Challenges of Moving House

Moving house was accomplished in a few different stages, which served to make the whole process a little challenging. The one benefit is that all the houses are in fairly close proximity to each other.

 

Firstly, since Robynne and Marco's new house had been transferred into their name virtually by the beginning of March, they were keen to move in there as soon as possible. However, the lease on the rental house where we had stayed since the beginning of December would be cut short and we would have to keep the house and garden as clean and as presentable as possible for viewing by new potential tenants.

 

As a first step to achieving this, Robynne and I moved the kitties on Thursday evening of March 14th to the garage of their new house just down the street. I managed to catch 8 out of 9 kitties but Bunny eluded me and I had to leave her until the next day. I made the kitties as comfortable as possible as they would have to stay in the garage without going outside for the next two weeks. Jerome and I had planned to move to our new cottage on the 29th March.

 

Robynne and Marco moved their possessions on the 21st March, a week after I had moved the kitties and I just stored my possessions in the spare room of the new house, instead living for a few days at Jerome's old cottage with him. I spent only one night in Robynne and Marco's new house, the Thursday night before Jerome and I moved to our new cottage.

 

That night was busy for Jerome as he left work early to fetch the furniture trailer, then had to fetch his son Matthew from Benoni. Matthew spent the night at his dad's old cottage, helping him pack boxes and load the trailer in the morning with the first load for the new cottage.

 

Once I knew they had left with the load, I went through to the contractor who had built us a converted 'wendy house' for Jerome's dogs and my cats. The contractor followed me to our new cottage where Jerome had just arrived with his son and some helpers to offload the heavy furniture.

 

Wow, the co-ordination involved in all of this. But we accomplished it. The contractors started building the wendy house on site at the back of the cottage, Jerome left to take his son to Easter Church camp and I spent the morning cleaning the new cottage before the boxes started arriving. I finished cleaning the new house and drove back to Jerome's old cottage to help him pack some more belongings. We spent the rest of the afternoon packing and moving belongings.

 

That evening, the only areas I was concerned about setting up at the new house were the bathroom and the bed because we were so exhausted that a hot bath and bed were the only important items on the agenda after a long hard day of moving. On Saturday, we returned to spit and polish Jerome's old cottage so that we could hand the unit back to the landlord,  and even up to yesterday, a week later, I fetched another box and a few containers of belongings of mine from Robynne's house.

 

Our curtains and pictures are up, our place is looking and feeling cosy. We still have boxes to unpack and places to find for various items belonging to Jerome and myself which we have had to combine. This in itself has been an interesting process, as we both have our own ideas about where various items should be kept and this process has seen the start of a few interesting discussions. Basically, though we are similarly minded about the important things and are feeling comfortable and 'at home' in our new cottage, after all the stress of the Big Move.

 

And that is what is the most important. Things don't matter. People matter. And spending your time with the right people.

 

Momcat xx