The past few weeks have been a flurry of open house inspections, constant cleaning and tidying up, going out so people could come in, and preparing for an auction which took place last Saturday.
Well, the auction is over but it was nail biting. We stood in the front doorway of our home Saturday afternoon as we heard the auctioneer outside in the street calling out the bids. The street was lined with cars and there were a good 30 or 40 people out there watching the proceedings. It boiled down to around 3 couples bidding once it got serious but there could have been more. Hard to tell.
Graham and I were inside next to each other praying and listening. Our Christian Real Estate advocate was with us saying ‘thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus’ each time a new bid was called out. Graham’s sister had turned up from interstate and was there with us and her husband outside taking photos and watching everything that was happening. We had no idea they were in the state and they rocked up 40 mins before the auction to surprise us and stand with us to give us support. Their names are Viv and Rod.
Well, all I can say is that we got what we were asking for although it seemed impossible it would happen. There were times over the past couple of months when we really felt the real estate people were trying to make us sell for far less than we wanted. But in the end we got over and above what we were being told we should aim for.
Graham and I had the same figure in our heads and it turned out, so did Viv and Rod who’d been praying for us. But we’d not shared that figure with each other. God met our needs. Graham’s sister and brother-in-law were telling us what we’ll need to do to look after the land as they have land also in a country town in South Australia. They’ve staying at a friend’s place and will be here for a couple more days so we’ll go out for dinner with them one night soon to celebrate.
When Graham went to church Saturday night for camera duty he rang before the service started to see if I’d come back down to ground yet. I told him I was packing and had hit the ground running!
Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts - they meant a great deal!
It seems that everywhere I look online, there are people I know who are moving home or shifting house - however you’d like to refer to it.
This year alone 3 of our daughters shifted home, 2 did this while we were overseas in June.
And now we’re shifting at the end of this month.
Today, two separate newsletters I receive had stories about the authors moving house. And some of my Virtual Assistant team have done the same this year.
Perhaps 2009 is the year of the move. It certainly seems that way.
I read with amusement Flying Solo Sam’s story of trying to get some semblance of order after having recently shifted. Will Graham and I be feeling the same way in about 2 or 3 week’s time? Possibly. I like to think that as I’m packing and sorting through things I will be organised. All the packed boxes so far are marked with the contents and the room they will go into. I’ve got a marked up plan, enlarged, of our new home and it will be stuck on the wall by the front door for the removalists so they know what room to put things in. Well, that’s the plan anyway.
My biggest concern is will I finish packing in time for the shift?
And my goal is to get our bedroom, kitchen and office organised first - in that order. The other rooms can have closed doors till we’re ready to sort them out. The washing will have been done before we shift, same with the food shopping. So hopefully when we do have visitors I won’t feel like I’m still in a mess.
We are planning a house warming and “Prayer and Blessing” party on the third weekend in November as that’s the only weekend my husband hasn’t got an MTB race. I expect he’ll be looking to see what I’ve managed to do while he’s away each of the other weekends.
In less than 2 weeks my husband and I will be shifting to our new home. I’m in the process of packing now - not my favourite job and therefore I’m easily distracted and find myself back at my computer often (which is why I’m here right now).
Our current home is still on the market and the auction is on 24th October so I can’t have boxes sitting everywhere around the house. We have put some into storage and we are using one room to store packed boxes as well but once the auction has passed (and hopefully our home is sold) we can go crazy in that last week packing almost everything in sight. I hope I have gotten a good percentage of it done by then though.
We are shifting on 31st October and I’ve had some o/seas friends tell me that’s on Halloween but I do need to point out that Australians do not observe the Halloween celebrations although those from the US living in our country may do.
However, in Melbourne, Australia, that weekend is Melbourne Cup weekend and the first Tuesday in November each year is a public holiday in the Melbourne metro area. Melbourne Cup is known as the race that stops the nation and that is quite true. Even when we lived in South Australia we took the afternoon off at our govt dept and had a barbeque, ran sweepstakes and watched the race on the biggest TV screen we could find.
It is good that we are shifting that weekend. My husband has been able to arrange for the Monday off (which is common for businesses in Melbourne) and we have four days to move and unpack and start to settle into our new home.
Guess I better go back to my packing and I look forward to unpacking it all and finding new homes for each item in less than two weeks’ time. Betcha it takes me less time to unpack than it does to pack! 
