It Didn't Fit!

We are finally in the house and starting to get settled. On Jan 13th, and after a frantic expedition to find a box spring (more on that later), we spent our first night in the house. The moving experience has been a lot of fun with plenty of frustration mixed in.

We signed the lease late on the 12th and set up an appointment for our house hold goods to be delivered the next day. We could barely contain our excitement to finally get our bed and our awesome mattress that we purchase right before we moved. The other stuff would be nice to have but we couldn’t stop talking about finally being able to sleep in our bed. The movers arrived around 9:30 am and immediately started to bring stuff into the house. It was amazing how quickly each room filled with boxes. Andrea started unpacking boxes and putting stuff away in the kitchen while I directed the movers where to put furniture and boxes. After the first crate of boxes they finally got to our mattress. I anxiously waited for them to get it out of the box and start trying to maneuver it up the stairs. The box springs were really the only pieces of furniture I wasn’t sure if they would be able to make it around the corner on the stairs. Unfortunately I was right! Neither box spring made it up the stairs; not even the one for the full size bed in the guestroom. Reluctantly I had them put them back in the box and put them in the garage. I guess that is where they will stay until we move in three years.

The Aftermath of our Kitchen After the Movers Left

We couldn’t mourn the loss of our box springs yet; we still had four more crates of boxes left to get unpacked. The next crate had another big surprise for us; Andrea’s big, white dresser was basically split in half! The wood on one corner was cracked from top to bottom, another corner pulled apart, the stop was crooked, and none of the drawers fit. We are pretty sure it happened back in Spokane when the packers decided that it would be better to put the dresser, full of clothes and weighting a couple hundred pounds, on a dolly and proceed to take it down the stairs, dropping it on each step. They didn’t want any recommendations from us when we told them it would be a lot easier to take it out the back door and around the side. As a result we have a pile of timber in our garage and hopefully a new dresser on the way. Luckily IKEA still has this dresser in stock, so it will be hard for them to haggle on replacement value. We made it through the rest of the move with relatively little damage. The table and chairs have some new scratches, the couch is a little dirty, and we have a few pieces of glassware chipped. Pretty manageable damage compared to the horror stories we have heard.

Our Major Casuality

The movers finished up and we were left with plenty of boxes left to unpack, but we had another task at hand. We had to find a way to sleep in our bed! We quickly looked at the boxes scattered around the house and said, the boxes can wait…we have to go to the furniture store. We put the address in the GPS and we were off. In less than 30 minutes we were the proud owners of a new split box spring, basically two single box springs that fit under a queen, and a few other pieces we figured that we wanted to buy while we were there. Since we don’t have a truck anymore and the box spring weren’t going to fit in the BMW, we had to find a way to get them home. Luckily the company we bought our car from also rents vehicles. We called and asked to see if they would give us a deal on a rental van. Since we had a large vehicle, we decided that we might as well pick up some other large box items, our new TV and surround sound, while we were at it.

The Dresser Split Down the Side

We pulled into Lakenheath, another Air Force base nearby, to make our purchases. We figured we would be in and out in maybe 30 minutes. Two hours later, we walked out of the store with our new 50 inch Panasonic plasma, Blu-ray home theater, and a hotly contested TV stand. The TV stand caused us a lot of problems. We had seen it a couple times during the week and it had been advertised as being on sale. We talked to a sales person and he told us that it would be on sale until Thursday. So imagine our surprise when we told them we wanted it and it rang up for $100 more. Being Wednesday we asked, what happened, why wasn’t it on sale? We were told that we must have been mistaken it has never been on sale. We went back and forth with the sales guy asking multiple times for a manager, who apparently was in a meeting. Finally, we got them to get the manager and she cleared it all up. We got the sale price and they took another 10% off for taking the floor model. Needless to say we were a little worked up and flustered because our short shopping trip turned into a two hour ordeal. We had the van all loaded and we noticed that we only had 75 minutes until the van had to be returned. It was a 30 minute drive to Ely and then another 30 minute drive into Mildenhall to drop off the van. Even with the snow, windshield wipers that didn’t work, and traffic, we made it. I pulled into the dealership with two minutes to spare. By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was plop down on the couch, drink a beer and relax. It had been a busy day, but it didn’t end there. The legs for the couch were still in a box somewhere, we did not have any beer, and we had a house full of boxes to work on. So we got to work only taking a break to walk downtown to eat at a really good Thai Food restaurant.

