How NOT to move a table...

Since I am supposed to have the settlement on the sale of my 2200 sq. ft. house this week and purchase my new 1300 sq ft house next week, clearly I have to get rid of 1000 feet of furniture! I started this process by offering some of the furniture to my daughters, and got some takers in Baltimore. Anna agreed to take the heavy solid wood dining table and the 6 matching chairs, and a desk and chair, and Nina agreed to take the double bed and another chair and a small table. I agreed to rent a van and deliver the stuff. I do NOT know what we were all thinking!!! Fortunately, Nina offered to come over and help me pack for 2 days, so we rented the van on that day so we would have her to help us move the dining room table. Now, for the benefit of those who have never seen this table, it is solid pine, really heavy, all one piece tabletop about 4 inches thick, and massive legs. It must weigh several hundred pounds. My husband Gus and I could JUST lift it, but we could not carry it anywhere. We arranged for Anna to meet us at her apt. in Baltimore and we feel sure that the four of us can get the table into Anna's apt. Early afternoon: Nina and Gus and I are all trying to get the table out the door from the dining room to the garage, thinking that taking it through the garage is the easiest way to get it to the driveway, and from there to the van. We get the table lifted, but that's not enough, it has to be turned on it's side to get through the door. It would be a lot easier to move this behemoth if we could take the giant table legs off, but we tried to unscrew them for three weary hours last night, however, the screws are in like they were glued, so that is no go. After struggling to get the table through the door, we all have to rest in the garage for a while. Finally we get the table into the van, tabletop side down, and pile the mattresses, chairs, desk, etc on top of it. We arrive in Baltimore, unload everything else, and then set about taking the dining table up one and a half flights of stairs to Anna's second floor apt. Just to get the table in from the street to the foyer involves a turn at a half-landing, and manouvering through a set of double doors set at a 45% angle from each other. Luckily, the foyer is huge, and the flight of stairs to Anna's apt, is a straight flight. We start up the stairs, Gus and Nina on the bottom, Anna and me on the top. The people on the bottom have the worst end, they have to lift the table about shoulder high to be sure the leg clears the steps. At the top of the flight, the table has to be stood on it's end to make the turn into the hall, and then lifted up OVER the bannister to stand in the upper hall. We are all exausted, but feel that we are on the home stretch, so we flip the table over on it's side and head for the door to Anna's apt. The table sticks in the door, it is about 1/8th on an INCH too wide to go through! Immediately, everybody is talking at once, Gus is asking Anna why she didn't measure the door the way he told her to, Anna is saying that she DID measure the door, maybe I measured the table wrong, Nina is cursing steadily (mostly) under her breath. We decide that possibly we can get the table through if we could turn it and angle it into the doorway of the next door apt, so we knock on the door to ask the tenant to open it. Tenant and boyfriend pop out another door farther down the hall, and immediately join the fun. Turns out that the door we want opened is nailed shut, but Tenant thinks if we just lift the table so that it is above the level of the bannister, we could get it through by turning it into the doorway from the other side. Boyfriend, who has so far said nothing, offers to help us lift the table. Tenant, directing the operation like she was Speilberg shooting Star Wars, orders us all around, hugely enjoying herself. After a gut-wrenching effort, involving the edge of the table peeling about 80 years worth of layers of paint off the doorframe, we discover that the table will actually fit through the doorway in this manner, but only if we had first removed the door from it's hinges...