Pick Up Day

Saturday morning we all got up early and started a very long day of household pick ups.  Julie and Micha were Godsends! Truly, another thing that we could NOT have done without their help.  They got up even earlier than us and went to rent the truck by 6:30 AM. Unfortunately, when they got there

Micha, Julie and Frida

all of the trucks had already been reserved or rented out.  We had a whole spreadsheet worth of appointments all over Berlin to go and pick up furniture so we couldn't just throw our hands in the air and so "oh, well" Which honestly would have felt good.  The whole process was pretty overwhelming.. but we persevered!!  Julie and Micha found another place to rent a truck. Not nearly as economical as the first place but what choice did we have?
On their own they picked up Josie's bed frame and then met us all at Ikea.  Josie and Marty had gone ahead of Benjamin and me to go and check out the one piece of furniture that we did not have time to view first. 
And just like that we were back to needing a dining room table and chairs but we had a long list of other things to pick up that day so there was no looking back.

It was a pretty cool dining room table with 6 chairs.  The photos looked good but we forgot to ask one important question that you cannot tell from a photo but you can tell the instant you walk into a place- which was if they were smokers.  Josie and Marty walked into to check out the table and apparently they could barely breathe!!  Definitely they were smokers and there was NO WAY were were going to buy something that had been in a smoking household. That smell permeates for months!!  So, Marty- who has a terrible sense of smell, apparently paid the deposit and said they would be back to pick it up.  As they left Josie started to choke and say "Wow, I could barely breathe in there"  Marty said, Oh, no!!  I thought it smelled like smoke but I wasn't sure.  So, over a nice baked treat from a Germany bakery nearby they discussed what to do. Marty felt like there was no way he could go back and get his deposit back.  But... off they went.  He told the family that the all the trucks were rented out and that we had to let the dining room table go as we had no way of

transporting it.  Which was partially true. 

All the trucks were rented (at the first place) but the family gave back the deposit.  Said they felt badly that our truck fell through and wished him well. 

Julie and Micha took the kids around Ikea while Marty and I tried to shop.  Actually Clayton's mom came too so Benjamin had a buddy for a bit and Josie had Micha and Julie. Marty and I walked aimlessly through the maze that is Ikea.  We had been there just days before to scout out what we needed but somehow the whole thing was just so overwhelming and we just ended up with the basics.  We had picked out mattresses but when we got down to check out there was sale section. 

Micha said "try these" and so we did.  Right there.  And they were comfortable.  Heck at that point in our furniture journey a bed of nails would have been comfortable.  But we bought one of the sale mattresses for Josie and one for us.  Benjamin's new bed came with a nearly new, clean mattress. 
After our Ikea purchases we were already hungry.

What better place to feed a large group of hungry people than Ikea.  Lunch for everyone!

After lunch, Julie took the kids back to her apartment and Marty and Micha and I went to go pick up the rest of our speadsheet list of places.  A few hours later we were back at our apartment with a full truck and began unloading our new things.  That teeny tiny elevator that we made fun of for being so small came in VERY handy.  Nearly everything was able to fit inside (in multiple trips) We would load it up, Benjamin would squeeze in with our things, push the button and then we would run up to unload.  Nearly everything except the mattresses fit inside. 

We dumped everything from our daily catch in the apartment and then all headed to our favorite local Mexican place, Sixteen Bites, for dinner.
Inventory of the days gatherings:
3 bed frames
3 mattresses
1 couch with pillows
2 desks
2 sets of dishes
2 arm chairs
miscellaneous items from Ikea

We felt we got so much but we honestly had so far to go.  But, bit by bit.  It was a full, FULL day.