The Office Armoire - August 4, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

It all started with this post on my local BuyNothing group. I had been looking at storage cabinets for my new office, and whew!! Pricey! I’d been to the ReStore, a building components recycling place, but didn’t see anything I could use or liked.

Then on Wednesday this post appeared. It looked perfect! It said 2 people, a dolly, and a truck. We had that. So we arranged to pick it up on Friday afternoon.

Maple china cabinet for my dining room

This china cabinet of maple had said the same thing, 2 people and a truck. We’d easily moved it on Friday morning.

Cherry shelving unit

Back in March I’d found this for my pantry. It had been heavy, but we were able to move with help from my son, even through mounds of ice.

So we thought for sure we could move this, no problem! First, it did not come apart in 2 pieces. When we attempted to even tip the armoire that Friday afternoon, it defeated us. So we planned to come back on Saturday with a dolly (which we had forgotten) and try again.

She had also given us a low desk/cabinet unit about 9’ long. We couldn’t get it apart because it needed an Allen wrench and that’s one thing he doesn’t have in his tool box.

So we show up Saturday morning armed with a moving dolly and an assortment of Allen wrenches. We managed to get the dolly under the feet and strapped on. But again, there was no way we were moving that with just us.

So we took the desk apart and moved that to the storage unit. That part was easy, once we had the right tools.

When I got home I posted to BuyNothing:

Several people wished us luck and 1 woman tried to convince her sons to help, with no luck. Then a friend of ours convinced her husband to help and the whole family came along. Their little daughter is a surrogate grandchild to us, so it was fun spending time with her, however brief.

Sunday morning at 9AM we headed out, armed with a jack, dolly, tools, and something special for the family.

We’d determined the feet had to come off, and he’s removing them there. They used a scissors jack to hold it up, as none of them could have. With the feet off, it gave us just the amount of extra space needed to tip it over onto the dolly.

My “grandchild” was kept occupied alternately by her mom and me. The child had brought Thomas trains and spent her time “fixing” repairs to them. :))

We would stop repairs every so often to see how far the cabinet had crept out of the house. First into the living room, then half way into the entryway, then half out the front door.

The truck was backed up over the curb to their gorgeous stone steps. I have some serious steps envy here!

This photo doesn’t do them justice.

With the truck so close it lowered how high it had to be lifted to get in. We ended up loading it on the side, not its back. We roped it off and headed for the storage unit. My husband was able to maneuver the truck so the back was within a foot of the opening and they slid it off and into the unit. It’s staying just where it is until it is time to move it into my office.

The family’s surprise? Well, I read to my “grandchild” which she loves. And we gave them a bunch of our homemade butter and some eggs from our hens, and gas money.

So we did win in the end, with some help from our friends. I’ve just been wondering about moving it into my office, the ceiling is only 7½’ high….

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