So the move started around 825 last Friday morning when the packers arrived to begin, well, packing. 🙂 Adam and Simon had left at 8 to get Adam to nursery and Simon to the Agent’s to sign the lease and get the keys.
I gave them a quick tour of the flat and they were pretty wide eyed when they saw all the books. Although the booker/estimate guy knew about them!
And so the packing began. We own, thanks to a certain relative coming to stay and getting ill and leaving them behind, about 10 suitcases, so I packed our clothes myself. Besides, would you want a big burly packing man to pack your lingerie? Me either. 😉
Around 930 Simon rang from the Estate Agent saying they wanted a full months rent and then we’d pay the partial month rent in the middle of November. This is not what the Agent told me when I asked a month ago, but we had the money so, okay! I was amazed they actually took a cheque for it. In the US first month’s rent and deposit has always required a bankers cheque, in my experience. In any case, Simon finished up with that and headed up to the house with some things for Adam’s room. The plan was that he and Adam would go up on the Saturday before the movers and get him at least partially settled.
So anyway, the packers and I were packing. Simon was sorting the new house. Adam was at daycare.
Around 12 Simon got back with lunch for us and the packers took their lunch break. I had been chatting to one of them, as they flew through the packing, to see if they thought it might be possible to do this in one day. It was finally determined, no, they couldn’t, because the truck they brought was too small. They had been loading the truck as they packed, so they were 99% sure they didn’t have enough space and all those books are very heavy and the truck was definitely sinking on it’s tires!
So they finished about 430. At around 5 Adam got home from nursery and was like this: O_O at the empty flat. He ran from room to room for a bit before realizing that almost all of the previously off limits and locked cupboards were wide open. A small boy never had so much fun opening and closing doors!
The next morning we got up and finished the bits of packing we could do. At around 830 the movers arrived again and Simon and Adam took off for the house. We finished the packing and I called the taxi and we headed off.
Adam was having a great time in his new garden:
When the trucks arrived Simon and Adam took off again to explore the neighbourhood while I directed the unload. By about 1130 it was done. We were moved in to our house.
The past week has been fairly hectic, not helped by Adam being ill with D&V and ear infections for most of it, including not sleeping well. There are some maintenance issues that need to be sorted, but the house is pretty much perfect.
There has been one amazing side effect, for me, in all this. I have always sworn I didn’t want to own a domicile. I do believe I’ve changed my mind. To the point that I am pricing houses in the neighbourhood…