Change of plans
Jan. 4th, 2024 10:25 pmThere are strikes here that affected the trains. So, the train we wanted from the local station wasn't going to get us to the new house in time for the 9am to 11am delivery window. We took a cab across town to another station, but the train from there wouldn't either. Eventually, we ended up taking a cab up to the new place. Expensive but not terrible.
The water heater was delivered. Yay! It is enormous. In fact, it is so enormous that we won't be able to install the washing machine where we intended to install it. After some fretting, we decided that we would put the washing machine in front of the water heater in the long, narrow "shed" attached to the house. We can attach a splitter to the hose spigot and then attach that to the washing machine (it heats water if the water needs to be heated, so it only needs cold input). We'll let the dirty water drain into the lemon tree, which is nearby. So long as the dirty water (graywater) is using biodegradable soap, it should be okay for things like trees.
Joel is going to head back up to the new house tomorrow for the water heater and solar panel installation. I will stay home to work on the packing. It looks like the movers can move us on the date we want, so the main issue is getting everything ready in time. Unlike in Russia, we feel like we should be able to get everything packed pretty quickly. We'll see if that is actually the case or not. Of course, the problem is that it is hard to pack when you need everything. I'm going to try to prepare boxes for some of the things that can't be packed immediately (like monitors), so that we can just pop them in the night before the movers come. That might also give me a chance to clean before the movers come, which would be super nice, since I would like the movers to be able to take away the cleaning supplies too.
Just for my reference, I'm thinking of organizing our boxes and stuff so that the heaviest things (furniture and heavy boxes) are in one room, the medium things are in another room, and the lightweight boxes and fragile things are in yet another room. We want to make it as quick as possible to get the stuff packed into the truck (because we pay by the hour and because our street is super busy, so a moving van is a huge inconvenience, especially for the trams that are on rails and can't pass them). ChatGPT also suggests different colored tape, which would be useful too.
The water heater was delivered. Yay! It is enormous. In fact, it is so enormous that we won't be able to install the washing machine where we intended to install it. After some fretting, we decided that we would put the washing machine in front of the water heater in the long, narrow "shed" attached to the house. We can attach a splitter to the hose spigot and then attach that to the washing machine (it heats water if the water needs to be heated, so it only needs cold input). We'll let the dirty water drain into the lemon tree, which is nearby. So long as the dirty water (graywater) is using biodegradable soap, it should be okay for things like trees.
Joel is going to head back up to the new house tomorrow for the water heater and solar panel installation. I will stay home to work on the packing. It looks like the movers can move us on the date we want, so the main issue is getting everything ready in time. Unlike in Russia, we feel like we should be able to get everything packed pretty quickly. We'll see if that is actually the case or not. Of course, the problem is that it is hard to pack when you need everything. I'm going to try to prepare boxes for some of the things that can't be packed immediately (like monitors), so that we can just pop them in the night before the movers come. That might also give me a chance to clean before the movers come, which would be super nice, since I would like the movers to be able to take away the cleaning supplies too.
Just for my reference, I'm thinking of organizing our boxes and stuff so that the heaviest things (furniture and heavy boxes) are in one room, the medium things are in another room, and the lightweight boxes and fragile things are in yet another room. We want to make it as quick as possible to get the stuff packed into the truck (because we pay by the hour and because our street is super busy, so a moving van is a huge inconvenience, especially for the trams that are on rails and can't pass them). ChatGPT also suggests different colored tape, which would be useful too.