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! 
For some months now Graham and I have been hunting for a house in the country but not too far out from the city. Many suburbs have crept into the hills and it is in one of these that we hope to make our new home - in effect our retirement home.
Our criteria is probably a little more stringent than some would have. We want to be near bushland but don’t want to have a block that is too slopey - we are getting older and don’t want to be trying to climb steep hills to manage the land.
Graham is a ham radio operator so wants to be able to set up his antenna and aerials and be on a block that has some height.
We want to be able to have guests stay with us, like his sister and brother-in-law from South Australia and a couple of our daughters who travel back and forth between work and home, both from the country and interstate so we need guest bedrooms.
We need to be able to house Graham’s many mountain bikes, our office, gym equipment and make sure the cars are protected from the weather.
We thought we’d found the right house and had submitted offers for it, only for them to be rejected. And then on the day the tender was due to close we found another place that is more perfect for our needs. And it is this one we hope and pray will be the right home.
For me, it has been a longing for probably a couple of years or more now. Graham and I had always talked about living back in the country whenever we stayed at B&Bs over the past 15 or more years. But for Graham that longing has been more recent. However, we used to live in the country in South Australia before we moved to Melbourne in 1991.
I’m hoping to report we have a new home to move to very soon and I long to share photos with you and stories of native birdlife and wildlife. In the meantime, you can enjoy this bit of countryside.