The Living Room full of Boxes & the Legless Couch

Thursday was another eventful day. We woke up early and wanted to walk downtown for breakfast and to browse the market. We had breakfast at a very small place called Tea for Two. By far the biggest breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had, it was also very good. After breakfast we browsed around the market and looking at all the booths. We purchased some fresh baked bread for sandwiches that afternoon, and some veggies. Their prices and selection is far better than we can get from the grocery store on base. We had to hurry through the rest of the market because we had to be home for another delivery! This time it was from an office on base called FMO. They provide us with some furniture and appliances so we don’t have to buy them. We got a washing machine, dryer, refrigerator, electrical converter boxes, and two wardrobes. In England it is common to find washer/dryer combo machines. They are not vented outside and have a condensing element. These things suck! It takes over four hours to do a medium to large load of laundry. We opted to get a normal European washer in our laundry area, and then put a normal dryer in the garage. We also had them put a full sized fridge in the garage. The garage is way too narrow to fit either of our cars so it has become a storage/utility area. The wardrobes aren’t that pretty, but they work and our extra jackets fit in them nicely. After another full day of unpacking we loaded ourselves into the car and ventured into the small town of Soham for dinner. Soham is about 15 minutes away and we were going to meet some new friends for dinner at a small Italian place called Sergio’s. We had an amazing meal! Everything was outstanding. Sergio himself served us and made dinner recommendations. Andrea had a dish called chicken surprise and she was surprised. Imagine a chicken kiev, filled with a butter, garlic, and herb sauce. It was delicious!

My Huge Breakfast Sandwich at Tea For Two

After another blissful night’s sleep in our amazing mattress, we woke up with the promise of another delivery. This time we were waiting for our unaccompanied luggage. This was supposed to be our first shipment. It had all our essential items that they send via air so it is here waiting for us when we arrive. It allows us to move into a place right away and not be too put out while we waited for our large shipment of household goods that were shipped on a boat. We were lucky that I was sent to Alabama prior to coming here so all our shipments were already waiting on us when we got here. Our mattress was in our household goods, that is why we elected to have that one delivered first. Since this was a small shipment, the movers were in and out, in 30 minutes. Once again we had more piles to put away.

Our Fullsized Fridge and Dryer in the Garage

We realized that we needed more storage very quickly. Our house is an anomaly in England because it has a few built in storage closets, but not nearly as much as we had in Spokane. The kitchen has very limited cupboard space and we didn’t know where to put all our stuff. We have a small closet by the laundry area that we could store stuff in but we had to find a rack to put in there. Also, with the broken dresser we were short on space for clothes. We decided we would tackle these problems another day because we had to get ready to head into downtown for a night out with a bunch of people from work. We started the night by walking down to the river to have dinner at the Boathouse. This is a more upscale restaurant that has a great view of the river. Dinner was pretty good and we headed off for more fun at the local beer fest! There is a club that is throughout the UK that promotes local beer fests as well as other events. Tonights happened to be in Ely! We purchased our souvenir glasses and went inside to sample some tasty beer. We ended the night by going to a nearby pub to hangout before some people had to get on the train to Cambridge.

The Living Room Unpacked

Saturday was a pretty uneventful day. I mostly did homework while Andrea worked on organizing. We decided that we wanted to spend Sunday looking for furniture to help with our storage woes. Sunday we got up, walked down into town for coffee and to use the internet. Once back home, we loaded up for a 60 mile drive to IKEA. We were convinced that we would find stuff to help our problems. Well we thought we did. Our biggest objective was the rack for the kitchen. We found one that would fit by ½ an inch, or so we thought. When we got home, I instantly started to assemble it and realized that it wasn’t going to fit by ½ and inch. The paper measuring tape they gave us to use at IKEA must have been wrong somehow. I double checked, and our measurements were right, and using my tape measure the rack was one inch bigger than it was in the store. So the closet sat empty, while we moved the rack into an empty space in the kitchen. We were pretty worn out by that time, so we joined some friends for Thai Food in Mildenhall and couple of pints, and headed home to enjoy our new TV.

The Rack that didn't Fit

Monday we finally got all the clothes put away, with the help of a couple plastic bins, we were able to fit most of it without the dresser! We decided that we really wanted to find a rack because we were tired of having stuff stacked on the kitchen counter. So we headed back out looking for a rack. Once again, unsuccessful! We did find a cool new bookcase, soon to be delivered, and some other things we needed around the house. Finally, Andrea and I were on base today, Tuesday, and we found a rack that would work. It is a little smaller, but it fits. The kitchen is now not so cluttered.

An Organized Kitchen

I finally had to start a normal work schedule. I couldn’t put it off any longer. I rode in with a friend this morning, and anticipate doing this for a while until the Saab arrives. We did have a small surprise this morning. Andrea got in the car to meet me at the gym and the rearview mirror had fallen off! We took it back into the dealership and they sent us to a local windshield repair place. It will be put back on tomorrow, at the dealer’s expense. Andrea and I have really enjoyed living in Ely so far. We really like the walking lifestyle and how close we are to restaurants, pubs, and shops. Sorry for the long post, but it has been a really busy few days.

Andrea's Closet (Notice she still has space to go shopping!)