Residential Moving Stories

[Villains Fan]

After many years in the same townhouse, I moved this weekend to a new townhouse. But, so many things have gone wrong in the last 2 days (let alone the whole loan/bank/escrow process) that I'm feeling pretty frazzled about now.

So, to help me feel like I'm not the lone ranger out here, I'm asking you to share some of your moving stories.

I'll start with my main problem right now...I just moved in yesterday and I have no water. I shouldn't say no water, but limited water. It starts out fine when you turn on the faucet, but within a few seconds it turns into a dribble. A plumber came in today and told me it was probably the main valve (where the water passes through to my unit before the pressure regulator). In order to fix this, the water has to be turned off at the main line, which will turn off everyone's water in my building. I have to call the homeowner's association first thing tomorrow morning and see what can be done. So now, I have to impose on a friend to use their shower


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[pratt55]

That sucks, you just move in and you have hardly any water.

Our story is not near as bad as that but if it helps any when we moved in this house 10 years ago the phone company was way behind in installs and they told us we would not have a phone for six weeks. Fortunately because we had someone in the house with medical issues they had to give us an emergency electrical phone but it would only work in one room of the house and had about a 6 foot span of movement.

[Bruce Bergman]

Originally Posted by Villains Fan

After many years in the same townhouse, I moved this weekend to a new townhouse. But, so many things have gone wrong in the last 2 days (let alone the whole loan/bank/escrow process) that I'm feeling pretty frazzled about now.

So, to help me feel like I'm not the lone ranger out here, I'm asking you to share some of your moving stories.

Moving? Haven't done it in 38 years... But I'm an Electrician whose company specializes in Condos and Townhouses, so I've been on the other end of that kind of fun lots of times...

Originally Posted by Villains Fan

I'll start with my main problem right now...I just moved in yesterday and I have no water. I shouldn't say no water, but limited water. It starts out fine when you turn on the faucet, but within a few seconds it turns into a dribble. A plumber came in today and told me it was probably the main valve (where the water passes through to my unit before the pressure regulator). In order to fix this, the water has to be turned off at the main line, which will turn off everyone's water in my building. I have to call the homeowner's association first thing tomorrow morning and see what can be done. So now, I have to impose on a friend to use their shower

When you haven't touched the main water shutoff valve for 10 or 15 years, they tend to get stuck. And when you close a sticking gate valve, the gate usually breaks off the stem and lodges in the 'mostly closed' position and blocks the water... If the plumber is good, he'll only have the whole place off for a half hour at most - cut out the old gate valve, solder in the new ball valve. Ball valves seem to hold up a lot better.

Same thing happens with Main Breakers. You need to "cycle" them once a year or so, to make sure it's free to work right - but be sure to have the Property Manager on speed dial if it won't close again. It happens, they wear out or a spring breaks from old age.

But you want to find this out at 10 on a weekday morning when someone can come right away and fix it, not at 2 AM on a Sunday. Almost as bad is not knowing where the water, gas and electric shutoffs are in the first place - Learn it now.

And if you need a key to get into a locked power closet or "doghouse", you want to know it now. You either get your own key, or a list of Board Members who have one.

--<< Bruce >>--

[Villains Fan]

Originally Posted by Bruce Bergman

Almost as bad is not knowing where the water, gas and electric shutoffs are in the first place - Learn it now.

Had this problem the day the painter was suppose to start here. Went in to start work, and no electricity. Called the Electric co, and they said I had to find the main breaker and turn it on. Turns out, it was in a closet about 5 units down (thank goodness a neighbor was around to ask).

[penguinsoda]

Like Bruce its been 20 some years since we've done any moving so I don't remember any horror stories, although I'm sure there were some... but I can offer this.



I hope things get sorted out for you quickly!

[Light Mouse]

Originally Posted by Villains Fan

Had this problem the day the painter was suppose to start here. Went in to start work, and no electricity. Called the Electric co, and they said I had to find the main breaker and turn it on. Turns out, it was in a closet about 5 units down (thank goodness a neighbor was around to ask).

O.o I hope construction planning is better now so that they have it in a locked outdoor closet that isn't inside of a person's unit. Not the best thing to have the electrician in your closet in your home messing with breakers because of someone else's electrical issues.

[Bruce Bergman]

No, the power meters, phone and CATV connections are usually in an outside access utility closet with a door, or in a 'common area' storeroom under the building if it's a "parking lot below" type building. Having it in another unit's private space is normally verboten. (Not that it hasn't happened, though...)

But if they have problems with vandalism they often try to keep the closets locked - Some kids think it's great fun to turn everyone's power off at 2 AM and run...

Hint: You want to open (turn off) all the branch breakers in your unit's breaker panel before closing the Main Breaker, then close the branch breakers again one at a time. If you just slam the Main on and the Air Conditioner, refrigerator, pool pump and a whole bunch of appliances and heavy stuff all tries starting at once, it can be hard on the main breaker.

Same thing if someone plays with the Main Switch emergency shutoff before the power meters, you want to turn off all (or at least most of) the main breakers to the units first before you turn on the switch. Because these switches are usually fused (not breakers) and you can make enough of a surge to pop the fuse when closing the switch.

