Altoona, IA - 2nd Move: Off to Lloyd's

Last night we had some severe weather. Gary and I were laying in bed asleep about 2:00 am when we heard light pattering on our RV roof. This quickly turned into a down pour which lasted for about 2 hours. At one time, the rain drops were hitting so hard that we both ran to the front window to see if it was hail. Whew, it was not. That’s one thing we worry about is being out in the open with both a car and our RV. But we dodged the bullet this time: all we heard were massive rain drops. We got back into bed and then we heard what we knew it was hail. No mistaking that hard rap of hail on fiberglass. Sure did keep us awake. Nothing like rain and hail on fibreglass about 5’ from ones head to keep one awake. But, no damage to anything except our sleep. And, we’re so tired that losing a bit of sleep is the difference between exhausted and drained, not much difference.

Now that we have removed all of the furniture that we are keeping and storing in our storage unit, it’s time for Lloyd to take the rest. We wanted to get ours out first so there would be no mistakes. We hired the same movers who took our furniture to storage to take the rest to Lloyd and they arrived at 9:00. We showed them what they were to take and they began to load it all up. Getting the furniture out of the 2 upper floors was a piece of cake, just out through the garage and into the truck.

Getting the furniture out of the lower level, where the majority of it was, was another story. The best way to get anything heavy out of the lower level is to take it out the patio door, around the next town home unit, up the hill and into the truck, all of the trip in the grass. Remember that rainstorm last night? Now, ask how wet the grass was and how muddy it was where there was no grass. Then, shut your eyes and imagine the movers carrying the first piece of furniture through the grass, the mud and up the hill. Now, they’ve got to come into the lower level with its off-white carpeting for the next load. Oops.

Well, luckily they had put down some pads, we had moved most of the furniture close to the door and they had taken their shoes off for the first pass. Even with these precautions, It would have been impossible to have moved all 15 pieces of furniture out of the lower level after a rain like we had without bringing in some dirt. But it wasn’t much and the next day I worked on the few spots their shoes made and was able to get them out. Nothing like some water and elbow grease. Here’s our empty lower level.

So, now, our furniture is in storage, the rest is with Lloyd and all that remains in the house is the rest, the things like tools, small furniture, a few pictures, some tools. But the house is mostly empty, hardly a home at all. But it’s a blank canvas for the new family that will move in shortly a music teacher mother and her 7-yr old son.