Thursday, July 11, 2013
Final view of the old house
I finally got a chance now that we are unpacked to edit, organize and upload photos for printing and found some I took on the last day in our old house.
Packing your stuff to survive a move-why you can/should move yourself
I did lots of online research before packing up our stuff for our move as well as talked to lots of friends. In our move we only had a few scratches and one broken skateboard that was about 7 years old.
First off, we used ABF UPack. I had about 5 other major carriers come...Atlas, Mayflower, etc. they came and did detailed inventories and gave me quotes of $12,000-$15,000 and would charge $2500 for packing and supplies. They all charged by weight and all said that our goods would be delivered in 7-14 days from sending the truck off. ABF UPack is based off how much length of their truck you use (if you are doing a smaller move, they have a bulkhead that is placed behind your stuff, then they can pack another shipment going the same way in the truck) rather than weight. They did not come out to estimate, you enter some figures online. UPack estimated for the size of our home we'd need 1 truck +7 feet. I figured we could make it into one truck and played with the numbers until I got our estimate $5500. That's right, 1/3-1/2 of what everyone else was quoting me. ABF does not pack the truck, they drop it off, you have 3 days to load, they drive it to your new home, drop off the trailer and you have 3 days to unload. They also handled the customs the same way the other companies did... I still had to make the list and meet the driver at the customs house. So what exactly was I paying so much extra money for, for them to load it??? We ended up not using the entire truck, but went ahead and just paid for the whole thing since there would have only been about 4 feet left and that way we didn't have to worry about what else was being put in the truck.
My neighbor luckily worked at a job where they get tons of shipments with bubble wrap, so I didn't have to buy any which is expensive. I used small bubble wrap on our dishes and glasses and I used large bubble wrap to wrap up wall pictures, etc. I think in order to diminish some of the scratching we had on our shelving that I disassembled-think Target or IKEA shelves I should have taken some of the spongy foam sheets he gave me and put them in between the boards. I also stacked our dishes like books on a shelf instead of flat like you'd keep dishes in your cupboards. This is supposed to put less pressure on them.
I also went ahead and paid for UHaul boxes rather than getting boxes used or from grocery stores, etc. I can't say if this made any difference though I will say everything survived and some of the boxes had taken quite a beating when we arrived. I liked the ease that they all stacked up nicely, esp when we were packing things and showing the house and having everything stacked in the garage. Was it worth the price of the boxes? I don't know... maybe...esp if you moved a lot and would use the boxes again. Since the packing of the truck (see that post) mostly involved packing boxes around furniture, it probably didn't matter in the truck that they were all the same size. One thing I did differently this time than the last time we packed up is relied more heavily on small boxes than medium. This meant we had more small pieces to fit around furniture and they were easier to carry.
I also bought about 2 or 3 rolls of the plastic wrap. I used this to wrap around shelves that went to the same unit. Hardware went in a labeled baggie (put a paper in the baggie rather than writing on the baggy as this tended to wipe off). We put all the hardware in a huge 2 gallon bag and Paul took it in his suitcase rather than risk losing it in the truck. As mentioned above if I had to do it again, I'd put foam sheets between the boards as some were scratched during bumps. It did make it easy to find the boards to put shelving back together on the other side. I also used the plastic wrap to keep drawers closed and to protect upholstery like couches, etc. (did you know you can pack up your dressers with the clothes inside?)
For wrapping large furniture, I bought lots of moving blankets. They are reusable and my friends who had moved before with sheets or without blankets all said not to scrimp by saving on blankets. UHaul and UPack sell them for about $7-$10 a blanket and give discounts for buying a lot. I believe I used approx. 30 blankets. The Upack ones are very nice and quilted, the UHaul ones are made from recycled blue jeans. Both seemed to hold up equally well. After wrapping furniture, I used packaging tape to wrap around. I think we ended up using 5ish rolls of tape. Do not buy cheap tape USPS was the worst tape I used. It unstuck and tore before I was ready. Get a few rolls of strapping tape for stubborn boxes and for wrapping around the blankets.
Dining chairs I stacked in groups of 2 with cardboard free from Dania furniture and a friend's IKEA delivery. Paul dropped by Dania and found out that they got deliveries on Wed and by the end of Thursday they put them in the compactor. Find out where your local furniture delivery store gets deliveries. These were lightweight and put on top of the stack in the truck.
