WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 18     MOVING HOUSE

Thursday October 19 was the day. Settlement was scheduled for 11am and then our new home would be ours.

The removalists would pack up our old house and John’s shed, and a heavy machine moving specialist would come and load up his big woodwork items, and store these for a week before delivery. All this would happen on the Wednesday, as we wanted to be firmly in Bendigo on Thursday morning, at the very moment we could move in.

It had taken some planning, but worked out as I’d hoped – mostly.

I’d packed all the house contents into boxes, except for a couple of items the removalists were to do, like the large TV set. The pot plant collection was all lined up to be put into daughter’s trailer.

These are going with us

We were up very early on Wednesday. The beds we had used last night were stripped and the bedding packed away into the last of the boxes. We’d eaten “out” last night, so I hadn’t needed things for making the evening meal. Our few breakfast needs were soon also packed away.

The moving team – the same ones who had uplifted our storage items earlier in the year – arrived before 7am. As before, they were so efficient. As the furniture was emptied from a room, daughter and I did the final clean of the floor there. Within a couple of hours, the house was emptied.

Was my study

The glitch was, probably predictably, John’s shed. His idea of having packed it up and that of the removal team’s, were poles apart. They certainly had to do a great deal more there than had been anticipated by them. Lots and lots of “stuff” got shovelled into boxes any old how – and that served him right!

In the midst of that chaos, the men arrived to move the big machines. I had been dreading that process because there was no easy access to the shed. Things had to be transported down the sloping side lawn – with the clothes line in the way – then turn a sharp corner through a gate, go across the front lawn and down a grass ramp to the driveway. Past experiences when these machines had been delivered new had been fraught.

Shed access

At one stage earlier in the year, I’d wondered if we would need to hire a crane to take these things out over the back fence! Our removal firm had assured me that their specialist would manage. And they did – with a nifty little bobcat type machine that could manage crazy angles – and that bit all went seamlessly.

Then, John suddenly remembered the other shed – the small one that contained all the gardening implements and “stuff”. I deemed it wise to stay well away and leave him and the removal team to deal with each other. I felt sorry for the latter.

Yes, there are two sheds there!

But all got packed and the truck left late morning. I didn’t know where they would be tonight, but they would be in Bendigo tomorrow.

Daughter and I did the final clean and packing of things like cleaning items, mop and bucket, vacuum cleaner and so on, into the cars.

The last of it all

Friend M arrived, very thoughtfully with a lunch of sandwiches and cakes for us, which we ate sitting out on the patio for the last time. The table and seats there were being left for the new owners.

M would wait at the house through the afternoon, while a man did a final carpet shampoo. Then she would lock up and take the keys to the agent.

Our convoy left after lunch. John in his car, loaded up with aforesaid boxes of cleaning things, vac and so on – plus gardening tools that the removalists had baulked at. Daughter in her car, towing covered trailer with pot plants. I thought I’d been fairly ruthless in clearing these out and only keeping the best, but there still seemed to be a lot more than I’d realized. Me in the Terios, complete with confused and apprehensive dog and her stuff.

So it was goodbye to home of 27 years…

Daughter and I stopped at Maccas in Seymour – not my usual stopping area, but daughter wanted coffee! Then on, the usual route, to Bendigo, where she peeled off to go home and I went on to the caravan park at Marong, arriving at 4pm. John had not long arrived.

Between homes for the night

We were spending the night in Bus. Very handy to have!

Around 6pm, we had an unexpected visitor – the agent who’d sold us our new house. He had decided he would drop the keys to the place around to us, to facilitate an easy transition tomorrow – and assuming settlements all went through as intended. He also gave us a bottle of bubbly – to toast ourselves in the new place, tomorrow. So nice of him.

Despite the excitement, we had an early night. It had been a long and tiring day and we were both exhausted.