Story of Our Move, Part 2

Not so short a story.

(By semi-popular demand, some inaccuracies/omissions surely crept in in the six weeks since the actual move)

So, as we left our hero, he was just sighing a big breath of relief that the physical move had been completed.

BUT THERE’S MORE TO BE DONE.

Much more.

The movers had come and gone.

They had NOT emptied out 417, as the old house will be referred to from this point forward.

Friday night, upon returning from a full work day in Manhattan, there was to be the first session of a moving sale to get rid of a large number of items including two or three hundred books.

Quite a few people showed up, some sales were made.

I had decided to have a Friday night session so I could attract the professionals who might not have time on Saturday to make it to the regular sale.

But, at the end of Friday night there were a ton of items left and they should move on Saturday. Or, so I thought, somewhat naively.

In addition to the moving sale there remained to be cleared out…

The storage shed, which had the usual assortment of junk, garden tools, assorted packing materials for shipping books and three large boxes of NASCAR items pending sale/disposal that I got from my friend Jon.

The kitchen, which had lots of canned goods and other ‘assorted items’.

The laundry room, which had a variety of items including the contents of some cabinets.

Piles of books(maybe 300) from my office that had not found their way into boxes in the pre moving period.

The large(this becomes important later) solid wooden desk from my office.

The two piece entertainment center(original cost $ 1,700)

The 32 inch Sony XBR TV, still working great after a mere 12 ½ years of service, and its stand.

I was hoping to sell both the entertainment center and the desk at the moving sale but that didn’t happen.

The TV was to go to the daughters Natasha and TKs apartment.

The kitchen, laundry and shed contents were mine to move to Knight Ave.

“Drop dead” time for all of this to be done 0300 on Monday. This also becomes important later.

Friday night I pack a few things into the car and return to 417.

Saturday morning.

It’s a nice and hot day. Apparently not a day a lot of people want to go to moving sales. At least not the one at 417.

It’s now almost noon and many, many items still remain. But, they can’t remain in 417.

Craigslist comes to mind.

Did I mention I hadn’t packed up my computer yet, either?

So, I jump on the South Jersey Craigslist(southjersey.craigslist.org) and post ‘come and get it for free’.

I start carrying stuff to the curb for people to pick up.

People come and start rooting through what’s left and, not surprisingly, take a number of items.

I have maybe one third of what’s left at the curb.

Around 2 PM I get an email from someone who said they will take away everything I have left, just please wait for them.

So, I stop carrying stuff to the curb and heave a sigh of relief, a very premature sigh.

Now, just to make it interesting, a quick rain shower dampens what’s at the curb but people still show up to root through and take stuff.

Xxx shows up around 3:00 with his girl friend and a Toyota RAV 4, not large enough to hold everything left.

He packs as much as he can, promises to come back later that night to finish getting what’s left.

The 3 large items are still where they can’t be much longer.

I decide to rent a small truck for Sunday to move the TV and the leftover kitchen/laundry and shed items I can’t take on Saturday.

The local “Rent-a-Wreck”(yeah, real name, a Budget franchisee now) says they have no trucks for Sunday but if I call early, they’ll probably be able to accommodate me anyway.

So, now back to packing the van with as much stuff as will fit. Lots of books from the office, not enough boxes available so I end up using some trash bags.

Now it’s Saturday evening and I’m waiting for XXX to show up any minute to get the remaining yard sale items.

He calls me to inform me his girl friend is sick(apparently the owner/sole operator of the RAV 4) and he can’t come back to get the stuff.

Now (pick one) in a moment of inspiration, a moment of desperation , a moment of temporary insanity, I ask “Do you have access to a pickup truck? Are you interested in the $ 1700 wall unit and the desk?” “Sure, let me call my buddy and call you back”. He calls back and says he’ll see me in the morning and will take those two items as well as the remaining moving sale items(remember them?)

The rest of Saturday is a blur of more moving kitchen and laundry items to Knight Ave.

Sunday arrives and I go back to 417 blissfully unaware of how ‘interesting’ the next 18 hours will prove to be.

Then, at 9:30 I am able to pick up a truck from the aforementioned Rent-A-Wreck. I also rent a hand truck.

I start loading assorted items into the truck.

Around 10, XXX shows up. In a 1970s vintage(and I stress vintage) red F150 Ford pickup truck. I notice that ‘the friend’ is wearing a baseball cap embroidered “WWII Veteran” . He appears old enough to be John McCain’s much older brother.

Turns out it is XXX’s uncle who has been basically coerced into lending the truck. He obviously won’t be any help loading the truck but will turn out to be a crucial cog in solving a fairly vexing problem.

The uncle seems to be on a deadline. Not to mention it’s also very hot, especially for someone in their 80s. Time is of the essence.

We easily load the wall unit onto the pickup.

