I think I found my new home!

frau kaleun · 05-02-13, 07:52 PM

TONIGHT ON THIS OLD CONDO: Frau Kaleun goes to Ikea!

So, I bought a mattress. And after having a lie-down on pretty much everything there that wasn't designed for poor college students with far more resilient bodies than mine, the one I picked out was about $500 less than the one I thought I was going to want.

So to celebrate the fact that I was saving so much on the mattress, I decided to go ahead and get the drawer unit and two bookcases for the office. It was a flat delivery fee for everything, so I figured if I'm paying for a delivery and I was expecting to spend the extra money anyway, I might as well get some other things I want now and have them bring it on over all at one time.

Anyway the guy looked up all the items I wanted and printed me out a list and told me it would be $59 for delivery if I went to the self service area and got them all on a cart myself and paid for them and just took them to the delivery counter.

"But will I be able to get the mattress on the cart and take it up to the checkout?"

"Oh sure, that should be no problem. Just ask someone up there for assistance if you need help lifting it onto the cart."

Well, okay, some of their mattress DO come rolled up. And he's the expert from the mattress department. At least he didn't try to sell me their home assembly service. So on to the self service aisles I went with my little list in my sweaty, eager hand.

Now I don't know if you all are aware of this, but a queen size mattress that is not rolled up is FREAKIN' HUGE. Guess what my mattress wasn't? ROLLED UP is what it wasn't. There I am with my little cart, already loaded down with seven boxes containing a slatted bed base, two six and a half foot high - or in this case, long - bookcases, and what felt like an 800 lb. drawer unit, staring up at a fully unrolled queen size mattress.

Suddenly I remembered going to Kennedy Space Center when I was a kid, and seeing the giant transport thing they always used to haul the Saturn V rockets from the vehicle assembly building out to the launch pad. I looked at the mattress. I looked at the cart. And I thought to myself, if we can put a man on the moon, dammit, I CAN DO THIS.

And then I thought a far more sensible series of thoughts and went to get some help. We had to get another cart and it took both me and a very nice Ikea dude to shift the mattress and get the two carts up to the checkout, where the Ikea dude left me to my own devices. Getting the carts from the checkout over to the delivery counter was an even more terrifying ordeal, since I was on my own trying to pull two very heavy carts - one of which really wanted to do endless donuts in front of the exit doors, and another that was struggling valiantly against the mattress's overwhelming instinct to assume its natural position of lying flat out on any surface available.

Thankfully no blood was shed, although I think I came *this* close to knocking a poor small Asian woman clean off a couch in the furniture pickup area. Everyone else was very understanding and kept as far away from the Frau Kaleun Ikea Juggernaut as possible.

Anyway all the stuff is being delivered to the condo on Saturday. After getting that set up I went back into the Marketplace section and bought a set of sheets since I have no queen size bedding at all. For blankets and a comforter if I need one I can just use what I've got now until I find something else I like. I don't have a bed over there yet so the mattress will be on the floor anyway.

But with the mattress in place, all I need is to get the master bathroom clean and functional and get the office set up and get internet service over there and I can start moving in what I need to actually stay there! Maybe by next weekend if all goes well.

I also need to get a forwarding order on file with the post office, I had mail at the condo today with a big "?" on it next to my name cuz I guess the mail carrier is questioning if the addressee actually lives there. And I need to start changing my home address with all the places where I do business... none of them send me snail mail that really matters, but I guess they should have the new address on file as soon as I can get to it.

By the time I got out of Ikea it was after 7 PM so I ended up just going to the condo and leaving the stuff I'd bought and coming on home. Too late to get started on any projects tonight and I was SO tired. Tomorrow I want to get over there and do the carpets in the spare bedrooms and maybe get started on the desk altho that may have to wait until the weekend. I'll need to be over there early on Saturday anyway waiting for the delivery so I'll likely have all day to work on it.

Sailor Steve · 05-03-13, 03:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Now I don't know if you all are aware of this, but a queen size mattress that is not rolled up is FREAKIN' HUGE.

Nine feet high 'n' six feet wide 'n' soft as a downy chick, the last I heard.

No, wait.

Quote:

But with the mattress in place, all I need is to get the master bathroom clean and functional and get the office set up and get internet service over there and I can start moving in what I need to actually stay there! Maybe by next weekend if all goes well.

Good! Then maybe you'll stop thinking in terms of...

Quote:

...leaving the stuff I'd bought and coming on home.

and thinking in terms of "getting the stuff from the old apartment and bringing it home with me".

Anyway, thanks for a lovely descriptive and hilarious story of the misadventures of a maiden mired in moving mountains of miscellaneous mishmash from molehill to mansion. We'd like to wish you smoother sailing, but your struggles are our entertainment, so we'll just keep watching and laughing.

Jimbuna · 05-03-13, 04:43 AM

It should all be worth it in the end and besides, what a great collection of stories to entertain everyone at your house warming

frau kaleun · 05-03-13, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

and thinking in terms of "getting the stuff from the old apartment and bringing it home with me".

Home is where my internet is.

Once I get the condo hooked up to the intertoobz and move the computer over there, my perspective will change.

