w3...we did the same thing...close the boxes, label them and stack them in your apt...that way you get them out of the way and you begin to see how different boxes may fit together in a car/truck for moving.
Last Sunday we got our truck, and with the help of my parents and a couple of friends, were loaded up in a couple of hours. We rented a 14' truck (with our car on a trailer on the back). The truck was mostly full, I would say, though not all the way to the cieling.
Drove 6 hours the same day to get an early start. Stayed at a hotel and drove 12 hours the next day. Visited with friends and family in that particular city for a day, and then completed the trip with another 8 hour drive to our new home. Total of 26 hours driving so far.
Got unloaded in a couple of hours with the help of two friends, then went out to dinner and drinks. I was glad to be not driving!
The next day we unpacked all damn day, and got probably 80% of our stuff assembled and set up. The living room is low priority right now.
Now, get this.... the next day, we had to drive 10 hours to go to a family reunion, which is today. Tomorrow we're driving back. So that'll be roughly 46 hours in a car, in just 8 days. And we've only spent a day and a half at our actual apartment.
I'm exhausted just writing this. Did I mention I'm staying with the in-laws? My partner's mother woke up at 4:45 am today 'to do some cleaning' of her absolutely spotless house. It's seriously a bit like Meet the Parents. My girlfriend actually rented the movie as a bit of a joke last night. I think I'm going insane.
Poor slantsix! Just think, once you're done with this, you get to drive back (ok, look past that part...), and settle into your great new place!
People are starting to respond positively to my housing search. I've got two appointments set up in Fremont and Wallingford, and more leads in Montlake and the bit of Ravenna that's right by Greenlake.
so i have some pretty cool news - i actually got a bike locker @ UW already! what's a bit unnerving is that they want me to come in and sign some paperwork, etc.. , and I'm not going to be there for another month. i just sent them an e-mail pleading w/ them to work w/ me from afar. fingers crossed the person w/ the power to say yay or nay will be laid back enough to let me mail stuff in. hopefully i'll hear some good news tomorrow.
i also had an exit interview/lunch w/ my boss today. went pretty well. he brought up giving me a letter of rec. to have on file - which is great...i hadn't given that much thought at this point so i'm really grateful he brought it up and wants to do that for me. definitely something to think about if you haven't gotten a letter from the place that you're leaving...best to get it now so you don't have to worry about it later.
ooh, you've got to keep me posted on what happens with that! I was worried something like that could happen, but I guess if they say 'no dice' you can always reapply when you actually get into town, right? Which lot was it, BTW? I applied for 2, 3, and 4.
wow, I feel out of it- been gone for a few days. I had an absolutely lazy and wonderful weekend- the last "world, leave me alone" couple days I think I'll see in a while. I went to the garment district and bought 2 enormous rolling duffel bags that I will live out of for a couple weeks while my stuff is being moved across the country.
I was more productive yesterday than I have been in the last 3 months. Filled out a million forms, registered for classes, booked dentist, doctor, and optometrist appointments, and packed about 1/2 my stuff (including taking apart some furniture). Most importantly, I finally booked my movers. After going back and forth with quotes varying from $980-$2200, I finally decided to go with container movers. They will deliver a box, I'll pack it, and they will deliver it AND unload it in Philly. It will cost about $1600 (more than some of the full service movers), but it's the only way I could get a set price w/ a guaranteed delivery date (movers give you a ridiculous window). Also, so many of the moving companies have a million extra charges, I just wasn't secure with any of them. It's more than I had hoped to spend, but it's still a lot less than the uhaul route. Just makes me think though....is my furniture worth $1600??? Not really, but just shipping books, clothes, and sentimental crap would probably be that expensive.
I'm glad to read the successes of others so far. Yay for W3 on the bike locker, though I'm not sure I understand it ;) Looks like rationalist is trudging along well (fingers crossed on potential roommates) and DubK seems to be [successfully] well on her way! Makes me sad I'm not driving...
Anyway, that's my update. I'm very excited and equally terrified....what an adventure this is!!
