Move day 4

“We don’t have that much stuff… we should be able to load the trailer ourselves.” is the dumbest thing I’ve ever said. Truly awful. Wildly, wildly off base and wrong. Sad!

We received the trailer earlier than we expected, filled it 50% more than we expected, and closed it up with about 30 minutes to spare before our ride to the airport. Sherri and I worked 10+ hour days to get the house cleaned up and that trailer loaded. And we used Every. Single. Foot. of trailer length available to us. The trailer people’s website estimator ball-parked 16’ of trailer for a 3bd 1700 sq ft home and we used 24’. There are 2 feet left at the very back for the loading ramp and that’s it. We couldn’t even fit some of our stuff. We left behind two mattresses (older, but still…), the grill (but I was on the fence about taking this anyway), our Pottery Barn rocker, and my AmazonBasics office chair.

For next time I’ll absolutely hire professional packers and one of those van line companies. If we move later and I start to hem and haw about the expense, please forward this email to me immediately. (For future Brian: you are good at some things, but moving isn’t a “core competency”. Take the L and hire it out.)

We did a passable job of cleaning, but we had a lot of accumulated grime, so we hired professionals to come through on Wednesday.

None of this would’ve been possible without our amazing neighbors, who really came through in a pinch. Without Siddesh or Fadi’s help, there would’ve been no way to put the ramp back on the truck, and several large pieces of furniture would’ve been orphaned on the curb. Siddesh helped me for hours over his weekend, for which I’m eternally grateful. And he saved the day by having Husky ratchet tie-downs on hand! I’ve been humbled by the kindness and generosity of people these past few days.

Now we are at the Grand Hyatt at SFO, waiting for our 7am flight tomorrow.

Most of it still feels unreal. It will take many months before any of this feels normal again, but we’re all-in on the journey. And we said if it doesn’t work out for some reason, we’ll just move again… but there will be a LOT of downsizing first.

Goodbye California. We have good memories from here, but it’s time to make some new ones somewhere else.

p.s. More photos are here on Google Photos.