Then I ask XXX to help with the 32 inch TV which weighs 80 to 100 pounds. We start to load the TV. As we are trying to maneuver it, the plastic case literally starts to shatter in places. The case had had a small crack/piece missing from when it was last moved six years ago. Now the case is literally disintegrating around the picture tube/electronics. We hoist it into the truck along with the stand.

OK, now let’s get the desk onto the pickup truck.

Mmmm, desk won’t fit through either door, no matter how we twist or turn it. Nor does taking the door off the hinges help.

Let’s take the top off. Only held on by maybe a dozen Philips head screws. Oh, you need a SCREWDRIVER to take these out? They’re all at Knight Avenue. I decide to ask our soon-to-be-ex neighbors, the Merlino’s if I can borrow a screwdriver. Turns out only Marie is home, about 20 minutes from leaving for a trip to Italy. But, she lends me several screwdrivers.

I get back to my office and the WWII vet has had an inspiration that would save the time consuming task of removing the top from the desk. The desk is only about ¼ inch too wide. Solution? Take out the trim strips inside the door frame!!

So, he very carefully pops out the trim piece and we are able to slide the desk through with at least a millimeter to spare. The trim piece fits back on and you really can’t tell it has been popped off.

Desk plopped onto pickup truck.

Phew.

It’s getting close to noon and the uncle is antsy about leaving. Meaning no time for XXX to remove what’s left from the moving sale.

I finish loading up the truck with about as much will fit including several bags full of trash and head for the daughters’ apartment to dispose of the TV. It is now longer usable as a TV.

Natasha is not awake, nor interested in being awakened.

I draft her sister to help. She will come to Knight Avenue to unload the truck despite her back problems where she’s not supposed to lift too much.

We move the truck over by the apartment complex dumpster. There are three dumpsters and people have discarded two or three apartments’ equivalents in furniture directly behind the dumpster.

So, I unload the trash and throw it into the dumpsters.

Oh, yeah, how about that TV?

How do I get it off the truck by myself? It’s a small truck with no ramp.

As much as just kicking it out of the back appeals to me, the resulting picture tube implosion would probably draw all the Homeland Security folks from within Burlington County so that’s out of the question.

Several young males are working on their car in the parking lot? Would you like to make a few bucks helping me unload the TV? No, we’re leaving.

They stay and watch, however….

I unload the stand. Position it directly below the TV. Slide the TV off the back of the truck and it just needs to be ‘dropped’ maybe 18 inches to hit the stand.

SUCCESS.

Hey, Dad, you’re bleeding. Yeah, all over the ground from my hand.

Grabbing the TV to steady it I had apparently caught a finger on the jagged edge of what remained of the shattered case. I was afraid I had sliced off the top of a finger and would need to go to the ER to be fixed up.

It looked much worse than it was and a daughter-supplied Band-Aid solved that emergency.

Off to Knight Avenue to unload the truck with TK.

She helps me unload the truck by carrying all of the boxes and bags into the basement adding to the many put there during the move two days earlier.

It’s now around 5 PM and it’s been a somewhat eventful day.

We decide to have something to eat. We decide to have some dinner at Villa Barrone, the local restaurant that launched the Collingswood renaissance. We enjoy a nice dinner and finally notice how exhausting and draining a day it has been.

I recharge my batteries and TK then goes home having made a significant contribution.

I then take the truck back to 417 and look at what I am still facing.

Many more things to discard unsold from the moving sale.

The kitchen and laundry room had been emptied onto the truck previously.

Now “only” my office and the shed remained. Looking inside the shed I notice there’s really much to deal with there.

It’s time to bring in one more helper. Natasha comes over to help.

She packages what I deem to be trash from the shed.. There’ll be 25 bags of trash by the end of the night.

We both work on moving stuff onto the truck, the trash piled next to the truck to be put on at the end. I concentrate on my office.

About 9:30 o’clock Natasha leaves and I take what he have to Knight Ave, leaving the trash behind as well as other items for me to load into the van when I come back

I unload the truck and, by now, it’s almost midnight.

Time to take the truck back and get the van. First I need to refuel the van. Turns out I get to drive an extra few miles looking for an open gas station..

I finally get rid of the truck and go back to 417.

The van is filled to capacity with the remaining items, mostly books.

Now it starts to rain. Not heavily.

How about those 25 bags of trash?

They get dragged over to the curb and put into nice piles.

Now it’s approaching 2 in the morning. I have to be at the bus terminal by 4:15 or 4:30 to get to work.

Take time to survey the house, look for anything left behind unintentionally (not totally successfully, it turns out, but close).

Unintentionally left behind means just that. There was a pile of boxes, bags and several pieces of furniture left that daughter Elizabeth would pick up on Monday to move to her new apartment.

I take pictures of all of the rooms to record that the house was clean when we left it.

Go back to Knight Ave to take a shower and get dressed for work.

So, now everything we own is in Collingswood.

Now it’s a matter of redistributing the contents of the 200+ boxes to where the stuff will properly fit in the new location.

To be continued...