Now, back to my regularly scheduled sorting-out/ packing. With the amount of crap I've thrown out and donated, I'm now vowing to become a minimalist in Philly. I know I say it every time I move- but this time I mean it!!
i must say that since UW starts late (quarter system) it's leaving me feeling quite ancy as everyone else is already moving.
also-w2d, check out the UW bike lockers here. I still haven't heard back from them so I don't know if they're going to give it away before I get there or not - hopefully not, but if they do I'll just jump back on the list and wait it out. I wasn't planning on getting to the top of the waitlist until next spring or so anyway...so if I do actually get one this fall it will be great. if not, no big deal I guess.
we finally got a quote today on a moving truck - yikes...that one hurts. but it's official now...i'll be arriving in seattle on either the 7th or the 8th of sept.
ah, so you're only there about a week in advance of me. I'm scheduled to arrive on September 16th. I agree about the antsy feeling. A bit part of me wants to get started NOW, and then another part thinks the time I have left is too short to get everything done. Five weeks left at work as of tomorrow.
What2Do- bike lockers kick ass. Just trust us on this. Guaranteed spot for one's bike, as well as helmet (who wants to carry THAT around?), sneakers, panniers when you use them.... all out of sight so people don't steal them. It's the equivilant of having not just an assigned parking space, but a private garage.
yeah - we wanted to be there at least a week before that but ultimately we need to get some other stuff taken care of before we hit the road in the big truck.
so are any columbia new kids reading this? i feel like there's some huge thing everyone else is doing to prepare that i'm unaware of. you guys are all awesomely on top of the moving stuff....
hmmm, the long silence probably means that there's no more columbia-ites perusing, unfortunately. I know that Living in Gin just finished their summer program, though.
Good news and mixed news. Mixed news first: It's a no-go on the environmental graphics job. They're really set on a fulltime person. But, they want to keep in touch with me and talk after I graduate. OK, now good news: I may have found somewhere to live. I decided on a whim to re-post my housing wanted ad on craigslist, and a friend-of-a-friend (yeah, who doesn't fall into that category these days, huh?) responded, and she and another chica have a really beautiful house. It's a little more than I wanted to spend, but paying a little extra to live with good people in a good place could be worth it. Oh, and their architect(ural intern)s.
that sounds great Rationalist - where is it? I'd say it's definitely worth it to pay a bit more to be living w/ quality people in a nice place. quality people being the clutch factor...and the nice place being the icing on the cake.
so good news about the bike locker. they e-mailed me the lease today - i'll mail it back w/ a couple of checks (one for the annual fee and one for a security deposit). i'll be able to pick up my key when i get into town. only thing that is a bit concerning is that there isn't a waitlist for the locker i got right now...which is why i got through so fast. so either i just got a really sketchy bike locker or (I'm hoping) that there isn't a list yet because this area was just in the middle of a construction zone as they re-modeled the Architecture building over the last couple of years - and maybe people don't know that it's back online or something. will find out soon i guess :) that said the UW architecture building that will house our studio's will open after being entirely gutted and renovated for the first time this fall. i'm pretty stoked about that.
It's at the north-west edge of Ravenna, just accross I-5 from Greenlake. Not the ideal location, but like you said, people can be the most important factor.
oh, but guess who ALSO replied to the housing wanted ad? The same skanky-ass guy that wants a girl to move into his one bedroom apartment with him. WTF? Maybe he truly isn't a skank and just has absolutely zero self-awareness, so doesn't realize how absolutely terrible that sounds?
That location is really close to where my wife and I will be. If you end up there you might even ride your bike past our place on your way to class! It's not my top choice location wise either but the proximity to campus can't be beat and I've been working on a google map of the neighborhood (south of Ravenna - but still close to you) and I'm stoked because I have everything from banks to bars to the grocery store between my house the arch. studio...i really won't HAVE to drive anywhere if I don't want to.
Hey guys.....glad to hear everyone's moves are going well! My cross-country trip is almost over, believe it or not, and it's gone almost as planned thus far, with the exception of "grazing" the underside of a Dairy Queen overhang yesterday around lunch time with the truck (this was the first and subsequently the last time that my travel buddy drove the truck. The truck is fine, it should be OK...fingers crossed....)
