John Byrne wrote: Scary Stuff Part XVII. . . Called the movers today!!!

Wow!  That's amazing forward thinking!  I know you've got a huge home to move, but most people I know wouldn't think to call a moving company two and a half months out.  They'd procrastinate until mid-June, panic, and then take the first semi-decent bid they got.

Out of curiosity, what kind of prep work do you need to do for a move like this?  Do you pack everything, do you pack half and the moving company packs the big, heavy stuff, or do you pack only what is most valuable to you and let the company do the rest?  Also, having never owned a home, how clean do you leave it once everything is moved out?  Is it a stipulation in the sale that it's dusted, mopped, scrubbed and vacuumed, or does the cleanliness of the home come "as is"?

When my wife and I sold our first house, we cleaned it as best we could. Then, on moving day, we tracked in pounds of red mud due to the rain. Nothing we could do about that, I'm afraid and the new owner got a nice light grey carpet with a red mud stripe going down the middle of it.

Of course two years later, and he has mold, literally, covering every square inch of siding on the house now. So, I guess he wasn't too worried about it.

John Byrne wrote: Called the movers today!!!

Mike O'Brien dressed in overalls with his pick-up truck shows up at SBM.

"Don't worry JB, everything will arrive save and sound..."

"Ummm, Mike?  WHERE will everything arive at?

Mike?

Mike?

My drawing board?"

The ideal move, of course, is to call the movers and simply say "Everything here goes there," and then just walk away and let them do their jobs. I am long past the time when I could afford that kind of indulgence, so instead I have a 4 part move planned:

Part One: Load my POD.

Part Two: Get the movers in for the heavy stuff.

Part Three: Unload my POD at the new house.

Part Four: Call the block handyman, and say "Come
and throw out everything that's left!"

Part Three, I suspect, will involve recruiting friends to help. I don't mind loading up the POD myself, but unloading will be sheer drudge-work.

The unspecified Part Five is ordering all kinds of new shelving and display cases for the toys.

Heh!  I'd love to help JB move; mainly because of all the historical items that I'd see - yes, the drawing table, where the "magic" happens, and whatever else shaped the man, the myth, the legend that is John L Byrne, but more to the point, I KNOW (and Tim, Bob and Matt can back me up on this one...) that he's got a functional ROG2000, a Watcher and a clone of Abe Lincoln.  (Fellows, should I post that last Uatu and Me?) 

I have a moving day horror story or two. The worst was just over 4 years ago. When I lived with my ex and her 3 kids in a four bedroom house the company we used was (we thought) local and they promised a supersized moving van and three burly guys would be out side our house at 0800 sharp so that we could formally move into the new house at 1200ish.

At 1100 after 20 or so "where are you" phone calls two weedy looking guys turned up in a medium sized worn out old van!  At about 1115 they started moving our furniture. They  were so slow that I had to rush out and hire a seperate van to pick up some of the slack and me and my ex's 13yr old daughter did our own move within a move.

We unloaded the last item into our new home at around 2300 none of our stuff was put in the rooms that all the boxes had been colour coded for and we all ended up sleeping on the floor. Needless to say I refused to pay the removal firm.

The firm we used we booked about 2 months in advance of the move.

Is this a trick question? Of course you should post it. Been too long since we've seen one of your masterpieces.