Moved In

After a long weekend of heavy lifting, uncoordinated unpacking and anarchic assembly I think we can finally say that we've officially moved into our new home. Most of the big jobs have been done and all that's left is to put away the mountain of books, games and office items that now clutter the floors of our bedrooms. Oddly enough this seemed like an easier move than our last one, even though we've managed to accumulate a staggering collection of 'stuff' over the last two years.

I was supposed to have conveniently avoided the whole relocation effort for most of the weekend as Flight Centre had a conference on at the Gold Coast on Friday and Saturday. As luck would have it, the mild flu that I've been incubating over the past few weeks finally decided to rear it's ugly head midweek so I've missed my free night of inebreation. Not one to sit idly by and let Alison do the work, I off course tried to help move carloads over when I probably should have been in bed whining for chicken soup. As a result I'm still feeling pretty rotten today but thankfully already had the day booked off in advanced to recover from the weekend. On the plus side though, I think we've gotten set up here far ahead of schedule which is great. Alsie has the luxury of the next full week off work (lucky thing) so she can take her time putting away and cleaning the rest of the house.

The usual moving pain of going without a proper Internet connection will plague us for a couple of weeks. I've thankfully got limited connectivity with the phone this time but as much as I like the iPhone keyboard, this wasn't made for long posts. Putting photos up of the new house will of course have to wait as well. Darn shame that Apple don't let you tether this device.

The other delivery that we've been hanging out for was the super new bed that we ordered right back when we first signed the contract for this place. Alison's old IKEA bed just felt a little sad and we'd moved away from my single futon pretty early on in the relationship so this was going to be our first proper bed. It's a luxurious queen sized ensemble with a visco-elastic mattress and let me tell you that my spine is singing sweet tears of joy now. Worth every penny.

We borrowed John's 4WD for the week to help with the move so mum and dad came down in our car on Saturday to swap and see the place in its cluttered glory. We got flowers, biscuits and some surprise visitors when Mary and Peter rolled out of the car too. It was great having our first guests over and comforting to see that we finally have a home that can handle more than four people comfortably.

As for the house itself, we're absolutely loving it. Kinda scary how much space we have now and that huge expanse of garden is sitting there awaiting our attention. Only major mishap so far has involved a leaky hot water tap in the laundry which is no big deal. Our first job for the place is to get some retractable fly screens in and we have someone giving us a quote this morning. First of many improvements that we're looking forward to.

Got the keys!

Seems like it's taken forever but we finally got the keys to our first 'house' today. Fueled by excitement and general apathy for work, Alison and I rushed home only to race out again with a car packed with the inaugural load of assorted boxes to meet the real estate agent at our new property.

After handing us the keys and a generous bottle of Moet, our real estate agent kindly offered to take a photo of us in front of our new home. An act which sadly proved to be worthless when we discovered that the camera lens was obscured by a chubby digit. Photographic duties fell unto me once again though I'm afraid all I had handy was my phone. Substandard tools aside, I think the jacaranda in our backyard tops the roof line nicely.



The weather today was an unpleasant reminder that summer isn't far away, so the house felt pretty oven-like until we opened up half a dozen windows. With ventilation and the help of an evening breeze the place soon cooled down and we went on our merry way unpacking the boot. Following mum's advice and continuing a little cultural tradition, we brought a cup of rice, salt and boiled water in the new kitchen. The place obviously doesn't quite feel like home yet but we're seeing lots of potential.

Will have to do a lot more cleaning tomorrow and another car load. Still can't believe we actually have a garden!