It took me three final trips to get the last odds and ends into storage. Then I walked the empty house, took one last tour of the yard and closed the door.
I realized that I had renovated every single inch of surface in the house and that I was responsible for virtually every single fixture. It will be a long time until I have another place that is so uniquely tailored to my tastes... but it will happen eventually. It will just take time...
Our closing has been delayed a day. Some minor work we agreed to do before the house was turned over is being done today and until the workers release a certificate saying the job is done, no closing. All the houses I've bought and sold in California have always had some back and forth between buyer and seller so this is no big deal. The system here is fair to both sides and is basically a series of inspection/response/inspection/response. In my experience the speed and ease of closing a deal in LA depends mainly on the party thats need to move the most. So if you are a seller and you are dying to move you'll do whatever the buyer asks without fuss. But if you are a buyer who needs to move you'll forgo asking for the picayune in order to get in the door. If neither of you care, it's a negotiation, but LA being LA it's always mellow.
My experiences in New York have been much more chaotic with multiple added layers of bureaucratic drivel often involving lawyers, co-op boards, city inspectors, extra taxes and fees, and so on. After you've bought an sold in New York a couple of times you become so hardened to the process that buying somewhere else is so easy as to feel wrong. The first time I bought in CA after having just experienced the process in Manhattan I was actually paranoid someone was trying to pull a fast one.
Anyway, it's almost done, I'm using the phones while they are still connected to do some last minute business...
Also I'm happy that many of the plants will have a good home with the Hacketts.
Well it almost killed me, but all 18,000 pounds of our stuff is in storage. Our 10x40 unit is full to the brim.
Now that it's over I'm back in the empty house and feeling sad. Gotta get out of here. Perhaps I will visit Bob Plummer LA framer extraordinaire to get a few final photos/paintings done. I've been pulling them as I packed. Bob is the best framer I've ever met. He KNOWS wood. Leave your email in the comments if you need his number. He's also a swell guy and better read than just about anyone you would ever meet.
In NYC Jenn is feeling sick (maybe I gave her my cold in Chicago), but she found a decent place in Clinton Hill. I'm eager to check it out.
So I've been up packing for the last 24 hours... The trucks arrive in about 2 hours to take everything to storage.
The plan:
Today: Stuff to storage.
Tomorrow: Close.
Thursday: Fly to NYC.
Next week or so: Secure a place by hook or by crook.
Then: Fly back to LA, supervise the move from storage to a truck.
Drive back.
Wait for stuff to arrive.
Jenn is trying to get me to dump the drive back portion and ship the car... we'll see.
1. Get Boxes from a box wholesaler. Boxes on the Move 1-800-BoxesON has been been a good one in LA. Note that there is a big quality difference in boxes (UHaul boxes for example tend to be fairly flimsy).
2. Get color coded labeled tape. Smart Move tape is what I've been using and I love it. You can buy it at U-Haul, but U-Hauls prices are high. Find it cheaper on line.
3. Use plastic bins for fragile stuff. If you can find a plastic bin wholesaler the cost of these is only a dollar or two more than a box. I use rubbermaid bins with latches. The great thing about the bins is that you can use them to store stuff in closets and under beds once you are all moved in. I packed all my dishes in pastic bins. Feels much safer than dish packs.
4. Label, label, label. I print mine out but I have a touch of OCD. I use a nice bold sans serif font ( http://www.typography.com/catalog/gotham/index.html ). Makes everything look organized even if it's not.
5. Put together an essentials bag... the stuff you will need while your stuff is in transition.
6. Pack early (I've failed on this one).
7. If you have something really really fragile or delicate, pack and move it yourself. You'll sleep better.
8. Be generous with packing material and pack all boxes to they are fairly tight with little give.
9. Use small boxes for heavy items like books.
10. Use big boxes for light things like linens.
11. Use small-bubble bubble wrap to prevent scratches. Use large-bubble bubble wrap to prevent breakage.
All of this is common sense, but it never helps to be reminded. I wish someone had reminded me.
So I'm in Chicago for a wedding for the weekend. Just abandoned the moving project until Sunday... After one hour of sleep last night I slept most of the way here. I was served a single cracker. A single cracker? Who does that? It's almost more insulting to serve a single cracker than nothing at all.
I was staring at the nails on the empty wall when it struck me that this must be how the expression "getting down to brass tacks" originated. But alas no: According to the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson:
There are no brass tacks, only brass-headed ones, used because they rust less easily. The American expression, which has been traced back only to 1903, though it may have been common before then, has several possible origins. Brass-headed tacks were used in upholstering chairs, especially at the foundations of the chairs, and in taking a chair apart to reupholster it from the bottom up, craftsmen might have said they were getting down to business, to the root of the matter, getting down to the brass tacks. There is no solid evidence for this theory, however, just as there is none for the country-store hypothesis. Merchants in country stores, it's said, hammered brass-headed tacks at intervals into their fabric department counters to indicate lengths of a yard, a half-yard and a quarter-yard. After a customer selected the cloth she wanted, the merchant would say, 'All right, now we'll get down to brass tacks - I'll measure it up for you.' This certainly was a practice in the country stores and a common one at about the same time the expression is first recorded."
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Have been listening to: Nina Simone, Tom Waits, Duke Ellington, Ike Turner, Linda Jones & April March.
Am feeling: feverish and vaguely clammy.
Have been dreaming about: Papaya King on 86th street & the grapefruit gelato on 2nd Street & Ave. A.
Is it crazy to consider a house in Norfolk or New Canaan? We could buy the place outright have loads of space (and money!) left over.
We both have been mulling this over. But it's hard to commit to the idea. Would we go stir crazy out there? Would we ever make it into the city? Things to ponder.
Jenn says this blog is positively maudlin. Rereading it I suppose it might come off that way. Maybe it's because I tend to post when I'm frustrated. For the record, I'm excited by the move, just frustrated by the process. And as sad as I am about leaving this house, the prospect of setting up a new one together should be great fun. I think my main issue right now is that I have a horrible head cold. This is the first one in 2 or 3 years and being sick makes me grim.
I'm always first to dinners.
A friend from Hong Kong who joined the dinner later was complaining about rents in the $17,000/month range.... and I thought I had problems.
The most promising was a converted firehouse. True 1800 square feet with a view of the Statue of Liberty from the roof:
The drawback to this place is that it's right next to a BQE onramp. So it's noisy. Maybe it's not a great idea to have a newborn right next to all those fumes.
Another place that was sort of promising was this one in Carnegie Hill. Fairly normal apartment with a nice big terrace:
The drawback here was that it is small... 1300 square feet. The whole apartment would fit in the downstairs here... and we've always been cramped in this house.
The other places weren't worth mentioning...
Final note does anyone know where to get Indian lamps like these ones (Jenn spotted them on the ceiling of a restaurant in Brooklyn):
