Last week before move

It's less than a week before our move into the new house. I have 4 to 8 hours shifts at Wal*Mart through Wednesday, which is just as well to my mind and body occupied.

We have a couple of appointments booked, one to see State Farm again to finalise our house insurance policy, and one to visit the house itself and go over operation of the heating and garden sprinkler systems. Beth emailed the owners to arrange an evening appointment Monday, and the terse response suggests they're very busy with getting the house emptied and prepared for us.

The move will start on Thursday when I collect a  Budget rental van. Beth compared U-Haul and Budget and for our purposes Budget works out cheaper as we have a promotional code, and there's a pickup location within walking distance of the apartment. We'll fill the van with our bedframes and mattresses, recliner chairs, kitchen table and chairs, cat trees and as much else as we can fit, and take it over no later than 6pm, which is the official handover time. We're hoping the family will vacate earlier as every hour of daylight will help us.

After emptying the van once I have several different places to visit, though not all on Thursday evening - Big Lots for our sofas and loveseats, Paradise Oak Furniture for the new set of kitchen chairs, Office Depot for folding tables for my den, Fred Meyer for our garden patio set (if they have it in), and of course our apartment to continue moving all our unopened boxes and bags from London.

Beth's station wagon will be used for carrying smaller loose items like clothing, TV, crockery cutlery and cookware,  anxious cats (in travel boxes), bed linen and pillows, contents of fridge and freezer, and all the loose bits and pieces we have been using in the last four months.

While I'm out and about Friday with the van loading, Beth has the task of remaining at Sweetwater receiving several deliveries and installations: king size bed from Sleep Country, bedroom and dining room furniture from Riley's Real Wood Furniture, washer, dryer and chest freezer from Sears, Qwest Direct TV, another guy from Qwest for the landline telephone and Internet connections, and Northwest Gas man (to read the meter we think).

Once the flat is emptied and rental van returned, by 3pm Friday, we have the task of a thorough cleaning of the apartment over the next couple of days before we hand over the keys, and hopefully receive back a full deposit on Sunday.

If all that sounds like Operation Overlord it certainly feels like it to us, but Beth is a mastermind at planning and logistics and I can drive a van and lug boxes, so we make a good team. This is after all only the final (?) stage of a plan that has been over 14 months in the preparation.