Anyway, tonight we are in Lake Havasu City, AZ and are very excited to drive across London Bridge tomorrow. Then Hoover Dam, and then......LA! I am really behind on blogging but I will catch up as soon as possible with that and the photo travel journal.
We've gone at least 2300 miles so far....final milage will be somewhere around 2700!
Good luck packing w3 and W2D....good job, slantsix....rationalist, I'll see you in 48 hours!
Tomorrow is officially my "last" day of work! However, my firm is having a little BBQ/time in nature day so today is really the last day I'm working. How did that happen? It's funny how we count down the days to things, then when they get here we wonder how they came so fast.
I haven't started packing my desk yet. I have a LOT of stuff to clean up/throw away. Then, I have the next couple of weeks to pack everything up at home - play w/ my new computer - try to set up the transition to seattle to be as smooth as possible - ride my new road bike - and maybe get a head start on some required reading for the fall...
Everyone at my office seems to think that I must be leaving really soon, because all the schools around here start towards the end of August. So I have to keep reminding them that I've still got 5 weeks left, so I still need them to let me have some work.
w3, is the locker location you got super-close to Burke-Gilman? If so, that may be the reason. I avoided those because I've read that bike theft is higher immediately next to the trail, because the theif can make a quick getaway on your ride. Though I imagine this is more true for bike racks than for bike lockers, it still caused me to avoid those locations, so I thought that maybe more people thought the same.
Rationalist - yeah it's pretty close. Not right on the trail but an easy jump on 15th straight down to it - def. not as close as those around the med. school. Hmmm - I guess we'll see. I'm going to hang onto it for now. It's as close to the architecture building as I'm going to get. If I need to re-evaluate whether to use it or not when I get there I will...but I'm hoping for the best.
I've never actually seen any of the blike lockers - I didn't know they existed when I visted campus this last spring. So I can't vouch for how secure they really are. will see...
I don't know anything about Ravenna - as I've really only gone through the U-dist. in that part of town. But, I will say that although it's not the coolest part of town - there's still a LOT of stuff to make your life as a pedestrian/biker pretty easy. I scored a 91 on that walk score survey we took a couple of weeks ago - you should take it w/ the new address and see what it turns out to be. AND you'll be close to the U-Dist. farmers market which is supposedly the biggest in the city AND it goes year round now!
bah. Great roomate situation marred by paranoid landlord. This guy seems to really, really not want to rent to students. He made me give him copies of my financial aid award, and a budget for the year!!! WTF? At least, though, he said he should have an answer for me by the end of the day monday. If he rejects me, it's going to take a lot of willpower for me not to outright scream at the man, after all the crap I've had to submit.
yup, got the place. Roomates are great, landlord is tolerable. At least I won't see much of him. The ride between there and campus is really pretty, I get to go over the ravine every day, and it's a relatively straight shot. So yay- one of the two big items is checked off the list!
congrats! that's great to have that taken care of.
as for us - we're getting to hit the road towards the end of next week for a road trip back east to sell a car and visit my wife's family. then...to seattle. we should roll into town on either the 7th or the 8th of sept.
yeah, that was one of the two biggies on the list. Actually I just updated the to-do list for the first time in weeks, and it's dropped from more than ten items to just three- *list furniture items for sale again, *smog check car, ******sell car. Seems much more manageable.
Have a good trip- Seattle's actually pretty warm right now, and it's beautiful out. The trip got me even more excited for the move, it's just such a great city, and a great campus.
2007 Existential Crisis Convention
w3...we did the same thing...close the boxes, label them and stack them in your apt...that way you get them out of the way and you begin to see how different boxes may fit together in a car/truck for moving.
Our move is finished!
Last Sunday we got our truck, and with the help of my parents and a couple of friends, were loaded up in a couple of hours. We rented a 14' truck (with our car on a trailer on the back). The truck was mostly full, I would say, though not all the way to the cieling.
