October 23, 2019 - 40 - Mexican Casa Renovation-2: "Special Delivery"

Moving Mountains

     Having a house in Mexico has given us a real appreciation of how easy it is to do things in the U.S.  Not just because our Spanish is not good, but because the geography and culture of the city of San Miguel create some unusual challenges.

     This is especially true when it comes to getting things delivered and installed.

    We bought most of the upholstered furniture, for the house in Mexico, in the U.S.  There's a California moving company (Golden Bear Movers-they're amazing!) that runs regularly between the Southwestern U.S. states and the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

     Moving furniture from Fort Worth, Texas to San Miguel de Allende kind of illustrates how you have to approach things in the different locations.

     In Fort Worth the movers arrived with a really big moving truck.

     They backed it down our driveway right to the garage, where we'd been collecting our house loot.  The movers took their time loading everything to maximize space usage and minimize damage.

      But once they got it all through customs and into Mexico the rules changed fast.

The Streets of San Miguel

     For one thing, the city of San Miguel de Allende was first inhabited more than 400 years ago.  The buildings in the city center are placed cheek by jowl, and the streets are made of cobblestone and are very narrow.  There's just no way a big old moving truck is getting down one of these streets.

     Our first house in Mexico was on an especially narrow alley.  Everyone who visited commented:  getting things delivered will be a challenge.

     We learned this when we had a gas tank switched out on our rooftop.  They literally ended up blocking off our entire street to use a dangerous-seeming assemblage of ropes and pulleys to lower one huge tank to the street, then raise another back to the rooftop.

   Once we had some outdoor furniture delivered to put on our rooftop.  The mid-size truck that brought it had to park several streets over.  The furniture had to be lugged, dragged, and sometimes even rolled end over end (no worries, it was wrapped very well) down the narrow little alley to our door. 
 
     Then the husband and wife delivery team, and Michael and I, passed these big outdoor pieces hand over hand up the center stairwell of our house.  Suspended above the atrium below.  Some people held the furniture in place while another moved up a few steps.  Then they'd pull for all they were worth while ones below pushed.  (I truly wish I had pictures of this operation, but as you can imagine there were no free hands available in the house.)

    So the Golden Bear operation, (and everyone's operation really), changes entirely when they get here.  They took all of our furniture to their business outside of town, unloaded it, and reloaded it to a much less impressive-looking, but way more practical set up.  It stirs up images of Sanford and Son's truck, but it definitely gets the job done.

     Not only do they need a smaller truck, but parking places are in very short supply so things often have to get moved while traffic is getting backed up...so they move fast.

Don't Parade on Our Move

     When the stove and dishwasher were delivered the line of traffic got so long while the stove was unloaded and brought in, that the driver went to make a block to let other cars get through.  A long time went by and the truck did not reappear.  What we didn't notice was that no vehicles were appearing.

     Eventually the driver got through to one of the other delivery guys to let him know that the street was now blocked for the foreseeable future for a parade.  He had been diverted so far out of town that the other guys had to make their ways home on their own.  Our dishwasher had to get delivered the next day.

     I'm thinking of all of this because I was texting with Michael earlier.   He was on our rooftop keeping an eye out for a truck.  Someone had called saying they were on their way to deliver a barstool and table for us:
  

---

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."*

* Or parade...whichever the case may be.

---