Tag Archives: moving

book culling

15 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by in casa azahar, home, sevilla

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Book culling began in earnest this weekend. Aside from the eight shelves of books you see here (fiction) there were also four shelves of non-fiction. They have now been whittled down to four shelves for both! It was much easier than I thought, though anyone looking at my remaining books is going to think I’m a bit frivolous with authors like Pratchett and Lindsey Davis dominating now.

Of course the question remains… what to do with the other eight shelves worth of books? Also, all the CDs, and the hundreds of DVDs? What is the best way to either sell or give away stuff when you move?

the movers

14 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by in home, sevilla

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So you may recall the last time I moved. IT WAS HELL. Especially the packing. And then literally last minute – the day before moving day – I found this amazing team to help us move. I still can’t believe it all worked out. But it really was a whole week of hell followed by serious moving day hell. Back then I really didn’t have much choice because my Sevilla Tapas Tours had yet to take off and money was a real issue. But somehow we got it all done on a shoestring.

This time money isn’t so much of an issue, though after paying the agent’s fee on the new apartment, and the movers, it will end up almost the same as paying an extra 2-3 months rent (yikes!), which makes it a very expensive move compared to last time. BUT… also a much more comfortable one. One thing is for sure – I am hiring professional movers and hang the expense. I will never go through what I did last time. So there.  😉

BUT… what about packing? So far I’ve only had one quote and they also offer to pack up everything – EVERYTHING! – for an extra 300€. Has anyone out there done this? Is it worth it? I mean, it certainly sounds worth it, but is it as stress free as it sounds? Or will I have to be there hovering over their every move? It sounds like a dream come true – they promise to do it all in one day – but can it be trusted?

pizza

08 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, food & drink, home

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I am about to eat my fifth pizza in the the past two weeks…

I think I usually eat pizza about once ever six months or so, but this moving biz just leaves things like time and kitchen availability so unpredictable that sending Nog out for a pizza for us to share seems like the quickest and most economical way for us to have something resembling a hot meal. This also includes the “pre-moving” period after the kitchen had been packed up and we were tired of sandwiches (though I guess a pizza really is just a fancier version of cheese on toast).

I thought our pizza days were behind us as we now have a fairly well-stocked fridge and most of the kitchen cupboards have been cleaned and organised. In fact, I made a lovely carbonara for lunch yesterday. But then the handyman came back today to do a few jobs, which meant me hobbling off to the hardware store to get this & that (Nog was out teaching), which took up most of the morning, and then there were some minor kitchen repairs that left that room unusable for another couple of hours… so more pizza.

But I have to say that the place is really coming together. It’s great that the landlords have sent the handyman over to make sure everything is in good working order. Apparently he has to come back tomorrow to take care of a few other things, and then we’ll be pretty much set up and it will just be a matter of UNPACKING.

my heroes!

30 Sunday Jan 2011

Posted by in friends, home

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Ana, Lalo & Isidro

All in all I had less than a week to move after signing my new contract last Monday and finally shifting stuff over to the new apartment today. Frantic and haphazard packing took place, with Peter doing the lion’s share of the work, and box hunting became a daily expedition. When friends first heard of me having to move a couple of months ago, and how distressed and overwhelmed I was about how I was going to get it done, they assured me they’d be there and help out. Ha. Not one of them came through. In the end, I posted a plea for helpers on Twitter/Facebook and got a reply from someone called Ana who offered me her van and her moving services for a very reasonable fee (compared to the 550 euro quote I got from the moving company last week). But it turned out that her van was too small for my bed and my sofa, so I started looking at vans to hire … and then Ana offered to drive for me. As I couldn’t afford to hire a van and pay her hourly fee, I offered her my help with setting up a blog and a few other social media thangs. And a deal was struck.

But suddenly it was Saturday and I still had nobody to help schlep the stuff – and there was a helluva lot of stuff piling up. Then I remembered that my friend Flor had told me about a handyman she sometimes uses and she thought he also did moving. Called him up around 7pm on Saturday and he said he and a friend would be there at 10.30 the next morning.  He quoted a fee, I counter-offered, and got a lower price. Fine…

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moving along…

28 Friday Jan 2011

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What a day! My friend Caroline drove in from Jerez to help me move some of the more fragile stuff over in her car, before the Big Move on Sunday. So we brought over about four carloads before heading off for a fab lunch at a place I’d never been to before called Simún (you can see the twitpic feed here). Later her boyfriend Eduardo joined us (he took the train in from Jerez to pick Caroline up as he knew she’d be having a bit of wine at lunch…) and after taking him out for a snack we came back to my place to toast this very lovely day with a glass of cava. And so here is Caroline and Edu sitting amongst the detritus of all the packing boxes and mess.

Sunday will be the REAL moving day. I have managed to rent a van and have found someone to drive it. Now I just need some muscle. One friend has signed up to help since this morning, and another is a definite maybe. Eep. I can’t lift anything heavy and Peter is wiry but can’t lift everything on his own. So fingers crossed that I find at least two more strong bods to help with the shifting.

The new apartment looks great though. Landlords are sending the cleaning ladies in tomorrow to give it a good once over. Then we’ll hang the curtains and organise what we can for the big move. Really hard to believe I only have two more sleeps here.