Moving Day

After the week we'd been through, we expected moving day to be hell. In the event, it was a breeze. Our movers, Kevin and Scott from Andrew Porter were top guys and within five hours, the massive truck was loaded and the house was empty. Checking through the house one last time was a little poignant, and I couldn't help thinking back to the last time I'd been alone in the empty house - on the day I got the keys when it was brand new - and how exciting it had been to stand on the brink of property ownership again after all that had gone before. Back then we had moved in with nine car loads of stuff in the back of my old Cavalier. Four years and four months later we'd filled more than two thirds of a forty-foot removals van, and some of the things we were shifting had sat in the attic since the day we moved in. As you can tell, I was in reflective mood.

But with only a brief stop to grab a sandwich and/or chips for lunch, there was no time for reflection. The afternoon was all about direction: telling Kevin and Scott where to put the stuff as it was unloaded from the van. Since unloading didn't involve unpacking, the job was done before 6pm and the intrepid movers, who refused to keep still for a decent photograph, drove off into the twilight.

After a full day's work (admittedly not much of it by us) we were left with a kitchen that looked pretty much like the one we had left behind earlier in the day, except bigger, and a whole lot of unpacking to do, but we were in! Finally, almost five months after we first found the house we had been looking for since January 2005, we were in!! Of course, there's a heap of decorating to do. Of course, we want to refit the kitchen and the bathroom. Yes, we don't yet have a phone, and consequently no Internet (yes, I'm writing this retrospectively). True, we have no carpets, and the boiler needs fixing, but none of that matters. Within hours of our arrival we had been greeted by three separate sets of neighbours and that is worth more than a pristine house and plush carpets. Since I moved out of my parents' house 28 years ago I don't think I've spoken to any neighbours for more than a minute at a time and I've lived in places where I have never met the neighbours at all. By contrast, our new house felt like home the moment we stepped through the door. There is a real community here - the kind I have been unconsciously searching for. Welcome home!