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Jay & Nicole Move from
Israel
Sept 2011
(click any picture for an enlargement)
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Our move
was scheduled to occur in early September. From previous experiences, we knew to get as
much accomplished beforehand as possible.
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I
had stored packing material and 50+ boxes from our previous move,
so we could begin packing some things at any time. Even though it
caused quite a mess, I began to pack some un-used things about six weeks before
the move ... in hindsight though, I should've started even sooner!
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Another lesson
learned from previous moves was to get as much cleaning done beforehand.
In the past
we waited until all our stuff was moved out before we cleaned the floors and
repaired the holes in the walls ... but then we didn't always have the proper cleaning materials
or tools.
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This time I began early
and systematically moved the furniture from parts of each room to clean the
floors & walls. It was shocking to see how much dirt had
accumulated over the past 4 years in the untouched spots. It was also tough to get rid of the lines
that appeared when I moved the furniture and rugs. By completing this
work, after moving day all we had to do was a quick mop job.
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Overall the biggest effort was to identify the items
that we:
- couldn't take with us (plants, food, etc.)
- didn't want to take with us (old or worn-out items )
- will not able to use in Colombia (wrong voltage, etc.)
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Once the items were identified,
I then tried to sell or give away as many of the
items as possible. I made a web page to display the items and luckily most
things were dispensed of within a short period of time.
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I had put a lot of effort into
our many plants, so it was
important for me to find a new home for them. Many of the plants were big
and hard to move, so I decided to leave the auto-watering system ... that way any remaining plants would
survive until a new tenant moved in.
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Below is
our favorite "African cactus". It was very small when we got it
and each year it had spectacular growth spurts. It came close to dying a
few times and we had to nurse it back to health; it was thus worth the effort to wrap it up and cart it to
Nicolas' place, where it seems to be doing well :)
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Nicolas took most of our plants ...
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... just an
hour or so before we left ...
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... so he had to
come right from work!
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We hope the plants like
their adopted father; hopefully he will periodically send some "family
pictures" :)
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Another task was to clean the
hanging glass artwork in the entry-way.
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After cleaning the bottom
part, we agreed that it was too dangerous to clean the other
sections. The last thing we needed before the move was a major injury!
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We also had to remind
ourselves that we received the apartment in an "as is / dirty" condition.
This meant that
we didn't need to clean much in order to leave it in a similar, or better, condition.
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Packing Day
#1
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Background: We tried to get prepared
for this day, but alas ... a few too many "goodbye get-togethers" and
"last time to visit ... the beach, our favorite bar, etc." caused us
to fall behind. We still didn't have a solid idea of what needed to get
packed and what didn't. By now we should've clearly separated out the
items which would stay in Israel (owners things, old stuff, plants, etc) and
also the items which would go on the plane with us (things needed to live in
Bogota until our container arrives) ... but unfortunately we didn't.
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We were told that four people would show up to pack our stuff; they'd take a day and a
half to pack and a half-day to load the container. We figured that they could start
on the kitchen & living room, which had a lot of glass & decorations.
That would give us plenty of time to finish getting our personal stuff packed
and to organize the bedroom & study areas ... it sounds like a good plan,
right?
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On packing day, though, we were shocked
when a whole mob showed up ... the boss ended up coming with
five big guys and an old man. He told the old guy to begin packing the
glassware and then sent two guys to the study, two guys to the bedroom and he
stayed in the living room with the other guy.
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Nicole and I
looked at each other in shock as we dove into action. Usually the packing
people are used to working on their own, without any involvement by the
owners. Unfortunately, since we were not ready, we had to specifically
point out the things that were ready to go. It
was a mad frenzy and a mountain of boxes quickly began to rise!
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The process of
us having to constantly tell them what to pack was frustrating for everyone, but
it worked. I have no idea why they always wanted to pack the little stuff that I
was working on, when there were plenty of big items which could have kept them
busy for hours.
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Anyway, around 11am,
Nicole and I began to look forward to having some free time when they took a lunch
break, since we didn't even have time for breakfast or even a coffee. Our hearts,
and stomachs, sank like bricks when they told us that they don't take breaks ...
they like to work straight from 8:30 until 3:30 so that they can leave before
traffic got bad ... arrgghh!
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At the
end of their day, our place looks like a messy warehouse ... with boxes, paper,
wrapping material, and scraps all over the place. We looked forward to
taking a nice long break on the terrace, but that was also full of stuff.
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We had planned to go to the
beach for a sundowner, but we skipped it since we had a lot to do ... and we
knew we would probably crash early. Nicole organized her stuff and began
cleaning. I took apart a large Ikea wardrobe that I didn't trust them to
do; the darn thing was harder to take apart than put together! I also took
apart some other cabinets that would cause them problems.