Sometimes I used the wrap to help hold the tape to hold the blankets in place. Online there's not much concensus about wrap THEN blanket or blanket THEN wrap except with leather furniture. Leather furniture will sweat if you put wrap directly on it. We also found that if you do wrap THEN blanket, items slide together well, the wrap is meant to stick to itself so when you put two items with wrap next to each other, they tended to stick together and not necessarily where you wanted them to.
On the furniture like this, I used leftover cardboard and made little boxes to protect the feet of the furniture then used packaging tape to wrap around the leg.
Everything made it pretty well. You could see evidence of rubbing on some of the moving blankets, but not on the furniture!
I spent $600 on boxes, blankets, moving wrap. Remember that I didn't have to buy my bubble wrap.
We also drove our car. It's a minivan that gets about 20mi/gal and we travelled through the US instead of Canada for two reasons... gas is cheaper in the US (I just filled up for the first time in Canada... my most expensive fill-up ever) and it takes an additional 8 hours to go past the great lakes in that way. To freight our smaller car it was going to be $3,000. We spent $500 on gas plus we didn't have to buy plane tickets for ourselves.
First off, we used ABF UPack. I had about 5 other major carriers come...Atlas, Mayflower, etc. they came and did detailed inventories and gave me quotes of $12,000-$15,000 and would charge $2500 for packing and supplies. They all charged by weight and all said that our goods would be delivered in 7-14 days from sending the truck off. ABF UPack is based off how much length of their truck you use (if you are doing a smaller move, they have a bulkhead that is placed behind your stuff, then they can pack another shipment going the same way in the truck) rather than weight. They did not come out to estimate, you enter some figures online. UPack estimated for the size of our home we'd need 1 truck +7 feet. I figured we could make it into one truck and played with the numbers until I got our estimate $5500. That's right, 1/3-1/2 of what everyone else was quoting me. ABF does not pack the truck, they drop it off, you have 3 days to load, they drive it to your new home, drop off the trailer and you have 3 days to unload. They also handled the customs the same way the other companies did... I still had to make the list and meet the driver at the customs house. So what exactly was I paying so much extra money for, for them to load it??? We ended up not using the entire truck, but went ahead and just paid for the whole thing since there would have only been about 4 feet left and that way we didn't have to worry about what else was being put in the truck.
My neighbor luckily worked at a job where they get tons of shipments with bubble wrap, so I didn't have to buy any which is expensive. I used small bubble wrap on our dishes and glasses and I used large bubble wrap to wrap up wall pictures, etc. I think in order to diminish some of the scratching we had on our shelving that I disassembled-think Target or IKEA shelves I should have taken some of the spongy foam sheets he gave me and put them in between the boards. I also stacked our dishes like books on a shelf instead of flat like you'd keep dishes in your cupboards. This is supposed to put less pressure on them.
I also went ahead and paid for UHaul boxes rather than getting boxes used or from grocery stores, etc. I can't say if this made any difference though I will say everything survived and some of the boxes had taken quite a beating when we arrived. I liked the ease that they all stacked up nicely, esp when we were packing things and showing the house and having everything stacked in the garage. Was it worth the price of the boxes? I don't know... maybe...esp if you moved a lot and would use the boxes again. Since the packing of the truck (see that post) mostly involved packing boxes around furniture, it probably didn't matter in the truck that they were all the same size. One thing I did differently this time than the last time we packed up is relied more heavily on small boxes than medium. This meant we had more small pieces to fit around furniture and they were easier to carry.
I also bought about 2 or 3 rolls of the plastic wrap. I used this to wrap around shelves that went to the same unit. Hardware went in a labeled baggie (put a paper in the baggie rather than writing on the baggy as this tended to wipe off). We put all the hardware in a huge 2 gallon bag and Paul took it in his suitcase rather than risk losing it in the truck. As mentioned above if I had to do it again, I'd put foam sheets between the boards as some were scratched during bumps. It did make it easy to find the boards to put shelving back together on the other side. I also used the plastic wrap to keep drawers closed and to protect upholstery like couches, etc. (did you know you can pack up your dressers with the clothes inside?)