I did go to the USPS website and put in a forwarding order for my mail, which costs a whole dollar to do online and saves me a trip to the post office.

My sister gets her schedule for the rest of the month today, so we'll be able to decide which weekend we're gonna move the furniture and other big items that will require a truck of some kind. That should light a fire under me as far as getting the smaller essential stuff (and myself) moved in.

AVGWarhawk · 05-03-13, 07:36 AM

Yes, the trials and tribulations of moving. We are still waiting on a new dining table set for our new humble abode we ordered 6 weeks ago. I guess they are swimming it over from Bangladesh.

Sailor Steve · 05-03-13, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

My sister gets her schedule for the rest of the month today, so we'll be able to decide which weekend we're gonna move the furniture and other big items that will require a truck of some kind.

Only one weekend? I assume there is no TH Maxx or Hobby Lobby along the way.

frau kaleun · 05-03-13, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Only one weekend? I assume there is no TH Maxx or Hobby Lobby along the way.

No, but there IS a giant antiques mall. We may have to put blinders on her or something.

I hope to be living out of the condo already and have most, if not all, of the smaller boxable stuff moved over. So if we're lucky it'll just be the furniture and maybe a few heavy items that I can't move by myself.

When they moved into their current home the three of us moved everything in one day, and that was a lot more furniture than what will be going to the condo. The couch, mattress, box springs, my current desk, and probably a couple of the more beat-up cheap bookshelves will go straight to the dumpster at the apt complex.

And there will be very little if any furniture to haul up to the second floor of the condo - since I plan to buy new bedroom furniture I'm not even putting what I have now in the master bedroom. It'll get stowed in what we'll continue to refer to as the "dining room" when my sister is listening, until I can figure out what I'm going to do with it. I may try to sell it or I may just donate it to whatever reputable charity is willing to come haul it away.

frau kaleun · 05-03-13, 12:32 PM

Just scheduled a "move of service" with the local phone company, which is also my ISP. Was able to do it all online which was nice, then someone called me within 30 minutes to confirm everything and verify that I did not want home phone service in the new location.

I get the first month free, except for the 2.99 monthly rental on the router/modem - used to be the basic modems came free with the service, but now they make you pick a wired or wireless router and make you pay for it. I got wired as I already have a good wireless router and will just use that if I want wireless for streaming to the TV or whatever.

Sadly even though I requested a self-installation I still had to schedule a time for an installer to come out, I confirmed the necessity of this with the rep who called me... apparently that place never had internet service through the phone company so they have to do something to enable it or so they say. Whatevs, at least there'll be someone there to make sure I do have internet when I'm supposed to. Service at the apartment will be disconnected at the same time it's activated at the condo.

Scary thing is - I know from the previous owner that she never had cable service at that address, which means she didn't get internet from Time Warner. Now I know that she wasn't getting it from the phone company either, unless she was still on dialup.

Anyway - just the internet will cost me about $20 less a month than what I've been paying for internet + phone service at the apartment so that's good. That will make up for the extra $20 in cable box rentals if I decide to add a couple TVs to the condo somewhere down the line.

Altho I think my "promotional" rate for digital cable is about to expire so who knows what that bill is going to be. OTOH I might get in on another promotion when I move the service. Better yet I should just see if I can start fresh with a new account at the new address and pretend to be a new customer, lol. Then I can just cancel the old service outright and return those boxes, one of which needs to be replaced anyway.

The downside with regard to internet service is that the soonest they can get a tech out there to activate it is on 5/18. Well, they could've done it sooner on a weekday and it would be no problem to leave the office and run down there - it's only about 5 minutes away - but I'd rather do it on a Saturday when I'm going to be there all day anyway, it's just less stressful that way.

05-03-13, 04:43 AM	#3
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,844 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	It should all be worth it in the end and besides, what a great collection of stories to entertain everyone at your house warming __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

05-03-13, 07:36 AM	#5
AVGWarhawk Lucky Jack Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: In a 1954 Buick. Posts: 28,286 Downloads: 90 Uploads: 0	Yes, the trials and tribulations of moving. We are still waiting on a new dining table set for our new humble abode we ordered 6 weeks ago. I guess they are swimming it over from Bangladesh. __________________ “You're painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture.” ― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

