Moving Day

Ok, so the day of the move came around, and despite only moving down the stairs, this has been a very hard move and a very long day. I guess the main reason is that I had done no prep work. I mean, before today I had done absolutely no prep work at all. No packing or anything. With hindsight, that might have made things a little easier! Anyway, due to having a lot to do, I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. I guess I was just too busy carrying junk. But I got a few of the highlights...

The day started with having to go back to the builder's yard to get one more piece of skirting. Builder's yards are weird places. Just giant sheds full of stuff, with nobody about. Would be pretty easy to just roll in and steal stuff if you ask me. Anyway, this is how the skirting is stored:

And here's me with the lucky piece selected to come live with me:

Once that boring chore was out of the way, the next job was simply to move my stuff. The next two photos show the starting point. Doesn't actually look like I have much stuff in these shots:

before anything could be moved though, I had to prop open four self-closing doors. I chose 5kg plates, which worked nicely:

Anyway, back to moving... the only thing I really care about is the records, and I decided that moving these had to be job number one due to the location I planned on putting them in the new place. So I moved the sofa out of the way and this is the mountain that stared back at me:

Now, I have moved records before and it has been a real hassle. And I think that most people who own a lot of records would describe moving as a bit of a nightmare. But then again, most people don't store their LPs in icubes, which it all very easy, as Bez demonstrates:

And here's me doing exactly the same but without gloves:

Once downstairs, I decided to position them nicely across the room under the window, so they are out of the sunlight. It's kinda like building a wall. First one row:

And then another:

Unfortunately the room wasn't quite wide enough, so I had to build a second wall somewhere else:

Don't worry about the heater though - that's not staying. In fact, neither is the second wall of records. I plan to move them somewhere else later.

But back to the story. The next item was the sofa, which was a pain in the ass to manoeuvre down the stairs. So we stopped halfway down for a good old fashioned cup of tea:

After this time started to run out and we started to accelerate things, and I forgot to take photos. The worst job though was taking the wardrobe to bits. Here's some of the debris as we got started:

Then there was a much bigger gap with no photos. But one thing I had nearly forgotten was the stupidest and most pointless bunch of crap of all. The cupboard of cardboard. I guess every record collector has a stash of record mailers. But not many have a whole cupboard full.

At least it wasn't heavy. And until I figure out how much to keep and where to put it, I dumped it in the hallway of the new place. How attractive!

After Bez left I spent three and a half hours carrying all manner of small items down the stairs. I must have climbed & descended the stairs about 100 times today. And at the end, when everything had moved, this is the mess I had created. No longer a neat record room, but a room containing about 70% of my possessions:

Whereas my new living room currently contains pretty much nothing:

The kitchen looks like a bomb site:

And the bedroom needs some sorting out too:

Although I am happy to have the move pretty much complete, I also feel a little sad. I have lived in number 11 for just over three years, and I have enjoyed it. It feels a little sad to be leaving it behind, and also to see it looking so bare.

The funny thing is though, even though I have moved out, I have left one final item to move... my computer. This is because my phone line has moved to the new place, yet my internet line has not. So I am typing this sat at a desk in an empty room.

Once I move the computer I am likely to not have internet at home for two weeks. Maybe longer. And since I am one of the last people on earth to not have an iphone, I think I'm going to find it hard to cope. And my blogging may suffer. I guess I'll see how it goes. But for now, it's time to go to bed... in number 2. Good night.