For wrapping large furniture, I bought lots of moving blankets. They are reusable and my friends who had moved before with sheets or without blankets all said not to scrimp by saving on blankets. UHaul and UPack sell them for about $7-$10 a blanket and give discounts for buying a lot. I believe I used approx. 30 blankets. The Upack ones are very nice and quilted, the UHaul ones are made from recycled blue jeans. Both seemed to hold up equally well. After wrapping furniture, I used packaging tape to wrap around. I think we ended up using 5ish rolls of tape. Do not buy cheap tape USPS was the worst tape I used. It unstuck and tore before I was ready. Get a few rolls of strapping tape for stubborn boxes and for wrapping around the blankets.
Dining chairs I stacked in groups of 2 with cardboard free from Dania furniture and a friend's IKEA delivery. Paul dropped by Dania and found out that they got deliveries on Wed and by the end of Thursday they put them in the compactor. Find out where your local furniture delivery store gets deliveries. These were lightweight and put on top of the stack in the truck.
Sometimes I used the wrap to help hold the tape to hold the blankets in place. Online there's not much concensus about wrap THEN blanket or blanket THEN wrap except with leather furniture. Leather furniture will sweat if you put wrap directly on it. We also found that if you do wrap THEN blanket, items slide together well, the wrap is meant to stick to itself so when you put two items with wrap next to each other, they tended to stick together and not necessarily where you wanted them to.
Everything made it pretty well. You could see evidence of rubbing on some of the moving blankets, but not on the furniture!
I spent $600 on boxes, blankets, moving wrap. Remember that I didn't have to buy my bubble wrap.
We also drove our car. It's a minivan that gets about 20mi/gal and we travelled through the US instead of Canada for two reasons... gas is cheaper in the US (I just filled up for the first time in Canada... my most expensive fill-up ever) and it takes an additional 8 hours to go past the great lakes in that way. To freight our smaller car it was going to be $3,000. We spent $500 on gas plus we didn't have to buy plane tickets for ourselves.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Minecraft party
So this should have been posted back in April, been a little busy moving! Anyways... At Carter's Minecraft birthday we did a few crafts. It was back to one of our famous at home do it yourself parties. As the kids came in they made Creeper shirts. I got black Fabric paint at the craft store and freezer paper at the super market. I got t-shirts cheap at the craft store and got strawberry boxes from Costco.
First I cut the bottoms out of the strawberry flats to slip inside the t-shirts so that the paint wouldn't go onto the back of the shirts. I made Carter take the rest of the boxes out to the recycling bin...
Then I ironed the freezer paper on to the t-shirt with the cardboard inside. Freezer paper has a plastic surface on the back, so it will stick temporarily to the shirt making a great stencil.
then the kids used fabric paint with foam brushes. Try to paint from the outside in so that you don't push the paint under the stencil.
Wait the length of the party or 4 hours and peel off the stencil (I peeled it off right before guests left, then handed the slightly wet t-shirt (it takes 4 hours to completely dry) to the parent with the cardboard still inside). Shirts should be washed inside out esp the first washing and first washing should be at least 24-48 hours after painting.
The boys seemed to really like the project! I see several the boys wearing the finished shirts to school, so they must think they are pretty cool :) This was Valerie's. The boys' were green...
I also found a card game online that I printed cards off at Winkflash 4x6 size with 2 card on each picture (so 3 cents per card plus shipping). The boys spent the rest of the time after opening presents trading cards and looking through them. Pretty simple, the only hitch was getting enough of the right kind of those blasted cards printed and to us on time :) Filled up the 2 hour party slot pretty well. We also had a UTube playlist of about 20 Minecraft parady songs for the boys to watch on the downstairs TV. Some kids were disappointed about not actually playing Minecraft, but I think we had something like 14 kids and I didn't have the inclination or time to set up enough places to play it, plus this seemed to make for better interaction.
First I cut the bottoms out of the strawberry flats to slip inside the t-shirts so that the paint wouldn't go onto the back of the shirts. I made Carter take the rest of the boxes out to the recycling bin...
then I used my Wishblade to cut simple squares out of freezer paper (you could also cut out your own squares. I'm just terrible at cutting straight lines so I cheated).
Then I ironed the freezer paper on to the t-shirt with the cardboard inside. Freezer paper has a plastic surface on the back, so it will stick temporarily to the shirt making a great stencil.
then the kids used fabric paint with foam brushes. Try to paint from the outside in so that you don't push the paint under the stencil.
