Unpacking is worse

Nightmare of boxes at the moment - it is all well and good to accept the idea of downsizing but the reality is  endlessly depressing. And I’ve gotten rid of so much stuff! Unpacking is so lovely when everything already has a place … we are not doing that. We are doing the opposite of that. 

The actual move went smoothly and only took two days rather than three … two very long days but we got through it. Today we went to the beach and fetched the cat who had been residing in solitary splendour  fed by the neighbour. She seems to be ok with the new place after a good explore. I am not so sure! Why does getting out of your comfort zone have to be so very uncomfortable??

Urgh packing is awful

This is the very dull world I am living in at the moment.

Things take up SO MUCH more space in boxes than stuffed into cupboards. I thought we had done a lot of decluttering, but there is so much stuff, and we are still finding things we can live without. Amazing how easy it is to get rid of something when it's actually in your hand and it's just a choice between two boxes.

Yes, I know, we should have paid the money to get them to pack it. But it wasn't just a few hundred more, or even a couple of thousand, it was nearly ten thousand dollars more and I can sling a few things in boxes for that kind of money. We are still getting them to do all the kitchen, glassware, paintings and anything fragile so it's kind of a compromise.

I packed my sketchbooks before I had a chance to take a photo of my urban sketchers painting, but here is a panorama I took of the temple we were trying to draw. There was much cursing! It is enormous, brand new, a very very odd shade of apricot and covered in tiny detail. I went very literal with mine, and it's not good, but some of the other sketchers did amazingly impressionistic paintings that really captured it. Despite the grumbling it was a good meet-up and everyone found something different in it. 

The weather is slightly turning and I had a foggy walk this morning. This is the Saudi embassy which hasn't been occupied for at least five years and is starting to look a bit sad. Then the fog burnt off, it was 31 degrees and scorching, and then a thunderstorm rolled through with heavy rain, and now it's steaming again. Not good weather to wrestle things into boxes. Why do I have so many clothes? I don't need to buy another thing until I'm 95. 

Made another shirt

 There's not much painting or anything interesting going on at the moment in Canberra - although I did go to Urban Sketchers yesterday, I'll have to take a photo of what I did - so the sole light of creativity is shining at the coast, where I made another cotton top. Nothing very exciting, and I've made the pattern before, but I thought it was pretty.

This is the outfit for someone about to go and spend two thousand dollars at Bunnings on a kitchen bench type thing. That we have to put together ourselves. I nearly cried at the moving guy when we realised that the quote was for us packing most of our stuff into boxes and that if we wanted them to pack it would cost double. I HATE packing but also LOVE money. It's a conundrum.

The cutest thing about this shirt is that I had some fabric left over so made a pair of matching shorts. I could wear them together, but I will not. It would look silly, but inside my soul I like the idea of rampaging around town in a cotton checkered set. 

Number two has gone back to Melbourne so a fleeting but very welcome visit .. including the new house finally! I don't know if it made a positive impression but that's where all their stuff is going so I'm sure we'll get a visit or two...

Took a break from all the house things

I went down the beach for a couple of days - so sick of everything to do with house stuff! So me and the cat headed off ... Saturday was an absolutely beautiful summer's day.

Then it took a slightly autumnal turn.

I did some sewing, went for swims and walks, ignored the cat mostly. Sometimes she found me.

We have number two staying for a few days, which is delightful! This was on the back of a weekend trip up to Sydney for Mardi Gras - the minibus made a drop off on the way back to Melbourne so happiness all round. The weekend sounded like an exhausting amount of fun ....

Made a shirt

I finally wore the shirt I made last time I was at the beach - nothing terribly exciting but should come in useful. The fabric is a fairly heavy viscose twill, so I originally thought it would be too dense for a shirt, but it has a lovely soft drape ... and there wasn't enough for a dress so shirt it was! A nice oversize shirt that's easy to wear with anything.

I didn't wear it anywhere exciting, just to the shops. Which is the most exciting place I go these days, except for my farewell drinks on Thursday, which was a lovely catch up with my colleagues. It has been such a nice group - we used to have regular drinks around covid time (whenever it was possible) because so many of us were working from home but it's faded off a bit since. 

Another shirt shot. It's been super hot here the last few days - more typical February weather than what we've been having. I've been doing some early morning nostalgia walks around the trails by my house - reminds me of lock down because these are the walks I used to do then. A two hour walk without a mask even though we were only supposed to exercise for an hour at a time with a mask ... how naughty and rebellious of me. I figured that the three people on average I saw on those walks who I avoided by at least ten metres did not pose a substantial risk to my health (or me to theirs).

Good cupboards, shit cupboards

Yesterday we horrified the cupboard guy - who has spent two weeks building the most beautiful built-in, solid-as-a-rock, painted and corniced and varnished cupboards you've ever seen - by building an entire wall of IKEA cupboards in the hallway/linkway. They are very awful, but we don't know what we're going to do with that space yet - there might be some knocking down of walls in the future - so cheap it is. 

The cupboards will be useful, although definitely not straight, despite our best efforts. That set up there took us ALL DAY from 8.30 to 5.30, which is more sustained effort than I've shown for anything in a while. We had to be out there first thing for the screen door guy and the mattress delivery guy (cupboard guy has a key) so we decided just to churn out the cupboards as well. 

This is what my rural idyll looks like at the moment. Absolute freaking chaos but I'm trying not to let me get me down. It will go, and then we can give it all a decent clean and put some curtains up. 

Cupboard guy has a very adorable old dog who supervises everyone quite closely. If asked, would I allow random dogs on my new expensive carpet? I would not, but given the state of the world, it is probably a good time to not sweat any of the small stuff. And this dog liked to come and give little nose rubs if she thought you were doing a good job, which was needed yesterday as we wrestled chipboard pieces together.

I did manage to connect the internet with hardly any fuss which is a major win. And the new screen doors look amazing -  will keep out bugs and snakes, which the old ones would not - so that's good. We got the indestructible security mesh but not for burglars - for the kookaburra who absolutely destroyed the old screens. Ripped the mesh out of the frame, twice.

On we go

 As expected, the house didn't sell at auction - although we did get to meet some of the neighbours we didn't know, house auctions are apparently a community event - so we've just whacked a price on it and put it on the market ... which is perhaps what we should have done at the beginning but it's so hard to know. And it probably doesn't make that much difference. This means more open homes, which is a pain, but our house has never been so clean and organised, so that's nice.

I am taking my walks around the lake as a 'farewell to Canberra' nostalgia event. It is a lovely walk, and the weather's been sunny but not crazy hot. 

Today we went out to the new house to pick up the trailer (remembering where the trailer is is an unexpectedly large part of retirement) and admire the new carpet that I hadn't seen yet. It is lovely! Not too dark and looks nice with the blue. We splurged on a very thick and bouncy NZ wool carpet that feels sooooo pleasant underfoot. Given the dodgy floors we thought a good carpet could hide a multitude of sins and so far so good. 

Cupboard guy still hasn't quite finished but we were able to put a few bits of furniture in the right rooms and it's made a big difference (psychologically if not physically) and feels a bit less chaotic. My husband vacuumed too - to get rid of the new carpet fluff and assorted mess - and that made it much better. We'll have to do a proper clean before we move in but it feels more under control now. On we go!