Drove 6 hours the same day to get an early start. Stayed at a hotel and drove 12 hours the next day. Visited with friends and family in that particular city for a day, and then completed the trip with another 8 hour drive to our new home. Total of 26 hours driving so far.
Got unloaded in a couple of hours with the help of two friends, then went out to dinner and drinks. I was glad to be not driving!
The next day we unpacked all damn day, and got probably 80% of our stuff assembled and set up. The living room is low priority right now.
Now, get this.... the next day, we had to drive 10 hours to go to a family reunion, which is today. Tomorrow we're driving back. So that'll be roughly 46 hours in a car, in just 8 days. And we've only spent a day and a half at our actual apartment.
I'm exhausted just writing this. Did I mention I'm staying with the in-laws? My partner's mother woke up at 4:45 am today 'to do some cleaning' of her absolutely spotless house. It's seriously a bit like Meet the Parents. My girlfriend actually rented the movie as a bit of a joke last night. I think I'm going insane.
Poor slantsix! Just think, once you're done with this, you get to drive back (ok, look past that part...), and settle into your great new place!
People are starting to respond positively to my housing search. I've got two appointments set up in Fremont and Wallingford, and more leads in Montlake and the bit of Ravenna that's right by Greenlake.
5000 - nice work rationalist... :)
so i have some pretty cool news - i actually got a bike locker @ UW already! what's a bit unnerving is that they want me to come in and sign some paperwork, etc.. , and I'm not going to be there for another month. i just sent them an e-mail pleading w/ them to work w/ me from afar. fingers crossed the person w/ the power to say yay or nay will be laid back enough to let me mail stuff in. hopefully i'll hear some good news tomorrow.
i also had an exit interview/lunch w/ my boss today. went pretty well. he brought up giving me a letter of rec. to have on file - which is great...i hadn't given that much thought at this point so i'm really grateful he brought it up and wants to do that for me. definitely something to think about if you haven't gotten a letter from the place that you're leaving...best to get it now so you don't have to worry about it later.
ooh, you've got to keep me posted on what happens with that! I was worried something like that could happen, but I guess if they say 'no dice' you can always reapply when you actually get into town, right? Which lot was it, BTW? I applied for 2, 3, and 4.
i got on the waitlist for 8,9,& 29 - i got offered one @ 9...which is really a perfect location for me. at least it seems to be in plan view...
wow, I feel out of it- been gone for a few days. I had an absolutely lazy and wonderful weekend- the last "world, leave me alone" couple days I think I'll see in a while. I went to the garment district and bought 2 enormous rolling duffel bags that I will live out of for a couple weeks while my stuff is being moved across the country.
I was more productive yesterday than I have been in the last 3 months. Filled out a million forms, registered for classes, booked dentist, doctor, and optometrist appointments, and packed about 1/2 my stuff (including taking apart some furniture). Most importantly, I finally booked my movers. After going back and forth with quotes varying from $980-$2200, I finally decided to go with container movers. They will deliver a box, I'll pack it, and they will deliver it AND unload it in Philly. It will cost about $1600 (more than some of the full service movers), but it's the only way I could get a set price w/ a guaranteed delivery date (movers give you a ridiculous window). Also, so many of the moving companies have a million extra charges, I just wasn't secure with any of them. It's more than I had hoped to spend, but it's still a lot less than the uhaul route. Just makes me think though....is my furniture worth $1600??? Not really, but just shipping books, clothes, and sentimental crap would probably be that expensive.
I'm glad to read the successes of others so far. Yay for W3 on the bike locker, though I'm not sure I understand it ;) Looks like rationalist is trudging along well (fingers crossed on potential roommates) and DubK seems to be [successfully] well on her way! Makes me sad I'm not driving...
Anyway, that's my update. I'm very excited and equally terrified....what an adventure this is!!