Wait the length of the party or 4 hours and peel off the stencil (I peeled it off right before guests left, then handed the slightly wet t-shirt (it takes 4 hours to completely dry) to the parent with the cardboard still inside). Shirts should be washed inside out esp the first washing and first washing should be at least 24-48 hours after painting.
The boys seemed to really like the project! I see several the boys wearing the finished shirts to school, so they must think they are pretty cool :) This was Valerie's. The boys' were green...
We also had a Minecraft Cake. For those that don't know... this is an exact replica. Fondant, 2 8x8 pans of chocolate cake and a lot of chocolate frosting to hold the layers that did not want to come out of the pan properly together...
I also found a card game online that I printed cards off at Winkflash 4x6 size with 2 card on each picture (so 3 cents per card plus shipping). The boys spent the rest of the time after opening presents trading cards and looking through them. Pretty simple, the only hitch was getting enough of the right kind of those blasted cards printed and to us on time :) Filled up the 2 hour party slot pretty well. We also had a UTube playlist of about 20 Minecraft parady songs for the boys to watch on the downstairs TV. Some kids were disappointed about not actually playing Minecraft, but I think we had something like 14 kids and I didn't have the inclination or time to set up enough places to play it, plus this seemed to make for better interaction.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Our first 10 days in Ontario
The little ones and I walked all around town-getting immigration photos taken for me, mailing my immigration paperwork off (yay me!) getting a library card, buying more grass seed, and getting gelato. Took about 1.5 hours of walking around, 30 minutes or so to eat the tiny bowl of gelato. The afternoon was spent washing all the roadtrip grime off the car (though 2 rainstorms did a good job on it-it wasn't that bad), spreading the grass seed, rototilling the garden so I can plant some things and generally puttering around.
Today I spent all morning working on paperwork-sorting the stack of mail that I've been shoving aside as it arrives from my mom's, my inlaws, my post office box and that we brought. I've been paying bills, filling out forms, inputting bills (trying to find out how much we need to live each month here), banking as well as going paperless for as many bills as possible. Since we only get the mail 1-2 times a week because it's at the post office box, I figured this would help get the bills paid, esp. since I see us going less and less as the winter progresses!
We've fallen into a bit of a rhythm. I try to get to bed at a decent hour so that I'm the first up. I like to spend 30-45 minutes puttering around (usually outside if it's not raining) then get some coffee and make a green smoothie for breakfast and do any office related stuff first off before Paul starts working in there (he's working for his company from our home office). Then I hear the kids wake up and go upstairs, get them breakfast, dressed, chores done, make sure the kitchen's cleaned up, then the kids play some video games while I do some indoor chores of house set up that are still lingering-mostly hanging pictures, sorting through piles of things, organizing closets and things that we unpacked, but didn't organize. We have lunch and then either go out or work outside if it's not too hot and the kids will ride bikes in the cul du sac or hopefully I can move them to the track right next door to our house at the school. Sometimes we head to my in-laws for a swim. The post office and library are just a short walk into the town square. We have dinner, clean up from the day, sometimes go back outside in the cool or to my inlaws, then bedtime for Valerie. The boys have been staying up on "summer time" while dad's at home to play video games with them.
Paul's been working about 11am-7 or 8pm since his company is on west coast time-the office door is closed while he's working or in meetings. He has the Surface set up on Skype so people can stop into his cubicle and talk to him face to face. Some meetings are by phone or by Skype. A lot of meetings are at 10am and 4pm Pacific time. He comes up to have meals with us. The kids and I eat breakfast at the breakfast bar, then we have lunch and dinner at the dining table.
So far it's been very pleasant-every government office or building has had helpful, happy employees in it. Our neighbors have brought over wine, essential oil bugspray & gingersnap cookies to welcome us to the area.
We were walking through the schoolyard to the post office and ran into the new principal at the boys' school. He seems very energetic and friendly and was glad to meet a few students who are new just like him. He was there with his father looking over the school, picking up trash and seems quite a go-getter. We've seen his car there every day all day this week (my kitchen windows look out on to the schoolyard).
I'll show you around...
