Liz’s Move

Today’s the official day – Liz is moving all her stuff into our new apartment in Logan Square.

It’s been a busy time lately, so I didn’t take all that many photos. This was the first time either of us used movers, so the whole process wasn’t too bad overall. We both felt kind of weird, just “standing around” while other folks did all the dirty work for us. So we ended up occupying ourselves by loading up my car and moving a lot of the smaller stuff (lamps, food from the fridge, cleaning supplies).

Here’s a silly bit of geekiness to add to the mix. When we arrived at the new apartment, I logged in to IM and saw that Allison was logged in. The way my iMac was set up… it was in the sun room, looking in to the rest of the apartment.

I decided to set up a video chat with Allison, so that she could watch us (and the movers) lug stuff into the apartment. This was, I think, a fun little window for the folks at work. Above, Jane, Allison and Ben were peering in, watching the whole moving-in process.

*pushes up glasses with finger*

Yeah.

Liz, next to a big pile of “stuff.”

Lots of boxes in the dining room…

Even more boxes in the dining room…

All in all, the movers took about 3 hours. Not too shabby, given that this was start to finish. We used a company called The Professionals, and I highly recommend them. Liz did all her research (as usual), and decided they were the best looking place to use. They were polite, fast, and very careful with our things.

We were trying to give them stuff, throughout the move. We had bottles of water, apples, and Liz had made an extra loaf of banana bread. They took some of our water, but for the most part politely refused the food and just kept working.

At the end of the moving process, we offered them some beer. The main guy (Rafael) declined, and said that they had one more job slated for the day (they do about 3 moves per day – yikes!). Liz then said that they could just take the 6-pack for later, and Rafael agreed.

We gave them each a tip (which, given Liz’s research, is customary), and sent Rafael off with the beer. We peeked outside the window and watched Rafael walk to the truck… and I could hear one of the other guys chuckle/laugh and say “Yeeeeah” as he saw the beer. That, more than anything else, made us feel pretty good – and made us feel like we treated them right.

Movers are definitely a luxury, and while we’re paying them and they’re providing a service… it doesn’t hurt to be nice. For lugging all that stuff up and down stairs, I think a little food and a little beer is the least we could have done.