08/22/08: Totally in Canada now

The Great Move is accomplished! The New York apartment is empty (except for the piano, which is about to go, and the new apartment in Toronto is like a warehouse for furniture and about 150 boxes.

What to tell of this huge project? First, it is noteworthy that I chose an unconventional approach to this move. Instead of just hiring an international firm, I rented a truck and hired a driver/packer to come down from Toronto and bring the stuff back, taking me and my excellent inventory list -- stamped and approved by Canadian customs -- over the border. That way, no hassle at the border with third-party agents, etc., according to other immigrants who have brought their stuff themselves, and no 2-3 week wait while your goods rattle around in corporate limbo before arriving at your curb. On the other hand, there are worries about liability, trust, the unpredictability of humans, etc. What if the truck crashed, or my packer didn't know how to pack and I ended up with furniture soup? After some agonizing along these lines, I realized that I preferred the flawed-human kind of worry to the corporate-monolith kind of worry, not to mention that the DIY approach is a lot cheaper.

So, I found (on Craigslist) a woman in Toronto to do the job, and I reserved a 24' moving truck from Penske in Toronto. Then I went down to NYC and spent the last ten days of July packing and getting rid of things. We had had a purge in October when we de-accessioned a lot of stuff, but I did some more this time around, mostly large pieces of furniture. Of course, there was still a lot left. Fumiko came down during this period for four days and also did a lot of packing. This was her first trip to New York since we arrived in Toronto, and her impression was that Toronto is a pleasanter place to live!

Then I went back to Toronto for a week, and on Aug. 7 went to New York for the final push. The load-in was scheduled for Aug. 14, so I had six days to get everything else boxed or otherwise ready. I was able to do this. On the evening of the 13th, the truck arrived and the mover and her helper slept on mattresses in the guest room. (My tenant had left that day.) I hired a couple of extra helpers from Craigslist in New York, so four of them loaded the truck in about five hours on Thursday, working hard and fast.

Then the driver and friend went sightseeing in New York City, not getting back until 2 in the morning. I was alone in the echoing apartment and my task was to un-install the old wall-to-wall carpet in the hallway and living room. (Apartment has to be "broom-clean" or penalty money will be taken.) This turned out to be a bigger job than I had counted on. The lathing around the edges had to be pried up with a crowbar, nails pulled, rotten carpet wrestled out, etc. But it was accomplished, with the help of a porter at the end.

On Friday morning, more last-minute boxes than anyone had counted on were a challenge to stuff in, so the truck was filled to the brim and the mover was exasperated. Then all that was left was the piano; a buyer was dragging his feet, so I left it there for later removal. We pulled out, me riding in the truck, about noon on Friday and got in to Toronto at about 10:30 that night. The border crossing was not a problem and traffic wasn't too bad, so it was a pretty smooth trip.

Saturday morning about noon they started unloading -- the driver and friend and another helper she brought along. It went pretty quickly, so in three hours everything was inside the new apartment. (I had been afraid it might not all fit...) We returned the truck, I paid everybody off, and we were done.

It went well, all things considered, and most thankfully is now behind us! There were a few scratches on some furniture, and a few temper tantrums (by the mover, who in the final 24 hours developed Attitude like I would not have believed), but pretty much everything got delivered well, and the cost was considerably less than a corporate move would have cost.

The piano negotiations continued by email, and it now seems that the buyer will pay us a small amount of money (but at least not giving it away) and remove the piano tomorrow. Then the apartment can be released (by my son, who is kindly acting as my agent in New York). All that will be left is an old broom and the towel hooks in the bathroom, which I never got around to taking out. Perhaps strangely, I didn't feel much emotion about this leaving process -- actually, I was sadder about giving up my mother's apartment when we did that. After forty years, I guess I'm ready for something new.

We are very slowly getting things organized in the new apartment, trying to decide how to use the old familiar pieces in this new space. Fortunately, we have a couple of weeks to do this before we need to start living in it. The new rooms are large (this is the kitchen), but there are not as many large closets as in New York, and we got rid of the five black cabinets from the dining room, so we have nowhere to put china, glass, etc. for the time being. We must say that ten times a day -- "let's put that here, for the time being"!

I have contracted for cable TV and Internet service, and sent out a couple of beloved rugs for a very expensive cleaning. When those are all in place, and the chaos has been tamed to some degree, then we can start actually living in the new apartment, in early September.