Moving out and on

I probably should have mentioned this awhile back... but Ant and I built a house. We signed all the paperwork in September, started construction in November and we're close to emptying our old place and being completely surrounded by boxes of our belongings in our new place.

When Ant said that he was taking two weeks off to ready the house for habitation, I thought it was overkill but now, I wish he could have taken more time off to deal with the move. I know it's terribly oversaid but you really never realise how much stuff you have until you move house.

What is rarely said though is how much time you take to pack said stuff - not because there's so much of it... but because of the time spent battling sentimentality and ruminating over whether to throw out said stuff.

It is probably why I've been feeling melancholic this week. Aside from having to choose whether to remove another reminder of my past, watching the place I called home for over 8 years slowly hollow out reignited the torrent of memories.

I remembered how excited I was to get a bigger kitchen. While the kitchen I'm moving out of isn't exactly big, it was a definite improvement from the flat I used to live in near uni in Crawley. I was so chuffed to have room to comfortably place a cutting board - the kitchen in Crawley had a U shaped layout and it was so small that I could put a hand on a counter each side of the U without much difficulty. I could lie on the floor and only just turn over once, narrowly missing hitting my head on the cupboard. Buying my KitchenAid mixer for the then new place was such a thrill - not only because it was my first big purchase as a working adult... but because I actually had counter space to put it on!

Something else I remembered getting so excited about when mom and I moved out of Crawley to our place in Nollamara - having a bedroom... and a bed!

Our apartment in Crawley was a two bedroom apartment, which I think was a generous statement. It was more one bedroom and a study. I needed a study table for my late night research marathons and essay churning sessions. Since I couldn't fit a study table and a bed in that spare room, I ended up choosing the study table in that room so that I could get some peace and quiet while the tv was on in the living room.

My bed was a cot in the living room - which doubled up as our "couch". On the nights when it was super cold (for the first few years, we didn't have an airconditioning unit which was reverse cycle), I would drag a thin mattress into the study and sleep there with a dinky old fan heater to keep me warm.

So imagine how luxurious it felt to finally have a room... and a QUEEN SIZED bed.

I realise how terribly pathetic this all sounds but it's just the way it was. To be honest, I am not a terribly fussy sleeper - I'm the person who happily spends 70% of her time on a plane sleeping without needing to recline her seat. I've been known to just settle into random places and drift off to dreamland. So sleeping on a cheap cot in the living room really wasn't a big drama.

But it is nice to have moved on from that.

Even though the new house is not home yet (there are lots of things I want done but alas, I do not have directions to the secret stash of cash that Scrooge McDuck swims around in), I am happy for the new start. The chance to make new memories instead of being reminded of the old.

Goodbye Nollamara. You were the home of my young adulthood - that awkward stage where I stumbled through life in an attempt to figure out who I really am. You served me well and for that, I thank you.

Hello new suburb. You might be a further out than where I hoped to be but I am excited of the path ahead of us. I can't wait to exercise my freedom as a homeowner where I can hang up all the picture frames I want without having to consult a property manager. I fully intend to turn that pit of sand out the back into a lush garden. I look forward to the dinners we'll host in our more spacious living and dining area.

Here's to us and the future. I might be too tired from packing to show it but I really am excited about moulding you into our sanctuary.