05-02-13, 07:52 PM	#1
frau kaleun Rear Admiral Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Skyri--oh who are we kidding, I'm probably at Lowe's. Again. Posts: 12,706 Downloads: 168 Uploads: 0	TONIGHT ON THIS OLD CONDO: Frau Kaleun goes to Ikea! So, I bought a mattress. And after having a lie-down on pretty much everything there that wasn't designed for poor college students with far more resilient bodies than mine, the one I picked out was about $500 less than the one I thought I was going to want. So to celebrate the fact that I was saving so much on the mattress, I decided to go ahead and get the drawer unit and two bookcases for the office. It was a flat delivery fee for everything, so I figured if I'm paying for a delivery and I was expecting to spend the extra money anyway, I might as well get some other things I want now and have them bring it on over all at one time. Anyway the guy looked up all the items I wanted and printed me out a list and told me it would be $59 for delivery if I went to the self service area and got them all on a cart myself and paid for them and just took them to the delivery counter. "But will I be able to get the mattress on the cart and take it up to the checkout?" "Oh sure, that should be no problem. Just ask someone up there for assistance if you need help lifting it onto the cart." Well, okay, some of their mattress DO come rolled up. And he's the expert from the mattress department. At least he didn't try to sell me their home assembly service. So on to the self service aisles I went with my little list in my sweaty, eager hand. Now I don't know if you all are aware of this, but a queen size mattress that is not rolled up is FREAKIN' HUGE. Guess what my mattress wasn't? ROLLED UP is what it wasn't. There I am with my little cart, already loaded down with seven boxes containing a slatted bed base, two six and a half foot high - or in this case, long - bookcases, and what felt like an 800 lb. drawer unit, staring up at a fully unrolled queen size mattress. Suddenly I remembered going to Kennedy Space Center when I was a kid, and seeing the giant transport thing they always used to haul the Saturn V rockets from the vehicle assembly building out to the launch pad. I looked at the mattress. I looked at the cart. And I thought to myself, if we can put a man on the moon, dammit, I CAN DO THIS. And then I thought a far more sensible series of thoughts and went to get some help. We had to get another cart and it took both me and a very nice Ikea dude to shift the mattress and get the two carts up to the checkout, where the Ikea dude left me to my own devices. Getting the carts from the checkout over to the delivery counter was an even more terrifying ordeal, since I was on my own trying to pull two very heavy carts - one of which really wanted to do endless donuts in front of the exit doors, and another that was struggling valiantly against the mattress's overwhelming instinct to assume its natural position of lying flat out on any surface available. Thankfully no blood was shed, although I think I came this close to knocking a poor small Asian woman clean off a couch in the furniture pickup area. Everyone else was very understanding and kept as far away from the Frau Kaleun Ikea Juggernaut as possible. Anyway all the stuff is being delivered to the condo on Saturday. After getting that set up I went back into the Marketplace section and bought a set of sheets since I have no queen size bedding at all. For blankets and a comforter if I need one I can just use what I've got now until I find something else I like. I don't have a bed over there yet so the mattress will be on the floor anyway. But with the mattress in place, all I need is to get the master bathroom clean and functional and get the office set up and get internet service over there and I can start moving in what I need to actually stay there! Maybe by next weekend if all goes well. I also need to get a forwarding order on file with the post office, I had mail at the condo today with a big "?" on it next to my name cuz I guess the mail carrier is questioning if the addressee actually lives there. And I need to start changing my home address with all the places where I do business... none of them send me snail mail that really matters, but I guess they should have the new address on file as soon as I can get to it. By the time I got out of Ikea it was after 7 PM so I ended up just going to the condo and leaving the stuff I'd bought and coming on home. Too late to get started on any projects tonight and I was SO tired. Tomorrow I want to get over there and do the carpets in the spare bedrooms and maybe get started on the desk altho that may have to wait until the weekend. I'll need to be over there early on Saturday anyway waiting for the delivery so I'll likely have all day to work on it.

05-03-13, 12:32 PM	#8
frau kaleun Rear Admiral Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Skyri--oh who are we kidding, I'm probably at Lowe's. Again. Posts: 12,706 Downloads: 168 Uploads: 0	Just scheduled a "move of service" with the local phone company, which is also my ISP. Was able to do it all online which was nice, then someone called me within 30 minutes to confirm everything and verify that I did not want home phone service in the new location. I get the first month free, except for the 2.99 monthly rental on the router/modem - used to be the basic modems came free with the service, but now they make you pick a wired or wireless router and make you pay for it. I got wired as I already have a good wireless router and will just use that if I want wireless for streaming to the TV or whatever. Sadly even though I requested a self-installation I still had to schedule a time for an installer to come out, I confirmed the necessity of this with the rep who called me... apparently that place never had internet service through the phone company so they have to do something to enable it or so they say. Whatevs, at least there'll be someone there to make sure I do have internet when I'm supposed to. Service at the apartment will be disconnected at the same time it's activated at the condo. Scary thing is - I know from the previous owner that she never had cable service at that address, which means she didn't get internet from Time Warner. Now I know that she wasn't getting it from the phone company either, unless she was still on dialup. Anyway - just the internet will cost me about $20 less a month than what I've been paying for internet + phone service at the apartment so that's good. That will make up for the extra $20 in cable box rentals if I decide to add a couple TVs to the condo somewhere down the line. Altho I think my "promotional" rate for digital cable is about to expire so who knows what that bill is going to be. OTOH I might get in on another promotion when I move the service. Better yet I should just see if I can start fresh with a new account at the new address and pretend to be a new customer, lol. Then I can just cancel the old service outright and return those boxes, one of which needs to be replaced anyway. The downside with regard to internet service is that the soonest they can get a tech out there to activate it is on 5/18. Well, they could've done it sooner on a weekday and it would be no problem to leave the office and run down there - it's only about 5 minutes away - but I'd rather do it on a Saturday when I'm going to be there all day anyway, it's just less stressful that way.