Moving Day

After years of hoping and praying for a job that would allow us to move back west, once it happened, the days passed very quickly. We spent the first two weeks of August trying to find someone to take over our lease, packing, trying to find an apartment in Utah, and planning our move.

Getting out of our lease was kind of a pain, but in the end it worked out okay. Our lease was set to run through the end of November, so we called our landlord, a man by the name of Stephanos Killis, to see what our options were there. We were hoping to be able to get our (hefty) deposit back. He informed us initially that if we found someone to take over the lease for us then we could have the deposit back, otherwise we would have to forfeit it. We had to work mostly through the broker for our building that the landlord worked through. The broker, Sheik Hossain, isn't the most on-the-level businessman. We disliked having to deal with him after our sublet ended, and hadn't been in contact with him since. We weren't looking forward to having to deal with him again. We immediately found three or four people/families interested in taking over our lease. We had no choice but to put them in contact with Sheik. At the same time, the day after we notified him of our move, he began bringing people over to show them the apartment. It was kind of a race to see who would find someone to take over the apartment first. Each person we sent to him, he told them that the rent would be $100-ish higher per month and also tacked on extra (ridiculously priced) broker fees. Once we learned this, we tried to talk to him about it, but to no avail. We basically gave up on getting our lease back because he was making it almost impossible for anyone we sent his way to get the apartment. So, when he called about a week before we were to move out and informed Brian that the apartment had been signed for and that we would be getting our deposit back, we were dumbfounded. The apartment had been taken by a couple that he had found. Brian didn't dare ask any questions, because he didn't want to draw Sheik's attention to the mistake, if it was one. Sheik brought a check over that evening and we deposited as fast as we could. We still can't explain how we got our deposit back, other than it was a miracle.

After the lease business was figured out we began packing in earnest. The big challenge there was where to get boxes. We had a few friends offer to collect some at their workplaces, but we were worried that we were just going to have to buy some. Boxes are expensive! One Sunday evening, we were out on a walk and passed by a dollar store. Brian noticed the giant pile of collapsed and stacked cardboard boxes sitting outside on the curb. We went through them, picking out the ones in good condition and clean and ended up taking a whole stack home. It was awesome. Every night we went walkabout on the search for boxes, and besides a few that I had been storing and others we got from friends, that's how we found the majority of our moving boxes. It was awesome.

The packing itself wasn't so bad, we didn't have a ton of stuff that we wanted to take with us. It was the sorting through all said stuff that took time. Somehow, our four suitcases of stuff had multiplied to fill a one bedroom apartment. We have no idea how this happened, since we were on a pretty tight budget the whole time we were in New York. We never really bought a lot of stuff, and only brought back a few things here and there when we came back from visiting family in Idaho. We've decided that stuff just multiplies on its own. It's perplexing. Even though it was a pain to go through everything...it was great at the same time. We put our little shredder to work getting rid of old paperwork, and tossed or gave away a lot of things. It was refreshing.

All the while we were purging and packing, I was working on finding us an apartment in Utah and Brian was researching rental trucks and planning our routes. I had a friend, Ashley, in Utah who was so wonderful and went to look at a couple places for us. The first one that we really liked was rented to a different couple, but the second one, which was very similar to the first, worked out. Once we get our place all put together I'll post pictures, but so far we are loving it. Brian found us a great deal on a 12 foot budget rental truck and planned our route through the middle of the country (again, more on that later).

Brian finished work at PCMag on Aug 14th which gave us five days to finish packing and getting everything ready for our departure. Those days are kind of a blur now--lots of packing and sweating in the 90-degree-plus heat with 100% humidity. We were chugging ridiculous amounts of gatorade, and still felt parched. It was insane. Somehow, we got everything packed and cleaned on Wednesday Aug 19th, the day before we were to leave.

Brian and I walked over to the Budget rental place around noon on the 19th. It was about a ten minute walk, but it was nice to stretch out our muscles that had been bending and lifting for a few days now. When we got there, I laughed a little because it was just tiny little "building" inside a small fenced parking lot. I was expecting something a little bigger, but I guess you don't need much to rent out cars and trucks. 

We did the initial inspection, taking pictures and all, before signing the papers and handing over our credit card. Then we climbed in the truck that was to be our home for the next five days.

