It's movin', it's movin', it's movin' tiiiime!

[7eleven]

After several days of stop and go packing (and counterproductive unpacking) it came time for Ojii's small family to move to their new home. After all the money they had spent on the new house, they couldn't exactly afford to higher movers, so all of the heavy lifting would have to be performed by Ojii and his father. While his mother was fully capable of lifting most things, she refused on the grounds that it wasn't a woman's place.

Ojii decided to get his own belongings, and then help his father out once he had all of his own junk (and I do mean junk) out of the way. He started with his toolboxes; Several large, heavy segmented plastic cases full of nuts, bolts, screws, and various handheld tools that Ojii used for his puppets and various tinkerings. He lugged each one downstairs, two at a time, and then loaded them into the carriage they were borrowing for the move.

After that, he had the large totes full of unused puppet parts. He had more of these than he did tools, and he actually had to buy several totes to move all of the parts he had scattered about his room. He had to have his father help with these. Ojii took the far end of the totes, while his father backed down the stairs (since he was stronger, and larger, he was better able to support the weight of that end). After loading the totes up, him and his father made a trip to the new house with just that stuff, because they didn't want to damage the structure of the vehicle with excessive weight.

Once they arrived at the house, they had to lug the totes and toolboxes down into the basement, which Ojii would be using as his new bedroom and workshop. This was actually the first time Ojii had seen the place, and he was very, very happy with his new living arrangements. The thing was huge! It had more than enough room to house all of his personal belongings, his tools, his puppet parts, and it even had it's own bathroom! He'd seldom have to leave the confines of his cave. His father also helped with the toolboxes. Not because Ojii couldn't move them himself, but for the sake of time. After that, they hopped back into the carriage and headed back to the old house.

Once there, they took a quick snack break before getting back to work. Ojii resumed busing his personal belongings to the mover. His dresser, bed frame, mattress, and various bookshelves had to be moved out. While these were heavy, and while Ojii wasn't exactly the strongest kid in the world, he managed to get them all outside with quite a bit of straining. After that were his boxes of books, which were a hell of a lot heavier than they looked, but Ojii got 'em out. Then were his boxes of clothes and smaller belongings, which didn't take long and weren't really all that heavy.

Then, after all of his belongings had been dealt with, it was time to start moving stuff out of the rest of the house, and decided to start with the kitchen. Not that he wanted to move the stuff in the kitchen, but he was really thirsty, and it would give him a chance to systematically grab something to drink. He started with the table, which was awkward, but not too hard to move, and he managed to get it out there by himself. Then he had to move dishes, cookware, flatware, and boxes of food from the pantry. The cookware and food were a bit hefty, but the other things weren't much of a problem.

After he had finished with that, his father asked him to help him move a very large unlabeled box that Ojii hadn't seen before. It was rather heavy, but the two managed to get it to the carriage with little difficulty. After they had everything packed up, they headed out towards their destination.

And, immediately upon arrival, they began unloading the stuff. Much to Ojii's surprise, the large box of mystery was being placed in his bedroom. After helping him move it down stairs, his father left him with the task of unboxing and placing all of his stuff, along with the random box. This was the first thing he opened, and was incredibly surprised, and very happy with the contents.

It was a drafting table, something Ojii had wanted for the past few years. His parents were never too keen on the idea of buying a large, expensive table, so Ojii was forced to always to his drafting on his desk, which wasn't the best place for it. Ojii immediately began arranging, and then assembling the various parts of the table. The hardest part was moving the heavy wood, assembling the thing was easy as pie. Ojii, being of moderate intelligence, assembled the table near the spot he wanted to leave it in, and just had to push it against the wall once finished.

He then placed his other various pieces of furniture, designating one corner of the basement to his bed and dresser. He then placed his bookshelves on the wall near the drafting table, and unloaded his various volumes onto the shelves. He managed to still have a free bookshelf after piling them with books, and used it for his various toolboxes. He took about an hour to organize them, and label the boxes accordingly.

Last, but certainly not least, were the giant totes full of unused and broken puppet parts. He figured it'd be best to leave the parts in the totes, but he still needed a place to keep them. He didn't realize how many free parts he had, six large totes full, and really had no good place to put them. He decided to simply line them up along a wall, and then took the time to organize and label them like he had his tools. He figured he could make some sort of large dresser to house his parts, but, for now, he was going to call it a day. His muscles were pooped.