This Weekend, 12 Months Ago

The big move was in full swing 12 months ago. It poured with rain. I can still remember how overwhelming the task of moving seemed...and it was! Looking back.

Somehow, we made it!

That Light

I started this post on Wednesday morning and have only just found time (and internet connection) to finish it.

Remember that light at the end of the tunnel that I mentioned a little while ago? Well it wasn't the end of the tunnel. It was a train. Heading in my direction. Moving has been a dreadful, dreadful task of humungous proportions! When I thought we were nearly there, we were nowhere near it! Even now, with the carpet cleaners coming this morning (Wednesday), there's still several loads of gear on the verandah to make it's way to the farm. How one family of four can have so much crap is beyond me. Having such an enormous house doesn't help. We could always find a "place" for something. The situation is a little different at the new house. With just the two of us now and a much smaller house I'll be doing a second cull as I unpack. The kids were only 10 and 15 when we moved into this one and because we doubled in available space compared to the first house we lived in for 15 years I think we just brought everything here and put it away...and I've sure paid for that as I've pulled it all out of the cupboards.

Our life is different now; no school, no sport, no extra-curricular activities, no kids living full-time at home so we can downsize pretty well everything (eg the 40 towels). All those books and projects (Beavers, Possums, Ancient Egypt etc that I kept); all the uniforms and footballs and cardboard (just in case); years and years of beautiful ballet costumes that the little kids in Prep Green are going to enjoy dressing up in; 26 years of tax records stored in the spare room top cupboard that wasn't opened for 10 years; the list goes on and on...and how many platters does one really need? Surely not the 15 I had that someone who walks into Lifeline will now be able to enjoy. So much stuff. Just stuff. I am on a mission to lead a minimalist and simplified lifestyle.

And the cleaning. I can't even begin to verbalise the massive, massive job it's been to clean a house this size on my own. Every cupboard vacuumed and washed out; every wall dry mopped with a micro fibre mop; every window, all 70 of them, washed twice, inside and out (once to wash, once to shine) - that's 280 windows in total; the kitchen (the stove, ugh); the pantry with it's french farmhouse look with the rough, painted bricks that look well, like rough painted bricks; the window screens (only 23 windows have screens); the list goes on and on and on.

I had planned on employing a cleaner but I left my run too late. I could only get someone to come and help for a few hours on Tuesday but what she did in that time was an enormous help. She mopped the walls with a t-bar and used a disinfectant. The effect was startling; even though the marks didn't come off the freshening up of the walls was obvious. She also had a spray bottle of liquid that lifted 10 years of lime scale off Megan's windows where the bore water sprinkler had drifted. Once she had gone I felt the load start to lift; and then once the carpet cleaners came I felt lighter again.

Friday 6pm - I've just been to the house and officially handed it over to the new Manager's wife and given her the run down on it's little idiosyncrasies. What an enormous relief. The responsibility is no longer mine. Goodbye house.

Is That a Light I Can See?????

Is that the end of the tunnel? I think it might be; we're not quite there but we're a lot closer than we were a week ago. I have lots I'd like to say or comment about but I'm just too tired tonight. Ten days straight of sorting, packing, lifting, moving then lifting again has taken their toll. I have biceps now though. Back to work tomorrow.

I think we'll have our first sleep in the new house next weekend, right on target. Here's a few more untidy images. I spent a couple of hours down there on Saturday afternoon trying to make some sort of order in the office but I don't feel like I got very far. I'm not liking the configuration of furniture; I just need to let it sit for a few days while I think about a new floor plan.

This is the bed that Meg hates. It belonged to my great grandmother, Granny Wormwell.

As I left in the late afternoon, the sun broke out from behind a cloud and cast a golden glow over the trees; it was beautiful and peaceful.

Dear Husband and Children.....

Wish you were here to share in the unbelievable mess and dust created by pulling a few things out of a few cupboards (but I'm sure you're all quite happy where you are). Grandma and I are battling away, piece by piece. I think I've nearly worn her out; she is 75 after all, but she just keeps going and going. She has been a fantastic help and the sorting and packing up of the lounge room would have been a much more difficult job without her.

Here are some random pics, in no particular order, just so you know what you're missing out on.

The "new" floor.

I spent a quiet couple of hours on Sunday unpacking the linen/swags/camping gear/xmas decs and other random items. Due to lack of space I've had to utilise the high shelves in the kids built-ins. They both got a swag and sleeping bag each, plus their luggage. Meg got the xmas decs; Drew got the box of camping gear.

This was load 2 yesterday. Jude came to help; 3 trailer and car loads of furniture left.

Cleaning up my desk. Fabulous ponytail! I swung my head just as Grandma took the photo.

Books for Vinnies/Lifeline. That's the fireplace where the parrot was trapped).

Slowly getting there; the lounge suite, glass cabinet, table and old lamp have gone, the books are sorted, the cd player cupboard has gone, my table is nearly bare; dust coats everything. I really need to work on my dusting skills (or at least acquire some to start with).

I'm not taking the bookcase with us; there's a built-in one at the new house; plus, it won't really fit anywhere. The glass front cabinet is for other things. The books are sorted into categories (but you'll be glad to hear that they're not in alphabetical order.......yet).

So my husband and babies, you can see what Grandma and I have been doing these past two days - and what we'll be doing for the next 4. Feel free to drop in any time!

