I moved yesterday to a new, larger apartment, and I used an actual moving company this time around. All of my moves before had been done by me, and friends helping. It always seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and the stack of boxes and furniture really didn’t look that big anyhow. But it always ended badly – something being broken, taking way longer than the day you had the truck rented, and every time being sore and completely worn out.
This time around I asked at work for folks recommendations, and ended up settling on Gentle Giant Moving Company. They are based out of Boston, but have a local office here in Seattle. Every aspect of the move was handled exactly as I would have wanted it – very quick, concise communication via email and phone for the estimate, 100% courteous and professional folks on the moving day, and everything was packed and moved perfectly. I was especially surprised at how helpful the guys were that moved things, and how fast they were. Done in 4 hours!
I would highly recommend them for anyone in the Seattle area wanting to move. I found many, many scary companies out there that quoted me various open-ended amounts of time, and tried to push me to buy their own packing supplies (which I didn’t need) and other things.
Still getting used to the new place – still lots of boxes to unpack and things to re-find again.
steve Uncategorized gentle giant, moving
I’ve been thinking off and on for a while about moving from my current 1 bedroom, 900sf apartment into something a little more unique, and a little larger. Friday, a new rental came up on an RSS feed I have for SeattleRentals.com – a house boat on Lake Union in the Eastlake neighborhood. In fact, there are at least three for rent in the same general area.
I love the water – sailing on it, being near it. I own a place with two other friends out on Vashon Island right on the sound, and I love getting out in my sailboat as often as possible. I think it would be amazing to live on the water. I’ve considered living on my sailboat, but that requires a significant lifestyle change, plus it’s hard to find liveaboard slips around the area.
So the big question is – what should I be thinking about in living on a houseboat? I’ve read a bunch of stuff about the communities and fun things, but I want to know what to watch out for. The things that aren’t so fun or nice or interesting.
My biggest concern is the neighborhood location – I’m used to living on Queen Anne, which is literally 5 minutes from work, all on pretty un-busy city streets. And it’s only a couple of blocks away from restaurants and grocery stores. The Eastlake area isn’t as close to those things. And it’s pretty difficult traffic to get from Eastlake over to work, or to my friends house that I spend lots of time at.
If you have thoughts, let me know… still thinking about the options…
steve Uncategorized house boat, houseboat