Catch Up.

*This is the follow up to the previous post about my home buying nightmare.*

Sooooo where did we leave off? Oh yes, the fire. I found out the day after I had all the locks changed that a fire had destoryed half of the building the night before. The fire stopped about 10 Ft from my front door. Luckily the smoke smell killed the stench that the the squatter left behind. With all of his crap out on the deck I painted, cleaned, packed, cleaned, had the carpet ripped out, cleaned, changed the fixtures, cleaned, oh and did I mention cleaned. (I had lots of help from my blogmates, Coley, Dana, Sassyx, and several family members.)

After playing phone tag with the squatter's brother I was able to get authorization to dump all of the crap he left behind (which cost me$400). They agreed to pay for the removal costs if I would allow them to go through the storage unit (which I did). I finished painting and planned to officially move in the following week.

The day before the move I stopped to drop off a few items and found a note on the front door. It said that the city would be doing asbestos abatement (due to the fire) and that my hallway was off limits for the next week. I had already hired movers and changing the move date was out of the questions. Damn! Damn! Damn!

The next day the movers arrive (5 1/2 hours late) and begin loading my furniture. Only one of the three movers spoke English and he had the nerve to have an attitude because he thought my bedroom furniture was to large. I have no idea how he planned to fit and entire apartment into a truck the size of a large van but I guess you get what you pay for. Half way through the loading process he asks me "What would you rather have...your couch or your bed?" I. Lost. It (for the 12th time). What would I rather have??!!!! I want both dumb ass!!! He then offers to take my bed and half of my couch (it has a lounge attached to it). WTF am I gonna do with half a couch. He ended up charging me and extra $25 to take my bed apart and left the dresser mirror behind. I tried to give him directions to the new address but he asked if he could follow me instead. I agreed without knowing that the trucks top speed was 40 mph (going downhill). Anytime I exceeded that speed I lost the movers. I have never been cussed out so many times while driving in my entire life.

We arrived at my new place and found the hallway entrance covered in plastic with toxic agent warning signs hanging everywhere. Thank God my door was just outside of the quarantined area and the unloading went smoothly. After an hour the mover tells me that they were having a problem getting the top of my bed up the stairs (the canopy section). I said fine and assumed that they would continue to try. Another hour later he (the english speaking one) comes to the door and say "All done!" Whoo-Hooo! I was exhausted and ready to call it a day. I walked around to make sure everything was accounted for and noticed that my bed was missing. I asked him:

Me: "Where is my bed?
Mover: "Oh, I think it's out front."
Me: "Okay, so are you gonna get it?"
Mover: "No."
Me:"No?!!!"
Mover: "No".
Me: "Well why not!?"
Mover: "I told you we were having a problem getting it up the stairs."


I was to tired to fight and didn't know what else to say so I walked away to sulk. I gave some thought to trying to kick his ass but then I realized that perhaps that wasn't the best idea since he was quite a bit larger than I am. Eventually Coley and the others took over.

Coley:"So what are you gonna do? Leave it in front of the building?"
Mover: "Yep."
Coley: "You have to try to get it up here another way."
Mover: Getting into his buffalo I'm gonna kick your ass stance, "Are you saying that it's my fault that it doesn't fit?"
Coley: "No! But you have to try getting it up another way!"

Mover: (yawning) "I don't have the equipment, maybe I'll come back tomorrow."

Coley: "No you won't, you'll try now! Come on I'll show you how to do it."

Mover: "It's not gonna work but whatever."

After a lot of persuading the movers pushed the railing up to the balcony and we pulled it up to the 2nd floor. The movers grudgingly re-assembled the bed and left. After all of that they had the nerve to look surprised when I didn't give them a tip.

Think that's the end of the story? Of course not! A couple of days ago I left for work and found 6 police officers in the hallway. After some snooping I found out that my next door neighbor decided to end his life in his living room. (I wondered why his TV had been on non-stop for the last 4 days). Apparently he had been there for several days before anyone found him. Ewwww! Also, the squatter has decided not to reimburse me the $1007.58 he owes me. I guess I'll be taking a trip to small claims court.

In other news I got a kitten that seems to like swimming in the toilet. Yep, that's about it.

*Birthday countdown!!!!.....9 days to go!*

Posted in: B.E.G's Posts