McNelis.biz

Yesterday we had the big move. We moved north about 1/2 a mile from our old place. The specifics? Moving from a 3rd floor walkup to a first floor of a house. We decided a while back that we wanted to hire movers, and boy howdy was that a good idea. So before I get far into it, a big huge thank goes to the Best movers in Chicago, Dibble.

Read on for more about the move!

Unfortunately we did not get the keys to the new place until the morning of the move, so we didn’t get to take anything over to the new place until yesterday morning. Chris and I got up about 6:30am and started carrying boxes down to the first floor entryway, where they were at least protected by a security door. We did this for an hour and a half, until Chris’s parents came, about 8am. They were wonderful and brought Dunkin Donuts and coffee.

Then Scar started helping carry boxes down using a dolly, and Chris and Ma started cleaning and organizing. About 9am I went over to the new landlords office, and after some confusion as to where the new keys were, they were found and I was off to make a couple of copies so that our friends have some keys to the place, in case of emergency. About this time Nina got locked in the bathroom (on purpose) so she wouldn’t be under foot. She did NOT like that.

When I got back from the hardware store the movers were pulling up and they started loading their truck while Scar and I were putting loose items into the mini-van. We headed over to the new place with our first load at about 11am and met the very good cleaning crew that was just finishing wiping down the place. While we were there we got the call that Pier 1 delivery was about 5 minutes out…good thing we were over there! They weren’t supposed to come until noon or later, but I can’t complain. The boxes for the new table were HUGE and I don’t know what we would have done with them if the place was filled with our stuff before it got there.

After that Scar and I went back and I filled the van up with more while the movers finished loading up. Then the movers, myself and Scar headed to the new place to start unloading, it wasn’t quite 11:30 and Scar and I stopped at White Hen with the movers to pick up some food and drinks for the guys. Buying lunch at this point was the least I could do!

We got there and we pulled the small stuff from Scar’s truck while the guys started doing heavy lifting. Once the van was unloaded Scar left back to the old place as I helped the movers as best I could. It turned into me unloading the wardrobe boxes as fast as possible as well as the crates they put loose stuff like golf clubs in. In less than an hour, they were done! Then it was up to us to start unpacking. Which we did a little bit of before we went across the street to Ranalli’s for some much deserved lunch.

While we were at Ranalli’s we got a voicemail from the Walter E. Smithe (that’s Smithe, with an E!) delivery guys asking if they could deliver in 10 minutes. Problem was, I couldn’t get a hold of them! I was dialing 748 (as the Voicemail said), instead of 708…plus we didn’t expect them till 4:30 and it was just after 1pm. So we sat and ordered, then we saw the truck drive by!

Whoooosshhhhh, like the wind Chris and I were chasing after the truck! We chased it about 2 blocks before we caught up with it, and sure enough it was our coffee table! So we got the table in and I enjoyed my tastey Ribwich (which was actual rib meat!….I’ll write up that stuff over at PeaceLoveFood).

The rest of the day was unpacking and getting the cable installed. Pretty boring, but very very productive.

A little more about our moving company, Dibble Moving. The guys arrived on time, said between 8:30 and 9:30, got there about 9:15. It was a crew of 3 with a 24′ (I think) truck. They were incredibly nice, funny, and professional. They did an excellent job with our belongings. The only thing that was broken was through our own fault, not theirs. The guys were very quick and efficient and in general did a fantastic job. The original estimate was 5.5 to 6.5 hours, but we came in around 4.5 hours, and the gentleman in charge seemed quite pleased to have gotten the job done quicker than the estimate. From what I’ve heard of other peoples experiences with movers in Chicago, this is unheard of, and I was quite pleased.

Their prices are very reasonable for the services, which included shrinkwrapping our furniture and providing wardrobe boxes! They also will disassemble and reassemble furniture for you as well, though we didn’t take them up on that.

Chris and I were so happy with the service that if they sent us a couple of T-Shirts we’d gladly wear them around the neighborhood and will not hesitate to referring our friends and family to them. Dibble, you guys rocked, without you, we might not have survived our move.