Sparkly Street

It has been three months since we moved in to our new house, and we are feeling pretty settled now. The bad old house is fading fast from my memory. As I packed the school lunches the other morning, I tried to recall how and where I did it at the ex-house, and I could barely picture it.  This pleases me greatly.  I am so happy every day living here, and love so many things about this location, both in terms of how much easier my life is now, but also in terms of how much nicer this place is.



The new place is a long house that appears to have been put in as a sub-divide of the house-next-door's backyard. It has pretty features such as cut-glass doors and windows, chandeliers, polished floorboards, and picture rails, as well as comfort features such as a television aerial on the roof (we can now watch any free-to-air channel just by CLICKING THE REMOTE CONTROL, no agonising jiggling of the indoor aerial for us!), central heating, a remote-control roller door to the driveway (which is full of crap from the move so its not a feature we're making use of of just now) and best of all, some proper cupboard and storage options. I can't even begin to tell you how much better this is, storage in the ex-house consisted of 3 crappy secondhand wardrobes that the landlords had distributed in the bedrooms.



The picture above was taken the day after we moved in, but we're almost fully unpacked now. Inside the house, there are three boxes left for me to sort in the computer room, but Fixit has much more work to do; because of his knee operation and his Mum's death just before we moved, he was not in a state to sort through his crap, so all of that just got picked up and dumped here.  And then of course, he still has to work long hours every day and do our other life things (soccer training etc) so he's often way too tired to pitch in at home. But over the last week, and especially on days when the sun comes out, he has started to sort it out.  The carport which is to be his new open-air shed is starting to take shape and he also began to organise the back yard this weekend. As for stuff he needs to sort inside, well at least it's mostly out of sight (the beauty of proper storage options!) and can be tackled when he's ready.


Building a little mini-shed so he can have somewhere to lock up tools.


Climber is putting in some herbs by the backdoor



The cat is the one who has been least happy about the move, and he was in a highly-stressed out state for a couple of weeks, but he seems relaxed and happy now.  We kept him locked in for a long time so he didn't try to run away, and introduced him gently to his new territory. He is now free to roam but seems pretty tentative about this new outside world, and as such, hasn't really availed himself of this freedom.  On the upside, we are enjoying having him hanging round us more.


Basil having a little explore in the first week, he was not at all fond of the harness and it was abandoned within a fortnight

Here then, are a few of the things about the house that are making me so happy.

I love walking to school every day with Cherub. He loves it too.  I love having 2 hours back in my day because I'm not driving up and back for school drop-offs and pick-ups. It's fantastic!


Walk to School Day, our first time we've participated in this that we could do the whole journey on foot.

I love having a nice bathroom.  Our previous bathroom was so cramped and skanky. This new one has plenty of room, no cracked tiles, a highly satisfactory bathtub and a separate shower. Plus the ducted heating vent is right underneath where I hang my towel so I have a warmed towel when I get out of the shower each morning.


Drinkies.

I just LOVE having baths again.



I love the efficiency of the little kitchen, which is much more pleasant to cook in.



It also has a much nicer view for when we're washing the dishes.  This was the view from the old house, the side of the Vampires' McMansion through a crappy curtain.



SO much nicer now...



I am happy to report that I now have a decent oven and burnt cakes are a thing of the past.

 

I love the central heating (although I didn't love the first bill, but it has been a cold winter), and I love that we have decent carpet in the bedrooms and nice floorboards in the living areas. We spent 12 resentful years with horrid carpets that didn't even cover the entire floor in our ex-bedroom and pale cracked tiles that showed every speck of dirt.  Of course, being a rental we had to pay $200 to clean those foul carpets and they were immediately ripped up and thrown out once we moved out.


decent carpets and proper storage


floorboards

I love the camellia trees in the back garden and the daphne plant by the front door.

 
 

 

I love arranging things to my satisfaction, I love that I have engaged with this house enough to have pulled out my old posters and started to hang them up, something I never did at the ex-house.



Most of all I love the location. When we lived in the bad old house, Fixit and I used to half-joke that we only slept in that suburb, and that we lived most of our lives (school, shops, cafes, friends, socialising) in the suburb where we came from and to whence we've now returned. I love this neighbourhood so much, always have. I have to fight the urge to tell people who were used to seeing me in the neighbourhood anyway that I REALLY LIVE HERE NOW, I'm not just faking it..

The move was HARD work: physically, mentally and emotionally. My chiropractor was shocked by the state of my body afterwards. So much holding everything together. Fixit got a van from his work and we gratefully accepted the kind offers of help from a few of his strongman friends, and my Dad, and my sister and her partner, and Nell.  But Fixit and I did most of the work - I did the organising and sorting and cleaning, and he did the lifting and deconstructing and reconstructing. Fortunately moving house is a bit like childbirth; you do fairly quickly forget the pain, and focus instead on the new baby. And like childbirth, I don't want to do it again any time soon, but I'm very glad to have done it. Plus, it is a really good feeling to clear out your old stuff.


Dinner at the ex-local restaurant round the corner with Nell and my sister and her family who were our moving stalwarts, on our final evening at the bad old house.


The front door at the bad old house on the last night.

This is me waving good-bye to the bad old house after spending two weeks scrubbing my fingers to the bone. I was determined that we would have our full bond refunded, which we did, and the agent later told me that the landlords were highly impressed at the level of cleanliness. They have since gone in and renovated some of the more obvious problems such as the bathroom and the tiles that used randomly crash to the floor, but I still pity the people who are renting it, in a detached way. I am enjoying that detachment too, that I have put that house so thoroughly behind me. I love that I don't live there any more (are you sick of me saying that yet?) and I am so very, very happy here.



Seeya ex-house, I never liked you. Hello, new house. You're ace.