Moving Week in SoCal

Frank and I flew down to Southern California last Friday, January 23rd to help Dan, Carrie, and Vivian move from their condominium in Aliso Viejo into their brand spanking new three-bedroom house in Lake Forest. Our flight from Oakland to Santa Ana was full but on time and uneventful. Dan picked us up at the airport mid-afternoon, dropped us at their old home in Aliso Viejo, and returned to his office to finish his work day.

Fair weather and on time flights made for a good trip down south.

Not even unpacking our own suitcases, Frank and I immediately began packing up the hutch and kitchen. Escrow would not close until Monday and transferral of the keys would not occur before then, so boxes and furniture, etc. would have to stay put for a while, using the garage and living room as staging areas. Frank and Dan created order out of the jumble of empty boxes collected for the move and piled helter-skelter in the garage. Vivian played amongst the typical moving chaos, oblivious to it. She found new things to explore and to use as a support when pulling to a stand and cruising. We spent the Saturday and Sunday with packing, IKEA trips, and a visit to the move-in-ready-but not-yet available home.

Vivian is enjoying her last few days at the Aliso Viejo home.

During our pre-move-in tour, Dan chills on the bedroom carpet in the new Lake Forest home.

Carrie, Dan, and Frank check out candidate locations for going to lunch on Sunday after the house visit.
I am holding Vivian while trying to take the rather comical photo
of three heads intently bent over their cell phone screens.

Bright and early Monday morning, Dan and Carrie headed to work and we stayed behind to pack and stage the garage. For the hutch china, pantry food, and kitchen items I used banker boxes from OfficeMax since they have carrying handles, a firm bottom, and a lid. Banker boxes are of a size that, even when fully loaded with china or books, they are a manageable weight. Once you get the knack and a rhythm down, they are quick to assemble and need no taping. We used three dozen of those hand-dandy items. It rained Monday night so even with keys in hand, the physical transferral of most furniture and boxes had to be delayed until the next day. Dan was anxious to make some presence in the new house though, so he and Frank brought over some rain-impervious items such as the bike, snowboards, and the master bed-frame but not the mattress.

Instructions to assemble a banker box.

We began moving stuff in earnest on Tuesday. Frank got up early and took Dan to work so we would have use of his truck. The trip between the two homes was about 11 miles and took approximately 25 minutes. With a back-log of packed boxes already in the garage, Frank could load Dan's pickup at the old home in Aliso Viejo, drive to the the new home in Lake Forest, unload, and be back in just over 1¼ hours.  Frank made six trips Tuesday while I packed more boxes to refill the staging area in the garage. Most of the three 15-pack bundles of banker boxes from Office Max were filled up with the kitchen, pantry, and hutch items alone.

Here are the banker boxes nestled amongst the sea of other boxes Carrie got off Craig's list from other people's moves.

I managed some "outside the box thinking" packing solutions for those items that did not quite fit. 

Where there is a will there is a way.

Dan, Carrie, and Vivian spent their first night in their new home Tuesday. Here is a picture Dan took of the sunrise out their front window on the Wednesday morning just before walking to work after their first night in Lake Forest. Dan and Carrie had to work all five days of moving week; having only the evenings to devote to the move. It made for a long days for them... and for us!

The soft glow of sunrise bathes their front court area.

Wednesday, Frank and I made fewer trips since we also packed in between each trip and re-used boxes. Plus we waited at the new home for the delivery of a the new sectional with sofa bed. The sectional had a matching round ottoman that fascinated Vivian as she cruised round and round it – no coffee table corner challenges requiring complex motor planning! That evening, Vivian took her first few wobbly, but independent, sequential steps across the kitchen hardwood flooring of the kitchen in the new home.

We saw Vivian takes her first steps at the new home.

After cheering along 10-month-old Vivian's milestone, we enjoyed the spectacular view of the sunset out the back windows. Going to sleep on the comfy new sofa bed in the new living room of the new home felt great after five nights of having shared an air mattress at Dan and Carrie's old place with their dog Snoopy. Snoopy is a solidly-built 60 lb pit bull mix who had been delighted to have night-time companions at his floor level in the living room. We had not been as thrilled as he and were quite content to no longer share sleeping arrangements.

Dan, Carrie, and Vivian have a view lot so their backyard seems wide open.

Thursday – more trips! Adding in the trips that Dan with a friend or Dan with Frank made each evening after Dan got off work, we counted 21 cumulative trips transferring items up through Thursday night. When Frank and I left Friday morning, there were a few items still left in the garage that needed to be moved so I suspect the count topped out at over two dozen trips. Thursday night we baby-sat Vivian while Dan and Carrie made a trip and then went for a Sushi dinner at one of their favorite haunts near their old home. I could not get Vivian to sleep in her crib, but did manage to lie with her on their bed, rub her back, and coax her to fall asleep there. I hope I did not set a new precedent...

Asleep, at last! Doesn't Vivian look so peaceful?

On the morning of Friday, January 30th, Frank and I drove Dan to work, and then came back to the house to say our other good byes. We sat with Vivian on the new round "cruising" ottoman that matched the new charcoal colored sectional sofa. Looks like we were still in our booties to protect the new hardwood floors and carpet. We did remember remove them before heading to the airport.

We give Vivian one last hug before departing for the airport.

We drove ourselves to the airport for our mid-morning Friday flight back to Livermore and left the truck parked there for Dan to retrieve later.

A quick cell phone photo told Dan where we'd parked the truck.

Frank and I arrived back home pretty tuckered out after our busy week, but happy we had been able to help our kids. These old bones may creak but at least they still work! As the saying goes, "It is better to wear out, than to rust out."