We were able to get the van in the 9.5 foot garage. Yes, we all get in and out one side, which is fine for now, since we need to get the garage door remote working, the passenger usually gets out in order to unlock the front door and open the garage door anyways. We also have our tool chest and garbage cans and strollers in there. Bikes live in the covered part of the deck for now...
The backyard looks way different with leaves!
the poor side garden was covered in Morning Glory when I arrived after 2 months of neglecting it (I did weed it in April) now after a rototill of the top it's ready for some color
The kitchen has less storage than our old, particularly missing the pantry. But it's working ok so far... The TV next to coffee maker will probably get moved-previous owners left it and we seem to get a couple of channels.
Where we eat breakfast...
Dining room is a very useable size.
Living room fits our nice furniture. Paul was hooking things up for the tv. Former owners left wall mount. TV watching and Wii will probably be mostly upstairs, unless we're watching after the kids go to bed, then we'll watch in the basement where our room is and the Xbox is.
The living room and dining room form an L so we've turned the corner into a play area. Legos and such are in there.. we're hoping to get a 5x5 foot rug to anchor the place and make it cozier (we have no carpet except a stair runner in the house)
My linen closet is holding up nicely, esp since I have much more storage in the bathroom than our old house... the cabinet is larger with more drawers and we have a nice sized medicine cabinet. The linen closet holds extra blankets (sheets are kept in bedrooms), towels (towels in bathroom hang from a 2 level 5 hook (so 10 hooks total) on the back of the bathroom door right now as we have no towel racks in there). Some spare toiletries and medicine box are in there as well as our new canister vacuum which fits nicely on the floor in it. My aprons are hung on a hook on the back of the door since I was having a hard time fitting them in the kitchen.
My first home improvement project was putting some frosty contact paper on the windows for privacy,this looks out to the elementary school!
The kids' bedrooms seem to be working out, though I'd like to find some small, basic night stands for them. I may end up making some if I can't find what I like. I think the futon in Carter's room will move into our office for guests and a desk for homework will go in it's place.
We removed the closet doors from the master closet as our "walk in" closet with the doors you had to walk into sideways. The curtain hides it and makes it easy to get in and out of. We used one brown silk panel. I like it, but if I'd thought it through more I could have probably just used one of our old curtains with clips and rings on it. Oh, well! They may work well in Carter's room. So far I've had to shorten this curtain and the one in Henri's room as well, so the sewing machine has been broken out. I'll probably move to putting clip rings on the top of them so the kids can slide them easier and will be less likely to pull the curtain rods off the walls.
We've hung pictures! I did this wall over the stairs (it's a darker color, so it's an accent wall anyways by using freezer paper-I laid out some strips of it that I had on hand and taped them together, then laid out where I wanted the frames on the paper and marked them, then I measured where the hangers should go and marked those. Then I used pushpins to put the paper up at the ceiling put my hangers into the paper, then ripped the paper around the hangers. Easy!
So, it's looking like someone lives here, not like someone just moved in :) there's still projects for home improvement and organizing (kids bedroom closets and our storage area under the entry way are a priority!) but it's starting to feel more like home.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
First days cross country
So far things have been going well. We headed up to Vancouver with the kids to
meet my mother-in-law so she could fly
with them to Toronto. Flying this way
allowed us two advantages. First, we could get the kids through the border
rather than her having to try to get through 3 kids with a different last name.
It also allowed for a direct flight without plane changes. We normally fly
Seattle to Buffalo, which are the airports closest to our homes, however there
are no direct flights at this time from Seattle to Buffalo. Flying Vancouver to Toronto offers a non-stop
flight, but does require more driving on either end.
We stopped in at U.S. Customs to export the car before heading over to Canadian customs to import the car. We chose to import during this portion of our journey rather than at our eastern Canadian border crossing because the US customs office is only open 930am-330pm and closes at noon on Friday. We do hope to get to the border on Friday, however, we didn’t want the additional pressure driving of trying to get there in time to do the exportation before the weekend (which will be a Canadian Holiday on Monday-Canada Day). While we do have a “goal” for each day, safety is our first priority, so we are cognizant of making sure we aren’t overdriving.
