It is Friday night, two kids asleep, two other kids in my bath (after I got out - so they will smell of rose oil too!), Damo dressing up to the nines to go out on the town, me blogging. All is as it should be.
Even though I am facing a house/home move in seven days, I am feeling very happy and content.
Hence I am blogging.
As with my journaling when I was younger there is a correlation between my blogging and my contentment. If I am feeling down, I blog - I feel better. If I am feeling good, I naturally want to blog. My boss will have to analyse that one for me (Agility Consulting boss - Hi A, not sure if you read this?)
Any hoo, so yes we are moving house. Since the homeschooling decision we have been toying with the idea to move into a place with more run room. We have a wonderful house which fits us nicely on a block that is too small. All we have is the driveway for the kids to scooter around on. At six o'clock in the morning, one of us backs both cars out so that they can have the driveway and the garage to scooter on. We have no room for a trampoline. Boys need a trampoline - to just jump it all out. Jump all the testosterone and other boy hormones out.
We considered Gumdale (for non-Brisbanites this is acreage about 20 minutes from where we live). But we don't need 2.5 acres - just too much maintenance required for that and quite expensive. Also I felt I would get too isolated.
Our dream is buy a double block in inner Brisbane and then knock down the post-war number and build the dream home. That ain't going to happen until the mining boom turns around which is not likely before about five years time. (Please may there be a change of government federally but I won't open that can of worms right now.) We cannot sell where we are now as it is all too linked in with our investment properties and quite difficult to do so (not unachievable but messy). We have the world's best mortgage broker and he can do anything, but it just makes me weary thinking about doing it. Love your work P....
So I started looking at rentals. We found a great one on a hill in Norman Park - but it was on a steep block, nicer house than ours but we wanted LAND. Run room for these crazy, gorgeous boys of mine. I want to have bedrooms upstairs, living down. In our current house, we put the kids to bed and we have to darken the kitchen and upstairs living and creep around thereafter.
Well we found it. The 'Carindale' house in Norman Park. For Mebournians, this is like the 'Templestowe' house in Kew. For Sydney siders this is like the 'Homebush' house in Rose Bay. For Hong Konkers it is the New Territories House in Kowloon. For Aucklanders it is the Packaranga House in St Heliers. You get the picture. Out of place. Despised by the neighbours.
But it has an incredible amount of room - so much I don't think we can fill it! Yee haaa. I will have a left over bedroom, even after the guest room, music/piano room and homeschool room. I kid you not. And I have a springfree trampoline on order. And a table tennis table for said spare room in mind for Christmas.
It is made of besser bricks I am sure and is cool in summer and cold in winter. I LOVE this. Since my spate of pregnancies, I have become very light sensitive and so overly light houses bother me. I close this place up like a morgue during summer as the light is too bright. This house will be dark except for my lamp lighting and candles (joy!).
I will be able to lose my children in this house. Temporarily anyway.
There will be less traffic in this house as well. Our street, crazy given it is right beside a primary school, is a traffic thoroughfare at peak hours. Honestly we have stopped traffic at times outside our house. I loathe it. It has begun to bother me to the point of a twitch.
Okay but I will miss lots. Our gorgeous sunny back deck bathed in morning sun. My baby's room which I decorated expensively and love so much. Our pool (solar heated!) and our outdoor kitchen. But at least it is not gone, just used by someone else. And it means we can always come back!
So wish me luck in packing it all up. Am going to do a huge cull of stuff as well. I am the opposite of a hoarder - what is that called? I chuck then regret. But inside I am a minimalist .... In fact, I love the idea of this move to sort and chuck and tidy and feel a little more on top of/in control of the things in my life. A short lived delusion.
So St Vincents de Paul you will be seeing a lot of me in the next few days!
We will be able to rent out our place for about the same/ a little less than our new place - so limited financial impact for the move. Maybe some tax benefits too?
Tom has been champion today. I raided the recycle bins at Carindale shopping centre today for collapsed boxes and Tom (after I showed him how) used duct tape to put them all together. He then packed his books, his games, the kids books and some kitchen boxes. He was a man on a mission. He labelled all the boxes appropriately and carried them into the garage. So what was the homeschool lesson for today - how to move house! Tick! (Don't think that is on most Grade 2 curriculum?!)