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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Day 66: Blinds, Movers and Trash


First of all...we are 2/3rds of the way there. 1/3rd to go!!!

The huge dumpster was removed from the front yard...YAH!

The concrete crew should be out sometime next week to set the forms for the sidewalks and driveway.  It will be nice to see something other than dirt and rock in the front of the house.  Although, I do remember being excited over the long orange silt screens and an egress window sitting on an empty lot. :)

The roofers apparently came by and finished their job, so the siding crew should be able to finish the eves and fascia.  I'm still not sure if they are going to put all the trim around our front door and foyer palladium window or not.

So next week:
- We should be wrapping up the trim inside
- Siding will be done
- Electricians should be in at some point next week to do their final work (Didn't show up today...I was doubtful they would be able to make it on such short notice due to the scheduling mix up.)
- Prep for Sidewalks and Driveway
- Hopefully we will see our vanity sinks
- Granite should be installed within the next week
- Somewhere in here should be the plumbers to install faucets and other fixtures

Other stuff:

Blinds:
- We had Home Depot come in and measure for blinds a week ago or so.  We went in and purchased the blinds and scheduled installation.  We didn't do every window because we have some odd ones that blinds weren't going to work on.  The transom windows in our great room and the arched window above the tub in our master bedroom.  Also, we have a weird 22" square window in our powder room.  It sits up high enough where people will not be able to see in and it will give us light during the day (we have a shortage of windows in this house after all). 

We ended up buying 25 of the Home Decorators Choice 2.5" faux wood plantation style blinds in white with the nicer crown valance.  They're not as swanky as the Bali or custom blinds but they will give us a custom look at an affordable price (and they are not mini blinds).  What I like is that the weekend we are moving in, someone will be installing blinds on all my windows and we will not have to do the work...and for $118 to measure and install 25 blinds (that's less than $5 per blind)...thank you sir.




Movers:
- We also scheduled Two Men and a Truck.  In our area, they charge $100hr Mon-Thur and $113hr for Sat and Sun.  Of course we are closing around lunch time on a Friday.  We are going to move most of the small stuff and just have them move the big furniture.  They estimated between 5 and 6 hours or $678.  Honestly of all the money I've spent this year, this will be the best $700 I've spent.



12 comments:

  1. I was just looking at those blinds at Home Depot last weekend! I'm guessing the $118 was just for the installation.....were the blinds reasonable? 25 windows? That's a lot!! We too are doing the Two men and a truck guys... My husband and his buddies have moved us every time and I just can't ask them to do it again!! Looks like things are moving right along!!

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    1. Home Depot's house brand was comparable with Lowes and other big box stores. I liked the look of their more and their installation price was much less than anyone else ($118 includes measuring and installation). The store cuts them to width for you and will shorten them for a fee. You can do it fairly easily for free.

      Cost wise, they are 1/4 the price or less than the custom blinds (i.e. Bali) but significantly more than vinyl mini-blinds. There was just no way we were putting mini blinds in this house.

      Most of our windows used the 35x64 blinds which were $42.97 before discounts (where we live there was no tax because we ordered the installation on the ticket which made the entire transaction a service). We picked up the blinds because there is usually a fee to do this...don't remember the cost but it was like $69 or something I thought was outrageous. We also got a 10% military/police/fire discount. RH sometimes gives a 20% off coupon in their final home owner's book. Home Depot said they would honor this coupon. We just didn't want to wait and will have other purchases there anyway.

      We have always done our own moves and we've done a lot of them. This may be the first time we have hired someone to move furniture for us. My litmus test was..."If I can't pick it up myself and carry it up and down stairs, then someone else is going to do it." After 25 years of moving every 2 years...I'm done!

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  2. Amen on hiring movers we have moved ourselves so many times on our last move I did a lot of heavy lifting and ended up in the hospital..I have learned my lesson and we are hiring movers for sure and you all are so organized movers and blinds already! Wow hopefully I will get it together sometime in August or so!

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    1. I don't know about organized... ;-) but we started packing right after we broke ground. We would just bring 10 boxes at a time home from Home Depot ($1.12 ea. for Medium sized before 10% discount) and packed a few every other day or so. This way, we don't have this mad dash at the end to pack, carry boxes downstairs, stage and burn ourselves out before we even begin moving. I like using the Small and Medium boxes the most and by keeping them the same dimensions, it is easier to grab a stack of them with a furniture dolly. Our dining room is staged with Pre-configured loads with the bottom flaps pointing in the right way so you can scoop them up with a dolly. Still more to do but we are getting close.

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  3. You got blinds already?!That is so cool! I didn't know that RH will give us coupons...that's nice. We moved all our furniture (there wasn't a lot of it) last time, and our apt is on the third floor! This time. my husband firmly decided that we are hiring movers. But I guess we don't have to worry about this till August!

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    1. We are about 30 days out and it takes Home Depot 2-3 weeks to order and cut all the blinds (This can be much faster depending on what they have in stock. For our order, they didn't have enough in stock.). The installer came out right away to measure but needed a 2 week lead time to schedule installation.

      I agree on the movers...August is just around the corner and you may find yourself in a panic if you try to do it all last minute. We wanted this move into our new home to be as stress free as possible (yeah right!)...but I'm trying to mitigate as many issues as I can.

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  4. All of our stuff has been in storage for a year(I am so done living out of a suitcase) and I can't wait to open all the boxes. We have moved a lot so I have done all types of different services. Since we knew this move was going to be a pain, moving from NC to VA into storage and then again into the new house we wanted to keep it cheap. We rented a Uhaul and hired the hourly movers for two guys and $50 an hour. I am going to look into 2 guys and truck, I would love to not deal with driving a 26 foot truck again.

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    1. We have used ABF before. They park the trailer where ever you tell them to and you can hire movers or just strong guys to load it, then the same thing on the other side. Keep in mind, they do Negotiate!!! We did a CA to OH move and they originally quoted us $5,700...we said, "are you sure." They dropped it to $4,300. We called back the next day and said their competitors were cheaper and they dropped it again to $3,800. This was for a 28' full sized semi trailer (so it's wider and trailer than a U-Haul and truly 28' not 23' plus a 5' over the cab space like U-Haul). They charge by the lineal foot so if you take the final price they give you and divide by how much you think you will use in the trailer, that is your true price. We used THE ENTIRE trailer and could have used a 1/4 of another (which you can do by the way). It was a lot easier than driving Budget trucks and hauling car trailers.

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  5. Having all of the blinds at move in made a significant difference. Glad you got a good deal! I made my DH install them all, LOL!

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  6. That's nice that you're almost done with your home improvement work. What else is need to do? Where have you ordered your window blinds? They look simple and nice. Are they expensive?

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    1. Home Depot. Not as much as custom blinds but more than mini blinds.

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