Darren took the whole of the last week before moving off work and I moved my days around accommodate working on the house and impressing the new CEO with my brilliance (I don't think that he even noticed that I existed). Darren's father came over to help out.
By moving day, Darren had plastered, bogged and sanded all of the rooms, I had gap filled all of the rooms except for the kitchen, study and master bedroom, and Peter, Darren and I had painted Miss 1.5's room (not the trims) and started on the laundry.
We did a last vacuum and some final runs of possessions (our neighbour brought over a car load and then helped to vacuum the house) and then it was moving day! And wasn't that fun? No. We'd moved anything that we could fit in the car over the last two months, which was great because it was mostly moved, but terrible because it was shoved in no particular order to make way for the renovations and we had a frantic last minute move of everything out into the massive garage to make way for the furniture and items that we actually use, like clothes and forks. It was a hot day and it looked like Darren would have to go to work, so it would be me and the "twins" moving the large items and the essentials with the hired moving van and two hired men. Thankfully, Darren had a change of plans and stayed home and my next-door-neighbour took the girls whilst the truck was being loaded. It was all moved in time for dinner, but was mostly chaos.
The next days were the weekend and we somehow had organised ourselves into going to swimming lessons, a 60th birthday, a 30th birthday, two 2nd birthdays and netball. I had a melt down at this stage and rebelled, so we send our apologies to a few of the events. A friend came to help us unpack and we got the house a little more organised.
Over the next week we started to find our stride, but the dogs, chickens and fish were still living at our old house, so we had to go back every day to feed and walk them (obviously the fish and chickens weren't going for a walk...). We didn't have the Internet for a week, but I made some sales on madeit and eBay which I had to co-ordinate. And the delivery of 16 boxes of fundraising mangoes arrived from Queensland to be distributed.
The fencing had been delayed by a week, so it started in the first week of December and was done in a couple of days. It's amazing what a difference the new fence has made to the property.
The dogs came across and were thrilled with their new playground. They were followed by the chickens, moved by our neighbours and Darren and a little perplexed by their temporary accommodation, and some of the fish (the rest are staying with my brother until we finish the bathroom renovation). We unpacked as much as necessary, without unpacking too much because we haven't finished painting yet. The ugly garage is a blessing for hiding away things for later. I painted the laundry whilst the "twins" napped and Miss 1.5 poured blue food colouring into the cream carpet (!).
Big thank yous to our wonderful helpers and toddler distracters over the last few months: Peter, Robyn, Teena, Andrew, Trish, Dan, Nat, Kat, Gillian, Jon, Elle, Pat, Bob, Derica, Gemma and the magically appearing Helen.
I wonder why Darren and I are tired?
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