Stuff, Stuff, Stuff

Moving House, Day 1

2 January 2018

About six weeks ago we spent 10 minutes looking at a house. This morning we gave our signatures on a lease in return for the keys. John had to trudge to work and I went to the house.

Upon arrival there was a Coles trolley in the driveway with brooms and rubbish in it. I took photos. A rake was left abandoned with a running hose on the front lawn. A man appeared to lay claim to these things and announced he was still tidying up around the house, and then introduced me to another man he summoned from next door, the owner of the house. They were about to go out, but would be back later, if that was all right with me. I was a little dumbfounded, having expected to take possession of a neat and tidy house without interference but assented and shook the hand of the owner who was looking a little shy and perhaps embarrassed.

In the house, cleaning products and insect spray were scattered around the place. Top of cupboards had the occasional odd object ranging from a foam pool noodle to silicon gap filler. In storage areas there were more brooms, leftover bits of wallpaper, a rolled up poster and marbles on the floor in one area. It was all a bit disconcerting.

On a more positive note, the lounge room opening out to a large entertaining deck was very inviting and as remembered. I must admit, my memory of the place had been assisted by the five photos provided in the original online advertisement for the house. As in most cases for rental properties, there wasn’t a house plan provided so I couldn’t remember the exact layout. My memory wasn’t too bad though.

A friend joined me. I had brought champagne and glasses which we sipped as I showed her around the place, caught up on each other’s lives and discussed the possible history of the house. She was able to satisfy some of my curiosity as we speculated upon some of the previous incarnations of the house. We walked to a nearby wine bar for lunch, celebrating the convenience of the house to local shops and transport.

Later that night I returned with John and we attempted to mentally place our furniture around the house. It’s a little smaller than our current house so it was proving difficult, more difficult than I thought it would be. We have too many books (no such thing), too much Lego construction our son wants displayed and stuff, stuff, stuff. It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle or Tetris game that needs to be solved. We have worked out the bulk of it but unfortunately, eBay may be the solution for some of our excess. We will know for sure in a couple of weeks.