Moving is crazy, stressful, expensive, and hard work, but it is even more complicated in NYC. I've mentioned a few of the issues previously--dealing with landlords and brokers, finding boxes, the heat and humidity, etc.--but that doesn't even include dealing with driving and parking a rental truck. First off, the traffic is crazy. It's not as bad in Queens, just because it's not quite as crowded and hectic as Manhattan, but it's still an experience. Then you have to worry about parking. Since we don't have a driveway to park in (or even an open space along the curb that's not blocking a fire hydrant) you have to double park. This means that someone must stay with the truck at all times in case a vehicle comes down the street that can't get past you. Then you have to move the truck--i.e. drive it around the block and re-park. That's a headache all in itself. Lastly, rental trucks are considered commercial vehicles, so you can't park them on the street overnight without getting a ticket with a hefty fine. And it's NYC, so you need a sturdy lock to keep people from getting into the back and pilfering your stuff, and it's also a good idea to have a night watchman, because the lock isn't a guarantee against theft, not to mention vandalism. It's a party.

We were a bit stressed at first when realizing all of this. Happily, we received permission from our Bishopric to park our truck in the church's gated parking lot overnight. Whew! That solved all of our truck issues. What a blessing and a huge load off of our shoulders.

After picking up the truck, we drove it to the church and parked it in the lot while we went home to finalize some cleaning and packing. It wasn't so huge that it was impossible to drive, so that made Brian happy, especially since we had only driven a handful of times since moving to NYC.

Around 7:00 pm that evening (the 19th), Brian went to go pick up the truck. Members of our ward's Elders Quorum arrived to help us load up the truck. We appreciate everyone who came to help so much, because at that point Brian and I were exhausted, and I don't know how just the two of us would have gotten everything down our four flights of stairs. With everyone's help, it only took 30 minutes to get everything out of our apartment and loaded up. We were even able to give away our futon and TV stand, which we were happy to do. Our table/desk, kitchen shelf unit and two random wooden chairs ended up no the curb, but I'm sure they were picked up by someone the next day.

I mostly stayed in the apartment during the moving, directing what to take down when. Brian was in the back of the truck stacking boxes and arranging things so they would fit okay. Everyone else did the heavy lifting. We are so grateful for the help.

After the truck was loaded, and everything was out, Brian drove the truck back to the church. We treated everyone who came to pizza and popsicles. It was nice to have it done and be able to enjoy a moment chatting with friends.

We bid farewell to everyone that night and stopped to look around at our empty apartment. Kind of a bittersweet moment. It had been our home, our safe haven, in the craziness of NYC. It was bright, clean, safe, and happy...and now it was empty.

We spent the night on a twin sized air-mattress we borrowed from friends...well I did. Our intent was to share it, but Brian decided that sleeping on the floor would be better for his back, so he made a nice bed of flattened, layered cardboard boxes, covered with our comforter. I was so worried that he would wake up not wanting to move. He was just fine in the morning though.

Our initial plan was to have everyone help us carry our beast of an A/C window unit downstairs that night and load it up in the truck, but it was so hot that we decided to leave it so we could actually get some sleep that night. The next morning, we decided just to leave it, rather than trying to carry it down ourselves. That thing is heavy! It was kind of sad to say goodbye....it had been our lifesaver every summer we had been there. We figured the next tenants would appreciate our generosity (or laziness).

The next morning, we woke up bright and early and got ready to go. Brian left to get the truck, and I finished taking out some garbage, boxes, and last minute throw-away stuff. We hauled the rest of our stuff down--suitcases, backpacks, pillows, etc. We were waiting for Sheik to come by at 8:00 am to get our keys to the apt. He called a little after the appointed time asking Brian if we had meant eight in the morning when we spoke the day before. When we said yes, his response "to leave the keys on the counter and the apartment unlocked" didn't surprise us at all. We were a little miffed because we could have left earlier if we knew we didn't need to wait for him. Oh well. I'm glad we don't have to deal with him ever again.

We swung by our friends' apartment to drop off their air mattress, church keys we borrowed for the parking lot gate, and Brian's unlimited subway card which was still good for a couple weeks. We wanted someone to get some use out of it. Once that was done, we climbed in the truck and away we went.