Trust me, you will NOT have a spare fuse on site, they are expensive and usually bolted in place. If the start surge pops a main fuse, I'll be getting a "Help Me!!" phone call in a few minutes...

--<< Bruce >>--

[Stitchy]

ugh. I'm sorry you are having moving issues. I know how that goes. Me and hubby have been married for 10 years and have moved 10 times. Yeah, military life can be interesting. haha.

The good and bad thing about military moving...is they will hire people to help you move. They will come into your house, pack everything up and move you to your new destination. But, this comes with a big downside. Our very first move.....a box came up missing. My husband thought he had this particular box with him, but, somehow it got put with the stuff for the movers to move. Wouldn't be so bad, except...it had his football card collection in it. We were reimbursed monetarily, but, those cards held alot of memories for my husband.

My parents spent 20 years in the military....during one move, my mother said they literally packed everything. Right down to the leftover biscuits and sausage from breakfast that morning. Imagine my parents surprise when they unpacked that!

A neighbor had a friend who's cat went missing during their move. When they got overseas, and got their furniture...they discovered the cat in the couch. The poor thing had been eating couch stuffing to stay alive. After medical attention, he was fine...but, it taught us a valuable lesson to keep housepets out of whatever room the movers are in.

Actually....we have packed ourselves ever since that first incident. We might let them move us....but, we're packing it!

[Joshrzmeup]

When we moved, first we had to stay in a residence Inn for a month and a half because the other people's move got delayed and then when it came time to move in we found out the trucking company with all of our stuff had problems a few states back and wouldn't be there for another week or two. So we had to stay with the same 6-7 outfits for almost 2 months, since we didn't know the area too well (or at least until we found a Kohl's).

Then, only after moving in did we discover what was not enclosed in the housing report inspection - foundation cracks. So we've had that problem getting worse in the years we have lived here.

[Bruce Bergman]

One thing to remember for future moves, there are alternatives to the usual Mover's Games with radical overcharges and holding your stuff hostage...

If you can pack and unpack yourself (or arrange for outside labor yourself) call ABF Freight U-Pack. They drop off one or more semi-trailers at your old place, depending on how much you have to move. You have 2 or 3 days to fill them up before they start charging extra. If you don't fill the trailer all the way, they provide a bulkhead divider to seal off your stuff in the front half.

Then they weigh the trailer at the yard, fill the back half with boxed freight headed your way, deliver the trailer to the destination city, remove the outside freight at that terminal, and drop the trailer with your Stuff off at your new house. And charging normal Truck Freight rates by weight, volume, and distance, which is usually a LOT less than the movers final bill after all the up-charges and 'Stupid Mover's Games'...

It's like a U-Haul, but without the nasty Road Trip in the middle.

--<< Bruce >>--

[aimster]

I've moved 4 times in the last 10 years. Luckily I haven't had any moving problems. I've been in my current apartment for a little over 4 years and have been getting gradual upgrades to things since I've moved in. Luckily I had all new appliances in the kitchen when I moved in as well as new flooring in the foyer and kitchen. Last year I got a new hot water heater when my old one committed suicide and I got a new air conditioner as the old one was like 30 years old and was an energy sucker. A couple weeks ago I got a much-needed new toilet. They let me paint the walls and cabinets in the kitchen as well as the bathroom walls. They both had seriously ugly wallpaper on them. The kitchen looked like a completely different kitchen by the time it was done. I wish they'd let me paint the back wall in the living room and the back wall in my bedroom... but no such luck. I was surprised when they told me I could do whatever I wanted in the kitchen & bathroom.

The last time I moved, I had help from my parents, BF and a couple friends transporting the small stuff over to the new place (I moved from Tampa to Clearwater), but hired Two Men & a Truck for the big stuff. They were awesome. They were extremely careful with everything, put the furniture where I wanted and they even took less than the time I was quoted, so the final price was like $100 lower than expected.

[Villains Fan]

Thank you all for your stories, you're making me feel better. Stitchy, the story of the cat was heartbreaking. So glad it turned out ok!

Good news, got the water fixed today. Turns out, I'm responsible for my own water here (the last townhouse, it was the HOA's responsibility).

I do have to say, I had wonderful movers, but yeah, it did take way longer than anticipated (quoted 5-7 hrs, actually took 8-9 hrs), and they had to bring an extra man in for the last 3 hrs. But, they were going top speed the whole day...now there's a rough job! Unfortunately, when they packed my garage, they basically threw everything in the truck, so now I'm going to have to weed through that stuff to get rid of the junk and trash that got moved with me.

[Timmy55]

Hope it gets better. Love ya.

[MAXandBELLESmom]

glad ou have the water back!!

i hope to have a moving story soon

[SCUBAbe]

Things went pretty smooth when we moved. the only problem when we moved up here was the house was still under construction, so we had to rent a house for two months....it was not tin the best area and the shower heads only reached the middle of our backs. I guess short people lived there. Not that I'm that tall.

The only thing about my last move is with my stuff and my Bf's stuff...well, we have a lot of stuff and this house has very little storage. We have thrown a lot of stuff away.