Kelly's Korner - Moving Tips

Hey, All,

Springtime seems like the time when people are moving from one residence to another.  Whether it is kids moving home from college, out of home after graduation, or just packing the whole family to move to a bigger place, there are a lot of people on the move.

Creative Commons license on image.

Now this can be a stressful time for anyone.  All the little things can add up to one big headache if you let it.  Having moved many times myself, I have come up with some things that have helped me immensely.

• PLAN!!!!  As soon as you know you are moving, start bringing boxes home and start packing up the things you don't use everyday.  Books, knicknacks, seasonal clothes, etc.  Mark them well and designate an area to put them.
• Call your utilities.  Let them know your new address and when you want the utilities stopped or transferred well ahead of time.
• If children are able to help, have them pack up themselves so you don't have to.
• Reserve a moving van well in advance.  Weekends are especially busy for rental trucks so make sure you're not left out.  Make sure you have a hand truck to move the big stuff - washer, dryer, refrigerator, etc.
• If you have a front load washer, check with your favorite appliance repair person to see if you need a moving kit.  Some of the front loads have special moving bolts needed to keep your tub in place.  Do this sooner than later as they may need to be ordered.  Also, check your pigtail (power cord) on your dryer and stove between your old place and the new one.  You may have a three wire receptacle in one place and a 4 wire in another.  Have your tech check this out, also, and have him get you the correct pigtails.  
• Check the laundry hook-ups in the new place - you may need longer hoses and venting - your tech can help you with all of this.  Get him scheduled in advance.  Same if you have a gas range - get unhooking and hooking lined up - if you are going from natural gas to LP (liquid propane) you will need to change some things, like orifices for the fuel supply.  This is something that needs to be done as soon as you know your are moving as parts may need to be ordered.
• If at all possible, start moving small loads to your new residence ahead of actual moving day.  When I moved from our apartment into my newly purchased home, I made sure I had a month before I had to be out of the apartment.  That gave me time to paint before moving furniture in.  Every night on my way home, I'd drop off what boxes I had already packed.  Then I went home and packed a few more, taking things off walls, stuff stored in closets, etc.
• Moving is a major pain and all your friends will say, "Sure, I'll help!" and then be unreachable that day.  Make sure you line up some really reliable peope or hire some day help for things you can't manage yourself.
• Have your magic marker, Phillips head and flathead screwdriver and a pair of pliers on you at all times!  They get lost easy and you'll need them.
• This is the most important tip I can give anyone:  If you have items that have parts and pieces that need to stay together - bed frames, bookshelves, etc, - take all the screws, brackets, whatever and put them in a ziplock bag and very securely DUCT TAPE them to the item they belong to.  I don't know how many phone calls I get from people that have moved and have had to take the doors and hinges off their refrigerator and have lost them.  Put those screws and hinges in a bag and tape it to the inside of the freezer.  Put the remotes in a bag and tape them to the back of the TV.  Put screws and brackets for bedframes and tape them to the rails.You will save yourself untold headaches and anxiety by doing this.
• As soon as you empty a room, clean it - wash windows, wipe down walls, sweep-mop-vacuum floors.  Fill in nail holes with spackle.  If you are in a rental, this will help getting your deposits back.  Plus, you don't want people thinking you're a total jerk by leaving a mess.  In the kitchen, pull out fridge and stove and clean behind and under them as well as inside.  Please don't take knobs, door bars, shelves or anything that belongs in or on the appliance.  One of the reasons rents go up is the maintenance and repair of turning a rental over.
• Be a good tenant and leave all the lightbulbs and a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom.  Nothing is worse than having to go and digging through piles of stuff to find the TP or not having light to see where you're going.  Have TP, soap and hand towels in the new place, too.
• If you have wood or tile floors, make sure you have them protected - large pieces of cardboard work well.
• Reward you, your family and anyone helping by providing food, drinks and snacks.  You'd be surprised at what people will do for free vittles lol

Make moving day less of a chore by getting all those ducks in a row before The Day and everyone will be a happy camper.

Have a great week!

Kelly's Korner - More Pictures

Hey, All,

I don't know where you are all at but here it has been BUSY!!!!  So I'm going to cheat and just post more pictures of the move to the new quar
ters.

All moved in!

Small Sales office - my desk is just on the
other side of this divider

In the beginning....

The shelves are up....

We got parts!

And a very forlorn Hawthorne counter  ;-(

It has been bittersweet but we love our new place.  End of an era an onto a new!

Have a great week!

Kelly's Korner - We're In!!!!

Hey, All,

As you all may know, we have been in the process of moving our Portland location from SE 12th and Hawthorne to E 9th and Burnside.  Well, except for a few odds and ends, we are IN!!!  I am just going to share some pictures that I've taken:

FRONT COUNTER CONSTRUCTION

PUTTING THINGS IN PLACE

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

Thanks to all who have worked at making this move a success!

Come on in and check it out!

Have a great week!

Important Announcement

The big day is coming soon!

With our apologies, on Saturday, July 19, W.L. May Company will be closed while we complete our move to your new Portland parts counter.

