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| Packed Up |
We flew back to
Eugene in early November to retrieve the furniture that we’d packed up and
stored away so many months earlier. We spent
some time with my Mom who had been hospitalized and was currently in Rehab and,
of course, tried to catch up with as many friends as possible. Then we rented two moving trucks (one with a
car trailer for our Toyota) and with the help of my brother and sister-in-law
(Bret and Mickey) and several hired helpers, cleared out our two storage
units and loaded everything into the trucks and the car onto the trailer.
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| Small storage unit empty. Big one still to go! |
Our son-in-law, Drew, flew in the next day
and he and Pat headed off on the 1200 plus mile trip from Eugene to Tempe
(while I flew back to Tempe-lucky me!).
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| Headed out to Tempe |
One of the trucks had continual mechanical problems so the trip took a
day longer than planned. Pat and Drew
arrived in the Phoenix area just in time to hit rush hour traffic on November 5th
(Pat’s 64th birthday). The
next day, the contents of the two trucks were unloaded into our house (and a quickly
rented storage unit) and we spent the next several weeks unpacking and getting
our house setup. I’ll admit, it was
really nice to see our furniture and household goods again!
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| Living Room |
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| Bedroom |
Furniture
We continued to live in “the 5th”
for about a week after everything arrived.
We knew we had to have three things in place at the house before we
could start living there: the bed setup,
satellite TV setup, and internet access.
The TV and internet were no problem:
called and setup a time, everyone showed up when they said they would,
and everything worked fine once it was installed.
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| We love our technology! |
Setting up the bed was a whole other
story. What follows is an e-mail I sent
to my good friend Connie:
"THE BED SAGA"
OK, here's the story: remember this is the bed that got broke when
we moved out of the house. When Pat told me at that time, I said get rid of the
bed without seeing the damage. When
others saw the "minor" damage, I said we could keep it if we had
room in our storage unit (which it turns out we did). This is a bed that I bought at Bombay that
included a headboard, foot-board, and came with its own custom (we now know) bed frame. Fast forward to last Friday.
-We decided to setup and unpack
the master bedroom first because we had purposefully kept most of the unrelated
boxes out of the room; therefore it would be faster and easier to unpack. Plus we would need that room to be somewhat
functional in order to move into the house.
-We decide where the bed is going
to be and move boxes of clothes, other bedroom furniture, etc. out of the
way. Realize we need the nuts, bolts,
and screws in order to construct the bed frame.
Start looking for them. Pat is
all over the map, wandering around this house that is filled with boxes and
crap looking for these fasteners. I keep
saying we (I) would have put them somewhere logical. He’s saying that means we would have taped
them to the frame. Not there. I say I’ll look in this bedroom dresser; you
look in the other one. This is the point
when we remembered/noticed that I packed lots of kitchen stuff in the dresser
drawers using excess clothes and towels, etc. as packing material. We each finish checking the drawers in our
respective dressers and Pat starts wandering around again (looking for the
screws, his tool box, his own supply of screws, etc.) while I start to unload
the kitchen stuff from my dresser (which, of course, is the larger of the two
and takes a while) in order to have the dresser available to unpack clothes
into. I must have told Pat ten times
that we (I) would have put those screws somewhere that made logical sense. I finished my dresser, and go to unload the
kitchen supplies from the dresser Pat had checked for the screws. Open the top drawer. In plain sight is a plastic baggie filled
with……..you got it……..the screws. So
far, this process has wasted at least an hour probably more. When I pointed the screws out to Pat, his
first comment was, I didn’t check that dresser, you (Elaine) did! When I said that, no, he had, his next
comment was, well, I (Pat) didn’t check that drawer. When I said, you didn’t check the very top
drawer (?), he said, well, he must have just missed them. THEY WERE IN PLAIN SIGHT!
-So now we are finally ready to
put the bed together…..except we have to locate angle irons, screw drivers,
pliers, etc. which took another excessive amount of time. Putting the frame together involved a lot of
swearing by Pat and Pat dropping a heavy metal cross piece on my big toe
(causing swearing by me!). Finally got
the bed put together and realized (since we have two extra screws and screw
holes) that we are missing a crosspiece.
Spend time trying to search through house that is still filled with all
the boxes, furniture, crap, etc. to see if one crosspiece got separated from
everything else. Drove to storage unit
to see if one lone crosspiece got taken to storage. Can’t locate it anywhere. Decide to just go with the two crosspieces we
have. Have discussion (argument) over
where would be the least harmful to not have a crosspiece (are heads and
shoulders heavier than stomachs and butts?).