We’ve also been asked why we are driving through the US rather than Canada, especially since we started the journey driving to Vancouver. The car is currently full (we still have full visibility in the back and easy access to the items we need during our journey) and we could never have fit three kids and my mother-in-law besides all our stuff. Also, driving north around the Great Lakes is about 8 hours driving that we avoid by going south. Finally, gas prices are much less in the U.S. So we started by taking the kids up to Vancouver, then drove back to my parents’ house where we’ve been staying the last 3 weeks to pick up the stuff, then 90. We’ve chosen 90 over 94 to avoid Minneapolis and Madison for traffic reasons.
We stopped in at U.S. Customs to export the car before heading over to Canadian customs to import the car. We chose to import during this portion of our journey rather than at our eastern Canadian border crossing because the US customs office is only open 930am-330pm and closes at noon on Friday. We do hope to get to the border on Friday, however, we didn’t want the additional pressure driving of trying to get there in time to do the exportation before the weekend (which will be a Canadian Holiday on Monday-Canada Day). While we do have a “goal” for each day, safety is our first priority, so we are cognizant of making sure we aren’t overdriving.
We’ve also been asked why we are driving through the US rather than Canada, especially since we started the journey driving to Vancouver. The car is currently full (we still have full visibility in the back and easy access to the items we need during our journey) and we could never have fit three kids and my mother-in-law besides all our stuff. Also, driving north around the Great Lakes is about 8 hours driving that we avoid by going south. Finally, gas prices are much less in the U.S. So we started by taking the kids up to Vancouver, then drove back to my parents’ house where we’ve been staying the last 3 weeks to pick up the stuff, then 90. We’ve chosen 90 over 94 to avoid Minneapolis and Madison for traffic reasons.
So back to customs.
To export the vehicle out of the
U.S. we had to e-mail ahead to get a worksheet form to fill out, then
the title, original invoice and worksheet had to be scanned ande-mailed 72
hours in advance of our crossing (weekends aren’t included). The directions the Blaine crossing sent us
were very easy to understand and detailed, including an aerial photo of where
to park the car. I stayed with the kids
in the car, Paul took our original documents into the U.S. customs office a
short walk away and came back within 5-10 minutes with the title stamped
exported. The officer was in good
spirits and asked a few cursory questions of Paul and joked a bit with him.
We then drove over to the Canadian border crossing. We didn’t understand where to go and ended up
in the truck lot instead of the car lot, but the agents were very kind and
helped us get all sorted out and put in the right direction. We told Canadian customs what we were doing-moving
to Ontario, bringing the car over-and they took our documents. I was super
organized which really helped, I think it helped project that even though we
weren’t 100% sure what we were supposed to be doing, we were trying very hard
to do things in a proper manner-I carry a binder with me that has clear plastic
protectors. Each protector has a section
of paperwork necessary for our journey- there are sections for hotel
reservations, car customs forms/documents, id documents, customs forms for our
stuff, etc.
We waited about 1 hour
and then were told our paper work
was fine. We paid about $1000 in
GST and $100 fee for having an air
conditioner. When we get to Ontario we
will still have to pay $195 to register in the RIV program (Registrar of
Imported Vehicles), provincial taxes and licensing fees, an inspection fee and
possibly a fee to modify my running lights.
I think since we paid the a/c fee but they didn’t charge a green fee we
probably don’t have to pay that. If your
vehicle is rated less than20mpg, you are charged in $1000 fee incriments
depending on how bad the gas mileage is.
According to my car’s computer I get 20.1 around town… we have been
getting 21-22mpg as we’ve been highway driving.
It is my understanding that it is still cheaper to import our vehicle
rather than buying there. We’ll also be
paying twice as much for auto insurance (yes, I’ve comparison shopped)
Our first day driving we have fallen into a rhythm. I fill a 20 ounce pop bottle with water from
a gallon jug and have to pee every 1.5-2 hours.
2 hours is about how long we each can drive before getting irritable,
stiff and have to pee. The car (have I
mentioned how much I friggin’ love my car?)
has a counter of how long the current trip has been going (besides our
trusty GPS) so we drive until it reaches
1 hour 30 minutes, then start looking for a rest stop or a gas station if the
fuel gauge is low (we get about 400-450
miles per full tank-the car computer even will tell you how many more miles you
can go on your current amount of fuel-it’s amazing). So far this is working great. We drove about 12 hours our first day (I’m
hoping it will be our longest, my plans for the next days are 10ish hours the
total journey without traffic will be about 38 hours) with a short stop to load
the car at my parents’ and when we got to the hotel just in time to get some
dinner we remarked how we both feel like we’ve been driving all day, but not in
a bad mood or overly tired. We haven’t
had any issues with nodding off or feeling like we will. So far, so good.
