Moving In

I took some pictures of the new apartment before the containers arrived in State College. My daughter had a rocker recliner and some kitchen stuff that she brought in her car from Pittsburgh (for at least the next year, her job is in State College and her husband’s is in Pittsburgh so they will learn the highway between their two apartments very well). She already had Internet service working. Things were empty and quiet. 

The sunroom that overlooks a meadow and trees (and some other apartments) was to become her office.

And then the unloading began. I tried to fold the furniture blankets as the furniture was moved in; a pile of them and old sheets we had used for padding around larger picture frames quickly accumulated.

Sometimes the box labeling enabled to movers to put it close to where it needed to be unpacked – like in the kitchen.

There was one box that that we laughed about – no label at all.

My husband arrived shortly after the unloading was done; he quickly the bedframe together. The pile of furniture blankets went into the back of his car to be stored in our basement until they are needed again.

My daughter commented that she is already thinking of this apartment as a retreat compared to the very urban Pittsburgh apartment. The State College apartment had good sound proofing and the apartment complex has forest all around it. The nearby trees are mostly various kinds of oaks but there are understory trees too (maybe some sassafras!). And there is a ground hog (or two) that wanders around on the mowed area between her apartment and the meadow; she’s already named the ground hog ‘Chuck.’

Moving in Containers – Part 4

It was a cloudy morning in State College, Pennsylvania when the last two containers loaded in Tucson were scheduled to be delivered and unloaded. The unloading would require steps down to the door of the apartment building and then a half flight of stairs up to the apartment (unlike the Tucson apartment where there were no stairs and dollies could be used).

The crew arrived with the two container (the U-Haul covers removed) and backed into the loading area. My daughter unlocked the locks on the containers.

Surprise! U-Haul had not taken the bolt they add from either container. Fortunately, my daughter had tools in the apartment so the bolts only delayed the unloading by about 5 minutes.

The two-man crew worked quickly – noticing the box that I’d labelled ‘last box’ in Tucson and finding one that wasn’t labelled at all (a mystery box…and demonstrating how tired I was by the last boxes to be packed). I began folding up the furniture blankets as they unloaded since we planned to keep them and the boxes for the next move (which could be in another year or two).

The dolly did end up being useful to hold the door to the container open while it was unloaded. It took the crew just over an hour to unload the 2 containers.

The ‘moving in containers’ experience (hiring people to load and unload) has been a positive one and is probably the way we’ll move in the future.

Previous Moving in Containers posts: Packing up in Tucson (one and two), Unloading in Pittsburgh (three).

A Jaunt to State College PA

Yesterday my husband I drove to State College and back to see my daughter and son-in-law…and switch cars. We’re replacing both of our cars (mine was already replaced with a Prius Prime…more on the replacement for my husband’s car in the next few days) and decided to give them the better of the two cars; the other will be traded in when we buy my husband’s new car. It was a 6-hour round trip; it rained most of the time.

We did a little looking around State College since it could become the place my daughter does a post doc – drove buy two houses that were ‘for sale’ that I’d seen on a real estate site and had lunch at Wegmans. Both houses looked nice from the outside and the Wegmans was very like the one I shop at every week – a little smaller, but still very familiar and not a place I want to be during peak grocery shopping hours!

Then we met up with my daughter and son-in-law at her hotel. While my husband and son-in-law did the car switch (set up of nav system with new addresses, etc.), my daughter and I walked to the Penn State campus following the route she would use to the building where she would be giving a talk and meeting with people for the early part of the week.

And then we were back in the car we would trade in and heading back to Maryland! The rain was lighter on our drive south but the clouds were low and sometimes reached the ground. I was glad the temperature stayed above freezing all day.