Reach decision that involves moving both of the currently installed
crosspieces (they are different) to new locations. Decided we needed one at end of bed (because
we might sit on edge of bed to put on shoes, etc.) and one in middle of bed
(because stomachs and butts are heavier than heads and shoulders), and leave
the top one missing (it’s close to the headboard where there is some
support). Finally we are ready to put
box spring on bed frame. Guess what? “Custom” frame has more “wiggle” room than
normal frame. So, without crosspiece at
top, box spring and mattress can easily slide off the rail on one side or the
either at the head of the bed. Decide
this is not going to work!
-OK, we decide to just buy a new bed frame. Pat buys one, we open up the
package, put it totally together before we realize that it is designed to
attach to a headboard, but not a foot board.
Call around, find a place that sells foot board extensions. Pat goes and buys those. Open package, attempt to install, won’t work
with the bedframe we purchased! So, we
disassemble the bedframe and re-package it to return it. Go to store where we purchased footboard
extensions and buy a second bedframe that will work with the extensions. Return home.
Pat goes to open box and can’t locate box cutter. Shouts to me, “Have you seen the box cutter?” I shout back, “No. The last time I saw it, you were using it to
open a box.” Search ensues for a box
cutter. Not located. Use something else to open box. Assemble second new bedframe (keep in mind,
all this is just consuming massive amounts of time). Pat figures out that the footboard extensions
will work on this frame, and now that he sees how they work, realizes they
probably would have worked on the first new bedframe we bought (which is still boxed
for return in the back of the pickup).
Attempt to attach bedframe to headboard and realize that “custom”
headboard and footboard came with their own bedframe because they are wider
than “standard” bedframes (explains why there was so much “wiggle” room
earlier).
-Since the first new bedframe we
purchased was different than the second new bedframe, we decided to reopen that
box and see if it would work with the wider, “custom” headboard/footboard. Still haven’t located box cutter, so just use
scissors to cut the packing tape we had used to re-package the box. Open box.
Pat starts examining contents while I ask, “Are those our box
cutters?” He had left them in the box
when he re-packaged it to return to the store!
All he says, quite calmly, is, “Looks like it.” This is when I sent you the text message
indicating I might need to kill either him or me! These won’t work with “custom”
headboard/footboard either. Pat tries to
re-package (again) the first new bedframe, gets frustrated and just moves it
all out into the hallway while he goes back to the first store to see if they
sell headboard/footboard adapters like we have for the old double bed headboard
that was my grandfather’s that we use with a queen size mattress and box
spring. While he’s gone, I re-package
(again) the first new headboard (leaving the box cutter with the other tools
where it belongs). Pat returns with info
that store does not carry adapters; but can order them. At this point, I say I’m done; I don’t want
to deal with this anymore today. Despite
this statement, Pat decides to reopen (for the third time) the first new
bedframe to check something on the instructions. This does not make me happy. Instructions don’t tell him anything. He leaves box open (once again) in the
hallway. We go home after stopping at
second store to find out how to order adapters.
-Today. Other than ordering adapters, we ignore setting
up the bedframe, leave both new bedframes open in the hallway, and manage to
actually be productive. Got all the boxes
(and let me tell you there are a lot of boxes) sorted and moved into various
rooms. Got living room basically
arranged (until I decide I don’t like it) and actually picked up a second set
of adapters (we took the ones off Grandpa’s bed and needed one more for the foot board) on our way home.
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| I did totally rearrange this several weeks later. |
-We also picked up our bathroom
counters today. Tomorrow our contractor
returns to install the bathroom counters, sinks, faucets, etc. He will also install the last two ceiling fan
lights which means we will finally have light in our kitchen. We will probably attempt to, once again,
setup our bed. We also need to purchase
a TV entertainment center. Once all this
is done, and we figure out internet service and DirecTV, we will be ready to
move into the house.
-Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
-Finally give up on using any new bed frames. Go back to original, custom
frame. Put two crosspieces we have at
the head and foot of bed. Buy bricks at
Lowe’s and wrap them in foam paper like they are presents. Stack them at appropriate level to provide
support in the center of the bed. Bed is
done; heaven help us if we decide we ever want to move it!!! We are still married.
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| Pat celebrates completion of bed setup |
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| Finished. Never did find comforter, pillow shams, etc. Treated ourselves to new ones eventually! |
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