Sitting here in the house we're renting thinking back on the last few weeks, it all seems a bit of a blur. It is all happening so quickly now, but it also feels like FOR . EVA for things to happen.
We've had to realise that things don't always go to plan and to imagine that they will, will only cause stress and drama.
Examples:
House move date originally 26th, then 1st Oct, then actual 2nd for front of house and 3rd for back of house.
Site clearing: 3rd / 4th Oct. Actual 8/9/10th October.
Landscaping for back section (we have two sections/titles): 6th october, due to clearance delays, actual will be tomorrow as the start date....crossing fingers!
Build start date: 20th October. We'll see how this goes. But builder is raring to go, we just need to hear from the council who have had our application since 1st Aug. Sigh.
So Andy and I have actually sat down and discussed this and decided that we'll try to be more patient. And for things we can't influence (like weather) we just put up with it and don't stress. Even for the last few time delays, we've been pretty good. I keep on saying to myself, that it's only the beginning. I can't get stressed too much yet!
So once we'd moved, we needed to get the house ready for moving. We organised with the power company, the gas company and the phone company to come and decommission the house (yes, if you say disconnect, they won't actually take the lines away, we had to talk to them saying imagine this, the house driving down the street on the back of a truck before we got them talking to us in the right way! So so much to learn!).
However, even having confirmed dates didn't mean it went smoothly. The power and phones were amazing! In fact I would like to give them big ups! They were amazing. The gas. Even after 3 phone calls in 3 days couldn't find our details. Let alone confirm they would decommission the house. What? Poor Andy was on the phone to them so much over those last few days. Eventually, they came and the people doing the job were amazing. They had to dig a trench that was 1.8m deep before they found the line! Wowzers! We couldn't even see the man digging it and yes, he did it all by hand! Poor bugga! (but he did call in the digger to fill it in again! LOL).
Once that was all done, it was the weekend, and we had to do a couple of things ourselves. We took down the front fence, and got rid of all the hedge along the side of our section.
The kids decided that smashing the fence would be a wonderful job! I agreed (although was a little jealous! That was going to be my job! Grin).
The kids had a couple of friends over, and they were keen to get into it too. Unfortunately we didn't realise they didn't have shoes on and so had to stop things while they walked home and got 'saftey gear' on! The boys were funny coming back with ugg boots on. Ummmmm, No boys! Back you go again! LOL!
We also took a photo of the family in front of the house. It's a little tradition we do every time we leave a house.
I love this photo. It's so us. And a great memory. I've already scrapped it using the Prima October Special Delivery kit (oh yeah!) I can't wait to show you once it's released!
On top of the fence, we also needed to cut down the hedge so it was ready for the stumps to come out.
That's 30m of hedge gone. Just like that. Well not quite. A bit of a mission for Andy and I. But hey, we did it and saved a bit of money along the way. Grin. I feel sorry for our new neighbours who would move in the following Wed. Even though before they brought the house we told them they would be moving next to a building site and the hedge between us would be going, I felt for them!
So it took all day to get to the above and below stages:
To get to this point was a little difficult, but we had a wonderful neighbour help us with his truck to pull out the fence posts. They were in good! Grin.
The boys must've pushed themselves. I found Matt in the corner asleep in the afternoon.
And thus we were ready for the house to be jacked up, cut in half and moved to it's new home in Waipu.
That'll be the next installment....
You'll have a real appreciation of "The Block NZ" contestants! It's great to read.
Posted by: Judy | October 13, 2014 at 02:55 PM
love that pic of Matt sleeping...full on time for you all, for sure....all the best of the rest of the house journey...just keep that final design in your mind....will be SO worth it in the end!!!!
Posted by: mandyb | October 13, 2014 at 07:16 PM