We're in!

We move in last Sunday with the help of 5 Russion guys from Ocean Moving.  They arrived around 11am; couldn't get the truck on our street, so started the process by carting everything from about 100 meters (yards?) up the street and around the corner. 

Remember, it was still August - the sun was beating down on them, tshirts soaked in the first 5 minutes.  Once in the building, they had to bring everything up to the 6th or 5th floors in 2 tiny elevators (they fit about 4 people, 6 uncomfortably) without A/C.

Dan took the ground floor location to direct them to the correct floor and check off each box as it went in from our list of 250 items.  I took the apartment level position, directed the movers to specific rooms, and spent the first 4 hours ripping protective packing off items with the box cutter.  There was a mountain of paper wrapping in the entry (this pic only shows about half of it).  You never know how respectful movers are going to be with your property, but these guys were great about taking down the paper as I unwrapped it, moving things from one floor to another without complaining, and keeping a pleasant attitude (except for one guy, but there's always one bad apple). 

Mid afternoon a lift arrived in the back parking lot.  They loaded our king mattress on it and mechanically elevated it to the 5th floor balcony where they took it in through the sliding glass doors.  They also brought up one set of shelves this way.  But that's it.  Two items!  All the rest came by cart, elevator, and heavy lifting.

They got it all in before 4pm, then spent an additional hour re-building our beds, dining room table, coffee table, and desks.