I go back to work on Monday so I want to try to have nearly everything shifted by then. Once the lounge room is finished it only leaves our bedroom and the kitchen/pantry. Our bedroom cupboards are moved, sans drawers. They're sitting on the floor in our bedroom. I guess we'll get there. I just don't know when.

And So It Goes, On and On and On and On....

It's still raining. I woke up at 5am and it was pouring, bucketing down. It stayed like that for hours. Then the sun came out for 5 minutes, then the rain started again. So much rain. At least we're safe from flooding up here on the ridge. I keep getting the local council flood updates; the creek in town is expected to peak at midnight tonight, higher than the flood in January.

We're still packing and will be for days. We can't get to the dump to get rid of rubbish and we can't get to the farm to unpack anything so the boxes just keep piling up in the living room. Had a few stressful moments today when Gibbo and I were going through cupboards together. We have differing opinions (oh really??) on what constitutes "keep" and what constitutes "ditch". I'm much more of a ditcher than he is. I EVEN DITCHED TWO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN POSTERS FROM 1985 (THEN 5 MINUTES LATER I TOOK ONE OF THEM BACK. SLOWLY DOES IT (AND I'LL BUY A NEW ONE ANYWAY IN A COUPLE OF WEEK'S TIME). I finally threw out the five years of high school athletics carnival programs that my mother religiously recorded all my results in. They are so mouse eaten and faded that they're barely readable any more.

I have a Nostalgia Box though. It has things in it from my childhood bedroom and small keepsakes from over the years. One can't be too hasty (did I say I was a ditcher)?

About 4pm we were sitting in the mess discussing what we'd have for dinner and trying to work out where to start next. Gibbo looked out the kitchen window and said, "the xxxx's are here". I looked out and there were 6 people walking towards the door. I was bra-less, barefoot, wearing black track suit pants that are too short and my hair was dragged back into a ponytail; I was covered in dust. Not my best look. I was horrified and so embarrassed. We talked for a while but I was pre-occupied with my very unkempt appearance. I was not expecting visitors at all.

Later, Gibbo thought we should ask them back tomorrow night for a bbq dinner. Hello? In this mess? Right in the middle of packing up the entire house? There's one narrow walkway through the living area and there's nowhere to sit. I am totally focussed on packing and moving with no detours. I wonder if men (or is it just mine) think before they speak and if they do, what do they think with?

More Progress

After nearly 10 days of brain frying budget work I took a day off......and packed. Gibbo left at 5am for meetings at head office.....and I packed. The hallway cupboards are clear....the family room is not - it's full of boxes, bags and suitcases full of gear. Why do we accumulate so much crap? Why do we have so many towels? I haven't bought a towel in years but we must have at least 30 of them.

Chloe was very helpful with the hand made decorations that, after nearly 8 years, have seen their last Christmas with us.

Drew's Time and Space Machine is finally due to become landfill. He reminded me today that when we made it all those years ago we hid behind the garage at the old house and waited for Gibbo to come home and find the Machine and the note that said we'd teleported away and would be back later. It has a place to put your feet at the bottom and a message on the top that says, "Do not touch anything in the Past or it will change the Future; Good Luck; Only in the Present can you touch things; Don't touch anything in the Future"!

Hallway Cupboard 1 now houses only the bolted down gun cabinet (and some dirt on the floor).

Drew's room.

Hallway Cupboard 2 looks more chaotic than it really is. It was easy to unpack this one because I am clear about where everything will be going at the new house. There are some craft items that will go to Vinnies. See all those towels - and that's not all of them. You can see the Time and Space Machine on the bottom shelf. It's been safely guarding lots of craft type things all these years (after we finished using it to teleport).

Two and a half hours later it looked like this.

Then this. Empty. See that bag on the floor up the end. The cat is asleep inside it. Which I forgot about. I walked up there to close the door and kicked the bag out of the way. The cat shot out of the bag like a bullet from a gun; scared the jeebies out of me. When I found her cowering under the white desk near the bathroom door her eyes were as big as saucers and the hair all along her back was standing straight up. I laughed and laughed as I cuddled and soothed her. Totally freaked her out. I'm still laughing. She'll get me back.

It rained all day. All day. In fact, it bucketed down from about 9am until 3pm with barely a letup. 

By 4pm I'd moved into the spare room and unpacked one of the top cupboards. That's when I slowed down. I found a lot of letters and cards written and received long before I met Gibbo. There's letters written and received across a vast range of years and people - from best friends, old boyfriends, non boyfriends, foreign pen pals and family. Letters that I wrote home during my overseas travels and letters written to me c/- The Walkabout Club in London. There's a whole heap of letters that my Dad, Mate, wrote to me as I moved around. They all start off with "Dear Popsy" - that's what he called me, Popsy, after the Lancaster bomber, P-Popsy, one of several planes that bombed the Moehne Dam in May 1943 (the story later immortalised in the movie The Dambusters). I sat and read a selection and couldn't bring myself to throw any of them out. Well, maybe one or two. But that's all. They'll move with me to the new house and maybe one day I'll do something with them.

Gibbo finally made it home around 7pm after having to back track because of rising creek levels. He thought he'd come home the back way but got to a floodway and couldn't even see the markers so turned around.

Meg is having pizza and wine with friends; Drew is working at the Reds game at Suncorp.