Now, back to my regularly scheduled sorting-out/ packing. With the amount of crap I've thrown out and donated, I'm now vowing to become a minimalist in Philly. I know I say it every time I move- but this time I mean it!!
i must say that since UW starts late (quarter system) it's leaving me feeling quite ancy as everyone else is already moving.
also-w2d, check out the UW bike lockers here. I still haven't heard back from them so I don't know if they're going to give it away before I get there or not - hopefully not, but if they do I'll just jump back on the list and wait it out. I wasn't planning on getting to the top of the waitlist until next spring or so anyway...so if I do actually get one this fall it will be great. if not, no big deal I guess.
we finally got a quote today on a moving truck - yikes...that one hurts. but it's official now...i'll be arriving in seattle on either the 7th or the 8th of sept.
ah, so you're only there about a week in advance of me. I'm scheduled to arrive on September 16th. I agree about the antsy feeling. A bit part of me wants to get started NOW, and then another part thinks the time I have left is too short to get everything done. Five weeks left at work as of tomorrow.
What2Do- bike lockers kick ass. Just trust us on this. Guaranteed spot for one's bike, as well as helmet (who wants to carry THAT around?), sneakers, panniers when you use them.... all out of sight so people don't steal them. It's the equivilant of having not just an assigned parking space, but a private garage.
yeah - we wanted to be there at least a week before that but ultimately we need to get some other stuff taken care of before we hit the road in the big truck.
so are any columbia new kids reading this? i feel like there's some huge thing everyone else is doing to prepare that i'm unaware of. you guys are all awesomely on top of the moving stuff....
hmmm, the long silence probably means that there's no more columbia-ites perusing, unfortunately. I know that Living in Gin just finished their summer program, though.
Good news and mixed news. Mixed news first: It's a no-go on the environmental graphics job. They're really set on a fulltime person. But, they want to keep in touch with me and talk after I graduate. OK, now good news: I may have found somewhere to live. I decided on a whim to re-post my housing wanted ad on craigslist, and a friend-of-a-friend (yeah, who doesn't fall into that category these days, huh?) responded, and she and another chica have a really beautiful house. It's a little more than I wanted to spend, but paying a little extra to live with good people in a good place could be worth it. Oh, and their architect(ural intern)s.
that sounds great Rationalist - where is it? I'd say it's definitely worth it to pay a bit more to be living w/ quality people in a nice place. quality people being the clutch factor...and the nice place being the icing on the cake.
so good news about the bike locker. they e-mailed me the lease today - i'll mail it back w/ a couple of checks (one for the annual fee and one for a security deposit). i'll be able to pick up my key when i get into town. only thing that is a bit concerning is that there isn't a waitlist for the locker i got right now...which is why i got through so fast. so either i just got a really sketchy bike locker or (I'm hoping) that there isn't a list yet because this area was just in the middle of a construction zone as they re-modeled the Architecture building over the last couple of years - and maybe people don't know that it's back online or something. will find out soon i guess :) that said the UW architecture building that will house our studio's will open after being entirely gutted and renovated for the first time this fall. i'm pretty stoked about that.
It's at the north-west edge of Ravenna, just accross I-5 from Greenlake. Not the ideal location, but like you said, people can be the most important factor.
oh, but guess who ALSO replied to the housing wanted ad? The same skanky-ass guy that wants a girl to move into his one bedroom apartment with him. WTF? Maybe he truly isn't a skank and just has absolutely zero self-awareness, so doesn't realize how absolutely terrible that sounds?
WOW - I can't help but laugh that he tried again.
That location is really close to where my wife and I will be. If you end up there you might even ride your bike past our place on your way to class! It's not my top choice location wise either but the proximity to campus can't be beat and I've been working on a google map of the neighborhood (south of Ravenna - but still close to you) and I'm stoked because I have everything from banks to bars to the grocery store between my house the arch. studio...i really won't HAVE to drive anywhere if I don't want to.
Hey guys.....glad to hear everyone's moves are going well! My cross-country trip is almost over, believe it or not, and it's gone almost as planned thus far, with the exception of "grazing" the underside of a Dairy Queen overhang yesterday around lunch time with the truck (this was the first and subsequently the last time that my travel buddy drove the truck. The truck is fine, it should be OK...fingers crossed....)
