I hadn’t gotten an update from Roadrunner Freight in hours, so I finally, at 2pm on the day (today) it’s supposed to be delivered, and that I have crew (Tim) to help— called Roadrunner. Well, Rocket Rangers, it was interlined. Translation: Roadrunner doesn’t have a freight office here for regular trucks, only car-haulers. So they interlined it to Diamond Freight at Bolingbrook IL, and Diamond, who services both Bolingbrook and Spokane, will be getting it here Friday, but because I’m residential, it won’t be delivered until Monday.
UPDATE: I located it via Diamond Lines, which is not Diamond Freight, both with offices in Spokane. It may get here tomorrow, and if so, may be delivered Friday, when I don’t have crew (Tim), and can’t be delivered to the front because we have 3 steps. We may be able to get it to our driveway, but this means we have to break down or move the greenhouse so we can open the back fence to let it in, and then we have to get the 150 pound glass part either up four steps into the house and through the (not real large) kitchen to the living room, or we have to put it on a dolly and get it 300 feet up the busy arterial we live on, around the corner, up the curb, up 3 steps in the sidewalk, and up to our porch steps, 4 more; and through the front door, which is the requisite 32 inches wide, plus some. We’re not sure about the back door. And we have to find out whether our crew (Tim) can help us on Friday.
I’m going to have an apoplexy yet.
UPDATE OF THE UPDATE: none of the back doors are large enough. Only the front door can accommodate the tank package. That means we are going to have to have them deliver it to the strip of public walk below the retaining wall, below our steps, and we have to unpack the pallet there. Now, if the 150 pound glass tank is sitting atop the 65 pound base, we will have to get help somewhere to carry the tank up 2 flights of steps and inside and set it back on the base. We know we can manage the 20 pound canopy. But the rest of it—we’re in an increasingly large fix. And we can’t call in favors, because we have only the hint that it will arrive on Friday, but no assurances. And the only joy in this situation is that rain is NOT forecast for Friday.
I may spend the day out there sitting on the roadside hoping one of our friends can help.
I hope you get help and everything works out!
This is the sort of thing that drives me crazy these days — that lack of full explanations about how, when and what you need to do for something this tricky. I really don’t know what people expect sometimes.
If I hadn’t called around, I wouldn’t have been advised of this—I’d have been sitting here at this hour, with Tim showing up, and no tank, no explanation, nada.
Brighter news: I’ve just heard from Tim and he can still help us Friday…
Oh that is good! I hope it does show up then! Good luck!
Wish we were closer — I’d volunteer my husband. 🙂
If I were in the area, I’d be there to assist (or at least provide snacks for the work crew). I’m pretty sure the rest of the Wavy Navy would be there with bells on as well. One hopes for a felicitous ending, with the new tank safe in its new home!
I know you guys would, in a heartbeat. You’re great.
We’re not, at least, novices at large objects, fish tanks, and delicate setups, so we have a calm, reasoned plan of how to proceed in various circumstances. The one thing that will not budge easily is a 150 pound tank, especially if mated to a 65 pound stand. 215 fairly large object pounds just does not move easily.
But we are calmer now that Tim has said he can indeed help.
Wish I could be there to help, lugging heavy things around is my specialty
You and Joe, men of steel 😀 We need a Shejidan work day.
Maybe those nice people from the church across the road, who helped with the gardening and stone-moving, can find someone who would help with the carrying?
From Jane’s pictures there seemed to be several sturdy men helping, and that seems a very useful thing to have when you need to move a large and very heavy oject up stairs.
Off topic but very happy: my books arrived yesterday! Thank you, and Jane too, very much!
When I downsized and distributed furniture to my children, we were able to hire a local crew—found them through the UHaul website, though they weren’t UHaul themselves. If the truck company can give you an arrival time Friday morning that might be an option for you.
The church is also a good suggestion, though in my experience the sturdy men often aren’t available on a workday. Worth checking, of course.
They can give me a 6 hour window, basically, my choice, morning or afternoon, and labor here is minimum 25 an hour minimum 4 hours, so a hundred dollars and not bonded. If you need two guys, which we really do, it’s that much worse, and you don’t know if you’re hiring axe murderers. That is the fallback if we’re really in trouble. But the church is another.
Tim is in charge of the local filk group, and there are some guys in there who are strong. I’m going to ask Tim if we can get one other guy, and see if Tim can call in a favor for us. Friday late, maybe we can get somebody.
Of course, the requisite thank you is food and drink… grilled sausages on skewers and iced tea? My family always had, still has, work parties. The work gets done, then everyone enjoys the party.
Apoplexy? Any Van Winkles in your ancestry? It seems to run in that family.
Van Deventers, Van Couwenovens, Schencks, Hoogebooms and Monfoorts aplenty, but no Van Winkles. 😉
What an incredible hassle.
I used to work for a used book shop and whenever Rod (the owner) needed help he just drove around and hired strong looking people off the street. Paid a few bucks, food, drink. He never ended up getting rolled or anything…
Also: any way you can hook a winch to something to help pull it up the steps? I visualize keeping a piece of plywood on bottom, attaching cable on leading edge, and pulling it up that way. You’d still need the strong people to keep it on track and not sliding back, but they wouldn’t have to carry it, or at least not the whole way.
It’s the ‘glass’ thing. It’s formed glass, 4 curved feet by 3 straight feet by three (a triangle) by 30″ with a bottom with protruding delicate bulkhead fittings.
Here’s the shop image of something like what we’re trying to move. Ignore the cheesy plastic coral cover for the pipes. I’ll use rock and real coral. This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime dream things…and omg, the logistics this is turning out to be. I just can’t remember that I can’t heft 50 pounds any longer. You have a birthday and the warranty blows up…
I love those! The doctor’s office used to have one and it was great watching the fish while waiting. They moved offices and no more tank. 🙁
And boy, i hear you on the birthday/warantee issue! Totally sucks.