Tag Archives: moving

book culling

15 Saturday Jul 2017

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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

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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

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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.

the van

26 Wednesday Jan 2011

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So this is more or less my baby, the one that will get me and my belongings from here to there. After checking with one of the cheapest moving companies in town and being told it would cost 550 euros (eep!) to move, I decided to revert to the old tried-and-true method of pestering all my friends. But hey, everyone gets pizza and beer afterwards!

This van will cost about 70 euros plus petrol and if Emilio (Maria Paz’s son) doesn’t have to go away this weekend on a family matter then he will do all the driving, as well as help out with the schlepping, as will his younger brother Alvaro. Seriously, I can only help with keeping things organised because I can’t risk putting my back out. But I reckon that with another couple of friends helping out (we can do a “human chain” thing with one person on each floor landing passing things up or down) and this rather spiffy van, it should only take two trips, and maximum three.

I’ll be picking up the keys to the palace on Friday morning so that Caroline and I can move some of the more fragile stuff over in her car. Then on Saturday the cleaners are coming, so that everything will be ready. After this I’ll bring all the food over and also stock the fridge with beer and other drinks for my movers. And then go home to spend my last night over at this “casa az”.

Now all I need is a driver and some young strong helpers…

the keys to the palace

24 Monday Jan 2011

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Ever since Steve’s typo, I’ve been referring to my new home as “the palace”. This afternoon I signed the contract, handed over the deposit and am now – officially – the keeper of the keys, though I won’t actually pick them up until Friday morning. Apparently there is still some painting and minor repairs to do, and then the cleaning woman is going to come over the weekend and get everything spic and span…

Meanwhile,  I’ll be moving some stuff over on Friday with Caroline, though I have yet to sort out the actual moving day or how I’m actually going to move. Today I spoke to Maria Paz’s son and he said he’d check out cheap van rentals and get back to me. So that bit is still up in the air. But wow! I have a signed contract and a new home. Go me!

p*cking

23 Sunday Jan 2011

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Today Peter and I have officially started packing after having collected a few boxes over the past couple of days. It’s hard to imagine that in a week’s time we may actually be moved… heck, it’s hard to imagine that we’re even going to find enough boxes, let alone get them all packed in time. It’s daunting, to say the least.

I still don’t even know how we’re going to move yet. Options are probably now down to renting a van and getting friends to help. I’m still waiting for estimates from a couple of moving companies but I’m sure they will be way too expensive. As for when, it could really be anytime after Thursday because the apartment is empty and that will give them time to finish painting, cleaning and doing minor repairs. I was hoping for Friday, which would give us the weekend to get settled in. We shall see.

But man – p*cking sucks! When I moved here from Salamanca all my worldly possessions, including two cats, fit neatly into a small hatchback. A year later when I moved from across the street I carried stuff over bit by bit. No furniture, just books, clothes, cats and kitchen stuff. And when I moved here from the apartment next door I didn’t have to pack one box, though I did fill up the laundry basket a few times. Compared to those times this is gonna be hell. On the plus side it’ll give me the chance to get rid of a lot of stuff, and there are lots of bookcases, cupboards and closets at the new place. Though I doubt I’ll ever look back on all this and laugh. Most likely I’ll shudder at the thought and just be thankful it’s over.

cosy

17 Friday Dec 2010

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Thought I’d share a cosy moment that happened this afternoon. Wish they could always get along so well, but I think the fact that it’s 12º in the apartment has something to do with the boys snuggling up like this under the sofa cover.

And the fact that I’m freezing and there’s practically a gale force wind coming in through the cracks in the balcony doors makes me think that today’s phone call from my schizoid landlord wasn’t such bad news after all. Yes, he has changed his mind – again – about renewing my contract, even though just two weeks ago he’d told me there’d be no problem giving me a new one … aargh.

So much for flipping a coin about Christmas in London, as I will now have to save every penny to move in February, plus I’ll need be here to look. I mean, I haven’t stopped looking around since I was first given notice, and I have ads of my own placed, but I liked having the option of staying if nothing better turned up. It really irks that this is happening, and it worries me too in case I get bad news in January and have to go back on chemo, or have another operation. On the other hand, having an apartment with double-glazed windows and heating/air-conditioning would be nice…

should I stay or should I go?

03 Friday Dec 2010

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The landlord has said he’ll write me a new contract with the “phantom 30€” added, and then we can take it from there. Which in some ways isn’t a bad offer because a new contract means he wouldn’t be able to throw me out again for five years, and even at 30€ more a month it’s still a reasonable amount for the area. Well, except that I don’t have air-con or a lift. And I have crazy landlords living downstairs. The real issue is that I don’t think he’ll agree to stop charging me for extra things whenever he feels like it, and if anything ever breaks down here I doubt he’ll fix it, and anyhow, now that I’ve seen Pepe’s dark side I know I can’t trust him. Except I love my house. And moving would be so upsetting and also expensive. I wish I knew what to do…