Anyway, tonight we are in Lake Havasu City, AZ and are very excited to drive across London Bridge tomorrow. Then Hoover Dam, and then......LA! I am really behind on blogging but I will catch up as soon as possible with that and the photo travel journal.
We've gone at least 2300 miles so far....final milage will be somewhere around 2700!
Good luck packing w3 and W2D....good job, slantsix....rationalist, I'll see you in 48 hours!
Tomorrow is officially my "last" day of work! However, my firm is having a little BBQ/time in nature day so today is really the last day I'm working. How did that happen? It's funny how we count down the days to things, then when they get here we wonder how they came so fast.
I haven't started packing my desk yet. I have a LOT of stuff to clean up/throw away. Then, I have the next couple of weeks to pack everything up at home - play w/ my new computer - try to set up the transition to seattle to be as smooth as possible - ride my new road bike - and maybe get a head start on some required reading for the fall...
yay, I get to see WonderK on friday!
Everyone at my office seems to think that I must be leaving really soon, because all the schools around here start towards the end of August. So I have to keep reminding them that I've still got 5 weeks left, so I still need them to let me have some work.
w3, is the locker location you got super-close to Burke-Gilman? If so, that may be the reason. I avoided those because I've read that bike theft is higher immediately next to the trail, because the theif can make a quick getaway on your ride. Though I imagine this is more true for bike racks than for bike lockers, it still caused me to avoid those locations, so I thought that maybe more people thought the same.
Rationalist - yeah it's pretty close. Not right on the trail but an easy jump on 15th straight down to it - def. not as close as those around the med. school. Hmmm - I guess we'll see. I'm going to hang onto it for now. It's as close to the architecture building as I'm going to get. If I need to re-evaluate whether to use it or not when I get there I will...but I'm hoping for the best.
It's # 9 on this map
nah, that's not so bad. I'd take a second look at #s 1, 13, 9, or 11 maybe, but 9's removed enough. Yeah, maybe it's just the construction.
I really, really think I'm going to take this place in Ravenna. Hey, if I want to go to bars or shops in fremont, that's just more exercise, right?
I've never actually seen any of the blike lockers - I didn't know they existed when I visted campus this last spring. So I can't vouch for how secure they really are. will see...
I don't know anything about Ravenna - as I've really only gone through the U-dist. in that part of town. But, I will say that although it's not the coolest part of town - there's still a LOT of stuff to make your life as a pedestrian/biker pretty easy. I scored a 91 on that walk score survey we took a couple of weeks ago - you should take it w/ the new address and see what it turns out to be. AND you'll be close to the U-Dist. farmers market which is supposedly the biggest in the city AND it goes year round now!
bah. Great roomate situation marred by paranoid landlord. This guy seems to really, really not want to rent to students. He made me give him copies of my financial aid award, and a budget for the year!!! WTF? At least, though, he said he should have an answer for me by the end of the day monday. If he rejects me, it's going to take a lot of willpower for me not to outright scream at the man, after all the crap I've had to submit.
so any update rationalist? do you have a place? hope so...
yup, got the place. Roomates are great, landlord is tolerable. At least I won't see much of him. The ride between there and campus is really pretty, I get to go over the ravine every day, and it's a relatively straight shot. So yay- one of the two big items is checked off the list!
congrats! that's great to have that taken care of.
as for us - we're getting to hit the road towards the end of next week for a road trip back east to sell a car and visit my wife's family. then...to seattle. we should roll into town on either the 7th or the 8th of sept.
yeah, that was one of the two biggies on the list. Actually I just updated the to-do list for the first time in weeks, and it's dropped from more than ten items to just three- *list furniture items for sale again, *smog check car, ******sell car. Seems much more manageable.
Have a good trip- Seattle's actually pretty warm right now, and it's beautiful out. The trip got me even more excited for the move, it's just such a great city, and a great campus.
eek. I have a tuition statement!
a tuition statement?
mmm-hmmm. Check your MyUW account. It will now say kindly below your course schedule that you owe them $xxxx money.
...and reality bites just a little too soon. eek is right.
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