The C&P Has Arrived...

This has been an eventful week for the studio...and a very long week! Although I'm kind of glad it's all over with, lots of good things happened. First, I made my first Etsy sale to a buyer in California. I was excited about that, but even more excited about the bouquet of red roses my hubby bought me to celebrate :) (awwwww! I'm so lucky!). Second, I received an inquiry about selling my cards at a wonderful little boutique in Pennsylvania. The owner found my work through Etsy and wants to carry my line of cards. Yay! I will post more details once my shipment is sent off on its journey to the US of A.

The third good thing? My new C&P 8x12 made its way from Dave's house in Coquitlam to my basement, and it did so without any drops, breaks, or other unfortunate mishaps. The press is still in separate pieces (the flywheel, motor, etc. were removed by Dave so that the press could even fit into the basement), but she will be put back together as soon as I finish giving her a light cleaning.

If you ever need movers in the Vancouver area for a press, I highly recommend Salmon's Transfer. I had spoken to a few other movers in the area, and everyone wanted to charge me over $1,000 to move the C&P. Not to mention, they all groaned and moaned about the job. Why wouldn't anyone want to haul over 1,000 lbs of metal down a flight of stairs? Hunh? Oh well, their loss. Salmon's commercial move department was more than happy to help me out (for around $600), and sent 4 wonderful movers to lift, and shove, and shimmy my press to its new home.

Here is a photo of the truck, backed up into my backyard. The press is still inside and the Salmon's men were developing their strategy to get her out and down the back stairs of my house.

Here are the four men are moving the press on to the ground from the lift. Did I mention we have been doing some landscaping? Hence the pile of dirt...


The ten stairs down a narrow stairway that they had to get down. When they first arrived, one of the movers asked me "We have to take it down THERE?" with wide-eyes. I think he was kidding though, because they knew about the stairs in advance. But...maybe he truly was disgusted by the stairs...who knows. All I know is that the man was tall, a heavy lifter, and sounded just like John Goodman - and I wouldn't have wanted to argue with him too much...


This is a photo of the pre-removed parts of the press that the men had moved in to the basement first. Here they are awaiting the rest of the press.


The removed flywheel. John Goodman (a.k.a. the heavy lifter) told me it weighs about 100 lbs. I haven't tried lifting it myself yet.



Here she goes down there stairs (a "press in a blanket"). Two men up top holding the dolly, John Goodman and friend steadying the bottom. It only took them about 4-5 minutes to get down the stairs. Slowly but surely. You can see the window on the right near Mr. Goodman's elbow - yep, I was worried about that window!


Getting closer to the bottom...We had to remove the screen door to my basement and the railing on the stairs in order to fit the press down. The press was about 30-31 inches wide (without the flywheel), so it was tight.



My view of the movers reaching the bottom of the stairs. They then had to turn the press to fit it through the door.


Here the movers are getting the press off of the dolly.


And on the ground.


Whew! Boy am I glad that's over with. Now we have to tidy the press up, and then put it back together (I may need to ask for Dave's help if we can't figure it out). Then, I should be able to start printing. As I've learned so far with letterpress, it may take some time to get going. But, I'm very excited to get started.

On a scary note, the movers told me that to get the press out of the basement, I will need to hire a Hiab truck with a crane to pull the press from the base of the basement stairs and up. I guess even with four men, the Salmon's team probably couldn't get it out very easily because of the lack of space in the staircase. Going down seems to be easier than going up. So yeah, that really stinks...but, whattayagonnado?

This week I will be making friends with WD40 and doing a bit of cleaning. My husband reminded me to open the windows and ventilate so I don't kill myself. Oops, I forgot about that! Oxygen-smoxagen. But getting high on WD40 is probably not good for one's health...

Happy letterpressing...