Worst. Move. Ever.

This move was officially our Worst Move Ever (and this was our 11th as a couple, and includes overseas moves).

The moving company was a shocker. We had the fridge and freezer empty, everything was ready to go when they called at 10am saying they'd be at our place "any minute".

By 2pm they still hadn't shown (our 'moving time slot' was 11 am - 2pm), so we called only to find out they'd been double-booked, but would 'be with us soon'... Once we got to 4 pm Hubby took over making the nagging phone calls - now they'd had a truck break down. They'd be there soon. Yeah.

We kept doing car loads of boxes and stuff, making sure there was someone at the old place all the time. We remembered to vote (Go Kevin 07!); it was Son's first time voting - aaah, he's growing up ;)

Hubby stayed at the old place in case these mythical movers showed up, and the kids and I went to Chez Spidey for a quick roast chook and salad dinner, and to hear some election results (HOO-FUCKING-RAY!!!!! SO THRILLED!!!). Shaky tired, but had to keep going. Back to the new place... still no sign of the bloody movers.

We were about to find temporary accommodation for the night (as all beds had been dismantled), when they FINALLY showed up. At 9.15 pm. 3 young blokes who'd been working without a break since 6.30 am - the bosses in Melbourne (who did the great job double booking us) didn't allow such things. Yay WorkChoices. They manhandled our larger furniture into the truck, taking gouges out of concrete steps and paintwork... (if anyone wants to know which moving company to avoid, just e-mail me).

They were unloading by 11.30pm at our new place, and done by just after midnight - and the poor buggers had to go on to ANOTHER job. It was more expensive than we'd been expecting too. I had to throw out all the freezer food which had long since defrosted. They broke a drainage pipe on the fridge, but thankfully Hubby has about a million experience points at fixing things, and he was able to repair it.

To add insult to injury they only did 1 trip, rather than the 2 we'd wanted, so we spent all of Sunday moving furniture on trailers and stuff - tables, desks, chairs and more hadn't been taken by them - which we weren't really equipped to do. Not to mention the boxes. Ooooh, the boxes. I thought they'd never end.

Add into this about 25 hours of (mainly me) scrubbing the old house (windows, walls, doors, floors, cupboards, ceilings, eaves, oven etc etc etc), tidying up the garden (me and BF's mum), cleaning the NEW house because it was filthy (Dotter and Friend K), tip trips (Hubby & Son & BF), endless trips (over 500 kilometres in each of two cars in 3 days) - OMFG, it was really really horrible.

But we got our full bond back at the old place, and the new place is a huge improvement, despite the garden. Photos of the insides to come, once things are a bit better set up. Still lots of boxes everywhere...

Over the whole 6 grisly days of the move / clean, Friend J, Happy Spider, Bells and Sean, Friend K, and my Dad all helped - thank you guys, it made all the difference.

Well, let's focus on the good bits now - the new house is GREAT. Here at last are a few pics of the outside :

The front - the master bedroom is on the far right, living room on the left of the front door, BOTH with bay windows (yes, they're big enough to sit in! Happy window dance!). No lawn, just woodchips with weeds.


Round the back - the yard isn't much... the entire lawn is 100% weeds. Sigh. No lawn watering is allowed under water restrictions, so there's no point doing anything about it. There's a massive rosemary bush near the clothes line, though, and the fences are all high so at last we have some PRIVACY.

The sliding door goes into the family room / kitchen, and the window on the far left is Dotter & BF's room. The dining room window and double garage are on the immediate right edge of the photo (but you can't really see them). Son is cooking up a storm on our gas BBQ ...



Along a bit - you can see the back of the house, with single tree, shed, and clothes line.


And now the view of the other side at the back - clothes line is behind you here - the path leads to the laundry. My office window is just past the laundry door.

On the knitting front, I'm making slow progress on the Sherwood Jumper and Crossword Bag, but have pretty much lost my knitting mojo at the moment. I'm just utterly exhausted and short-tempered and depressed ... I'll get over it, I know, I just need about a week of real, actual, not-looking-after-other-people, not-shopping, not-unpacking-a-box, not-trying-to-get-rid-of-half-of-whats's-in-said-box, not-doing-Christmas-stuff, just-staring-at-the-wall REST. Chances.