Driving with my husband as a driving partner is great for a
few reasons… he really likes driving… he’d probably drive 8 hours at a time
without complaining if I didn’t have to pee, AND lets me control the stereo and
he drives just a touch faster than I do so we get a little further on his shift
than min. He’s pretty much the perfect
driving partner and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather drive with.
I know it’s going smoothly partly because of my smart
mother-in-law as well insisting to fly the kids back. Don’t get me wrong, our kids are actually
great travelers (well,not the greatest sleepers in hotel rooms, but actually
traveling by car, air or train? They are
awesome). In fact my father-in-law
remarked that the kids must have done well, despite really only sleeping about
4-5 hours at the hotel (see above) the night before because when she got off the
airplane with 3 kids in tow (and V’s first trip without strapping her into a 5
point harness car seat) she was actually smiling and not frazzled. However, she’s right, the driving is much
easier with just the hubby and I.
Our first night we made it to Bozeman, MT a little further
than I was expecting considering our detour to Vancouver and my not accounting
for time changes in my travel calculations.
We stayed in a nice, expensive room thanks to my parent’s birthday gift
to me of a travel voucher they’d earned with the hotel chain.
We don’t have a hotel booked for tonight and may end up calling the
’rents when we are feeling close to being done driving for the day to see if
they can book online for us since we downgraded to dumb phones to go with our
US/Canada plan.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Canadian Customs and unloading the truck
So after packing up the truck last week, Paul headed off to meet the truck at Canadian customs in Ontario. When the truck left, Paul handed him a copy of his Canadian Passport along with a copy of Form B-4 and B-4A for the goods on the truck (a second B-4A form for the things we are bringing in our personal vehicle when we drive it back was prepared for customs, but not given to the driver).
Paul showed up at the ABF U-Pack terminal and handed his copy of B-4 and both copies of B-4A (the additional items on the truck as well as goods to follow, which we'll also present I think when we bring the car with us) to the person at the terminal and she handed them over to customs. He then waited for about a 1/2 hour or so to make sure everything was good. Two things came up that we were not expecting.
1) the customs officer informed us that our forms should have been presented at the border when my husband arrived on the plane (we fly in the US then drive over the border as the US airport is closer than the nearest large Canadian airport) and drove over and told them that he was intending to meet a truck with these belongings. (I hadn't figured this out from the directions and no one told us this. When I'd called the ABF terminal they said to bring papers to the terminal and she'd fax them to customs... nothing was said about the border) 2) He had to prove he'd been out of the country for over a year. The only thing he could think of was that we had a copy of our 2012 income tax return ( I noted later he could have presented his state driver's license or some of the house forms he had with him, but apparently it was a bit deer in the headlights thing where you are trying to quickly think and of course, my not standing in front of the customs officer myself at a later time had other ideas of way to prove this... it was the quickest thing he could think of). While a little annoyed that the officer took some time to share our personal information with some other officers, my husband was pleased when the officer offered up that when we drive our vehicle back later in the month when we cross the border we are to be very clear with the border guard that we are importing the vehicle and should fill out paperwork upon our border crossing. I'll update how that went probably first week in July.
The truck has been unpacked and Paul will call UPack/ABF to come pickup the truck tomorrow. He showed me some pictures via Skype and for moving to and from the same square footage of house and how much we got rid of, it still looks like we have a TON of stuff! He's got the furniture pretty squared away and is trying to do at least living room and bedrooms so we can sit and sleep and will do his best in the kitchen so hopefully we'll not be eating take-out too long. I told a woman at church today this update and she said, "I don't know your husband well, but I like him for taking on such a task!" I told her, "I would feel guilty, but I packed almost all of it, so he can unpack it!" I'm sure things will be a bit fluid in their location for awhile as we figure out what we have left and how our new space will work, but I'm confident it will all fit as the new house while having the same square footage has a better floor plan (I think, I hope!) for how our family lives.
