There was a very strategic reason that we tried to avoid shipping out stuff – well two reasons. First, we couldn’t find a self load packing service that would pickup from our apartment and deliver right to the new house. This meant we would need to load our stuff from the apartment, take it to the truck loading location nearby. Then, after it arrived in NY, we would need to rent another truck, load our stuff into it, drive it to our house and then unload it. Plus all the companies we researched were pricey.
With all the chaos of car repairs and having too much stuff, we ended up shipping everything anyway. We got word that our stuff had officially arrived in Albany (of course, an hour and a half away) and it was time to go pick it up.
We were fortunate to have a dry day as we headed to Albany to get everything. It was exciting but also a little scary to see just what state all our stuff was going to be in after ‘shakeing, rattling, and rolling’ as my dad put it, all the way across the US. To our delight, while everything had shifted – everything appeared to be intact, although the tower of boxes had developed quite the lean being held up by ratchet straps and thin rope. The only casualties so far were a few busted plastic tote lids and one box that had split at the seams.
After everything was loaded we made our way back to the house. As it was getting late, we decided to just pull out a few essentials for the night and wait until the following day to unload everything. We grabbed the mattress and TV and it started to feel a bit more like home. This was the first night we were sleeping here and wow, there were so many new noises and we were so amped up that it was tough to sleep. While of course this area is peaceful and quiet, the house has creaky cracky noises like the baseboard heaters and such.
The next day, our good friends Victor and Jess joined us from the city to help us unload – our first guests to the new house! Together, we made quick work to unload and while Victor and Chris took the van to be dropped off, Jess and I worked like crazy to get the bed set up and start organizing piles a bit.
We then received a frantic call from the guys – they discovered a local thrift store – A & E Thrift, that had furniture outside that grabbed their attention. It was a balmy December day which was perfect for moving stuff. Since we came across as light as possible, we didn’t have any living room furniture or a table to eat at so the idea of nice furniture for a reasonable price was enticing.
Jess and I jumped in the car and quickly made our way to meet up with them. I saw the couches and loved them too so it was a deal. There was also a dining table that we both loved and I found a couple of other things, a coffee table and a small hutch that we snagged as well. There was just one tiny detail… the guys had already dropped off the U-Haul so now we had to figure out a way to get all this stuff home. We ultimately became fast friends with Sally, who owns the store who happened to have a trailer that would conveniently fit all this stuff and make it much easier to get everything home. She offered us free delivery if Chris and Victor were willing to help move the furniture out of the trailer and into her store.
They got everything unloaded, then loaded up our stuff and we were on our way. Now our place was really starting to feel like home now that we had comfortable places to relax in our cozy living room. By this time we had developed quite the appetite so we headed into Cooperstown to eat at Mel’s 22 – and it quickly became a new favorite. The food was great, the people were welcoming and they had rainbow cookie cake for dessert so Chris was beyond excited.
Since we didn’t quite have enough beds for guests yet, we headed over to the cabin for the evening. It was the end of a long day and having a hot shower, plus Hubies pizza and wings was just what we needed.
We were FINALLY moved into our new home after weeks of upheaval and couldn’t wait to get settled in. Home sweet home in upstate NY!
Check out all the photos from moving day here!