We are truly excited to announce that beginning on Monday, July 21, W.L. May Company will begin counter service at our new location at 835 E Burnside with our regular hours. The counter at 12th and Hawthorne will be closing at 5:30pm Friday July, 18 forever. Thanks for all your support there over the years.

Here is a map from the Hawthorne location to our new Burnside site.



Our front door faces Burnside:

Parking is located on the Couch St. and 9th Avenue at the back side of the building. There is a door on the parking lot side of the building as well.

We are just a few minutes away from our old location. Traffic and parking seem to be a little easier here than on Hawthorne too. We are proud of our new home and can't wait to show it to you.

Come on down and pay us a visit!

Settling Into A New Home

As many of you know, and Kelly told you about yesterday, W.L. May Company had a little moving project this last weekend. Well, for the rest of the sales staff and myself, it was a big project. Your see, over the weekend our sales and accounting staff relocated  to new offices at 835 East Burnside here in Portland, about a mile from our old offices.

The move wasn't very far to go, but with many of the staff being veterans of 10, 15, 20 and even 30 years in that office, there was a lot of accumulated stuff to go through, purge and move. We made it though and started off Monday with minimal pain. 

We have a lot of memories of 12th and Hawthorne. Many of you visited us at that address and we have those memories as well. We are all excited to have a new facility to work from. We are also excited to have a new neighborhood to explore. Here are some pictures I took while we were moving. I hope you enjoy them.

Wes Packing A Box Of Desk Supplies To Move

Chuck Was Also Spotted Packing Moving Boxes

Packed to Move, Roy Could Not Resist Selling A Few More Parts Before He Left

Eventually There Wasn't Much Left in The Old Room

Then There Was Even Less Left Around

Soon All That was Left Was The Old Furniture

Ready To Start A New Era

Working On Getting The New Building Ready

Getting Settled Into Our New Home

Ready to Start A New Era

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Kelly's Korner - New Digs

Hey, All,

As most of you know by now, our Portland location is moving a new building.  With the purchase last year of our ginormous Vancouver facility we don't need all the room our Portland facility has.  The office (sales, reception and accounting are now in the new building located at 835 E Burnside, just less than a mile from the old location.  Parts won't move in for a few more weeks so we'll keep you posted.

So how did the first day go?  Verrry interesting!  Just about the time we were to clock in the computer system went down and was down for about 2 hours.  Thanks for all your patience with us - we took notes and called everyone back when we were back online.  We had no A/C for the better part of the day but that's up and running so we are cooling off - tough job with all this hot air around here haha!  We ain't in sales for nothin'!

New digs

But we have all new construction and it is sqeaky clean and nice with new sheetrock, paint and lighting - new desks, too!  The front counter area is still under construction but will be fantastic when done.  I will post some pictures when I have them of that area.  For now, here is a pic of our old office setting and one of the new.

Have a great week!

Old Sales Office

Thoughtful Thursday: Summer Recap

Labor Day is just around the corner. On the phones, a lot of people are sharing stories of summer vacations and talk has turned to kids going back to school and thoughts of Fall. Many people in our service area have experienced the effects of being near large wildfires. Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California have all been affected this summer. We wish them the best and are keeping all the victims of these large fires in our hearts and minds.
Here at W.L. May Company, it has been a momentous summer. As most of you are aware by now, we completed the largest inventory transfer I have seen in 20 years with W.L.May. In the beginning of the summer, a large portion of the inventory at our Portland warehouse was relocated to a new distribution center across the Columbia River in Vancouver, WA. The new center in Vancouver has 35,000 square feet of space which we can use to offer a deeper inventory today as well as allow us the space to take on new product lines in the future. The Distribution Center does not replace our Portland Branch, as we still maintain or commitment to the Portland service market. We have structured our inventory so that everything that could be gotten from Portland in the past is still on hand for your will call needs. By and large, the relocation went extremely well. Of course, we learned a few things along the way. We apologize for any mishaps that may have occurred during the move and thank all of you for your support and patience.
In the near future we will be hosting several Regional Service Meeting for the United Servicers Association.It should be a great learning opportunity and hope to see you all there. With summer ending, it won't be long before the annual fall rush to get things ready for Winter and the Holiday Season. It seems only appropriate to mention a reminder to check you inventory for those range parts that you will be getting calls for soon, as well as parts for trash compacters and icemaker assemblies as they are often frequently serviced in preparation for the holidays.
We thank you for a great summer and look forward to helping address your parts needs for many more summers to come. To wrap things up, here are a few pictures taken during our move, we hope you enjoy them. Thanks to Danielle and Kelly for the images. Have a great day!

Danielle loads a palette for transport.

Isaac steadies the ladder as the top shelves are cleared.

Les puts his back into his work by jacking up a palette to load on the moving truck.

Isaac loading the moving van.

Making progress! Look at all those empty parts bins!

A (mostly) blank slate in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Distribution Center takes shape.

Jennifer checking-in items as they get shelved.

More and more parts rolling in to stock the shelves.

Vancouver Distribution Center is OPEN!