He says everything he's seen so far (he's not opened a ton of boxes, too busy putting furniture in place) has survived except one small skateboard we've had about 7 years that we used to brace some furniture got cracked apart. The wine glasses, wrapped in bubble wrap and piggy banks are in one piece (my pampered chef muffin stoneware didn't survive the plane ride in my suitcase in April, so I guess it's safer to be packed by me in a truck than an airplane!) I'll update more as he unwraps more so those moving in the future can learn from our experience.
Paul showed up at the ABF U-Pack terminal and handed his copy of B-4 and both copies of B-4A (the additional items on the truck as well as goods to follow, which we'll also present I think when we bring the car with us) to the person at the terminal and she handed them over to customs. He then waited for about a 1/2 hour or so to make sure everything was good. Two things came up that we were not expecting.
1) the customs officer informed us that our forms should have been presented at the border when my husband arrived on the plane (we fly in the US then drive over the border as the US airport is closer than the nearest large Canadian airport) and drove over and told them that he was intending to meet a truck with these belongings. (I hadn't figured this out from the directions and no one told us this. When I'd called the ABF terminal they said to bring papers to the terminal and she'd fax them to customs... nothing was said about the border) 2) He had to prove he'd been out of the country for over a year. The only thing he could think of was that we had a copy of our 2012 income tax return ( I noted later he could have presented his state driver's license or some of the house forms he had with him, but apparently it was a bit deer in the headlights thing where you are trying to quickly think and of course, my not standing in front of the customs officer myself at a later time had other ideas of way to prove this... it was the quickest thing he could think of). While a little annoyed that the officer took some time to share our personal information with some other officers, my husband was pleased when the officer offered up that when we drive our vehicle back later in the month when we cross the border we are to be very clear with the border guard that we are importing the vehicle and should fill out paperwork upon our border crossing. I'll update how that went probably first week in July.
The truck has been unpacked and Paul will call UPack/ABF to come pickup the truck tomorrow. He showed me some pictures via Skype and for moving to and from the same square footage of house and how much we got rid of, it still looks like we have a TON of stuff! He's got the furniture pretty squared away and is trying to do at least living room and bedrooms so we can sit and sleep and will do his best in the kitchen so hopefully we'll not be eating take-out too long. I told a woman at church today this update and she said, "I don't know your husband well, but I like him for taking on such a task!" I told her, "I would feel guilty, but I packed almost all of it, so he can unpack it!" I'm sure things will be a bit fluid in their location for awhile as we figure out what we have left and how our new space will work, but I'm confident it will all fit as the new house while having the same square footage has a better floor plan (I think, I hope!) for how our family lives.
He says everything he's seen so far (he's not opened a ton of boxes, too busy putting furniture in place) has survived except one small skateboard we've had about 7 years that we used to brace some furniture got cracked apart. The wine glasses, wrapped in bubble wrap and piggy banks are in one piece (my pampered chef muffin stoneware didn't survive the plane ride in my suitcase in April, so I guess it's safer to be packed by me in a truck than an airplane!) I'll update more as he unwraps more so those moving in the future can learn from our experience.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Henri's graduation from preschool
We arrived a few minutes early and Valerie had fallen asleep on the way over. So far we were golden. I hoisted up a sleeping Valerie, grabbed the camera and asked Henri several times if he needed to visit the bathroom, but no, he insisted he was good to go.
OK, then. We sat until the rest of his class came into the gym and he joined them up front. They sang 2 songs.... yep, that's my kid....
(1:43) in is the good stuff... if you just want to get to the funny part...
After their songs they were supposed to sit down with their parents. Henri proceeded to wander around, finally sitting down after realizing no one else was still standing up front before his teacher directed him towards me.
His "when I grow up" was: When I grow up, I want to be a honeybee, I will make honey and have bees. I will play Xbox with my brother forever and live in our new house by our school.
OK, then. We sat until the rest of his class came into the gym and he joined them up front. They sang 2 songs.... yep, that's my kid....
(1:43) in is the good stuff... if you just want to get to the funny part...
After their songs they were supposed to sit down with their parents. Henri proceeded to wander around, finally sitting down after realizing no one else was still standing up front before his teacher directed him towards me.
His "when I grow up" was: When I grow up, I want to be a honeybee, I will make honey and have bees. I will play Xbox with my brother forever and live in our new house by our school.
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