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Packing Day #2
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We were expecting a big group again today, but only two guys showed up.
This made for an easy day for us ... but had we known, we would've went
to the beach last night instead of working out butts off! It is so
frustrating to deal with so much miss-communication, but we have learned to live
with it.
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With only two guys packing,
it became obvious they would not finish by noon, which was when the container
was supposed to show up to be loaded. The boss stopped by to explain that
he needed to get a larger container, since we had more stuff than they had
estimated. It would thus be easier for his crew to just finish packing today and
then load the container tomorrow. This upset our plans, as we had an
appointment with the vet the next morning to get the cat's travel papers.
After a little argument, we gave in and would have to trust them to do their job
in our absence ... which is totally acceptable.
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While the guys worked downstairs, I took the bed apart in the upstairs
bedroom. Afterwards, they came up to the
bedroom and finished wrapping everything on this level. There were a lot
of big items and I was worried that they would hurt something, or themselves,
taking them down the stairs ... luckily they had a brilliant plan ... which you
soon shall see.
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Since
the workers could only write in Hebrew, I had to begin the process of making the packing
list. At least the guy I worked with was OK; he accepted my offer of
a
beer while we marked and recorded the contents of each box.
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I then took
a guy down to the garage and he wrapped up the bikes, two cabinets and
some loose wood that I wanted to take along. I am hoping this stuff will
be useful in Bogota ... which probably will be like Caracas, where cabinets and
pieces of wood were expensive. I had already pre-packed our sports stuff
& tools ... things were beginning to look pretty good ... time for another
beer!
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At the
end of the 2nd day of packing, they had finished all three levels, the terrace
and the garage. We then had the evening to review stuff and clean/repair. They
left a few empty boxes for us, where we could put the vacuum and other tools
that we wanted to use until the last moment. Tomorrow they would seal up
the last boxes and proceed with loading the container.
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Overall, we were tired &
felt like we lived in a pack-rat hole ... whatever that is!
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Loading Day
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We got up early and had a decent breakfast, as we knew today would
probably be a difficult one. We got concerned when the moving guys arrived up
in a white truck already at 7am. It turned out they arrived early to
block the street; whenever a car would leave, they would put a barrier up to
make room for their equipment and the container. By 8am they had blocked the street ...
then a strange-looking truck showed up.
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The
truck turned out to have a lift machine attached to it. Their plan was to extend the
lift, over the road, and attach it to one of our balconies. They would
then load everything from that floor; no carrying things down
stairs ... brilliant!
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The truck with the big container then
showed up and parked by the lift truck. They extended the lift to the
top-most of our balconies and attached it. The big guys appeared at our
door, went upstairs and began to load the platform.
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The
people from the neighborhood stopped and watched in amazement as the platform
was repeatedly lowered, over the passing traffic, to the guys waiting at the
bottom ... who would then load the stuff directly into the container.
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It almost looked like this was an
amusement park ride!
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We had
to leave and take our cat to a government vet ... in some town that we had never been
to before. We had a little difficulty finding the place, but quickly got
the forms needed to take the cat out of the country. Surprisingly, some
things really do work smoothly in this country!
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We returned home to find
that they had already finished the top and middle floors, and were working on the bottom
floor. This process seemed to work pretty good, and supposedly they
hadn't dropped anything onto the street! The container was filling up
quite rapidly ... but there was still a lot of space.
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Nicole
surveyed the top and middle floors and gathered up the last-minute items, as
well as some that had been forgotten. A worker quickly boxed them up and took them to the lower floor for loading. The place was beginning
to look rather empty. Oh yeah, they had to get the stuff from the garage
too!
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After noon,
the last item was being taken down the lift. We could feel a large weight
being taken off our shoulders, as the most stressful part of the move was almost
over ... whew!
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The container was sealed and
driven away; it was time for happy hour!
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The next day
we delivered the last of items we sold, had a goodbye lunch near the embassy,
and then rushed back to hand off the car to a towing company. The car will
be placed into a separate container, but will hopefully follow the container ...
all scheduled to arrive in Cartagena in two months. At that time we will
see how the retrieval process works to get everything to Bogota.
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We cleaned and repaired things for the next entire day. We then packed up our things,
put the cat in the box, said
goodbye to Jaffa and were picked up for the trip
to the airport. The check-in process took forever and we just barely made
the flight, even though it was delayed.
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We connected in Frankfurt and then had a
nice flight to Bogota. The airport there was quite hectic, but we got
through passport control, retrieved our bags, picked up the cat (who was set down next to
the bags) and cleared customs with only few hassles. An embassy person met us
and took us to our nice hotel ... which will be a different story ... coming
soon.
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Goodbye
Israel .... Hello Colombia!
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