A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was buying a new house. Now at last, the interminable English system of home buying has been completed actually rather quickly, only just two months. On Wednesday morning I got the keys to the house. I don’t actually have to move out of the old house straight away, as I am letting it, not selling. So I have the luxury of moving gradually. Nevertheless, with the Christmas holidays coming up I need to get a move on.
My main concern was whether I could get a carpet for the lounge-diner before Christmas – all the other carpets had been sold with the house. I went to the carpet shop on Wednesday afternoon, and the response was at first predictable: “That’ll be difficult, we’re really busy just before Christmas” – and then they said they could fit a carpet the very next morning at 9 am, if I chose one they had in stock! Of course I went ahead. But first I wanted to repaint the walls of the room, something which of course makes sense to do before laying a carpet. The old paint was lilac as in this “before” picture
, a beautiful colour for flowers but not in my opinion for walls, and it would hardly go well with my new “harvest” coloured carpet. So I bought some magnolia paint and spent Wednesday evening painting. As a result, within 24 hours of getting the keys I had both a new carpet and freshly painted walls in the main room. This kind of energy is not quite like me. Let’s see how long it lasts! Maybe there will be an “after” picture.
This is of course the main reason why I haven’t been blogging for the last few days. But I am not doing very much in the new house over the weekend, so I may have a chance to write a few things.
Well, all the best on settling into your new home.
I thought magnolia was bright pink just like my antispam word is today. However, I could not quite imagine that so I googled it and found out it was off white. Can that be true?
I thought magnolia was bright pink just like my antispam word is today. However, I could not quite imagine that so I googled it and found out it was off white. Is that true?
The magnolia on my walls is off white, a pale cream colour, not at all bright pink. This is the paint I bought, not sure if the online colour guide is very accurate.
As a frequent house mover and a mother of two, I enjoy your wonder at your sudden burst of energy. I once stayed up all night and packed a whole house of stuff when my kids were little because I wanted to make up for another move where friends were helping me pack as the removalists were filling up the truck. Alas the latter happened again when I later moved interstate. And if one does not have their (?) own car, packing the little bits left all over the floor and the final cleaning often seem more tiring than the major pack and unpack. Ah, it must be wonderful to be able to afford to pay for professional packers; except I would most likely be standing over them making sure they did it with same fussiness that I do myself.
I have moved a dozen times at least (I have friends in ministry who reckon they have moved at least 50 times in their married life) and have quite a few grandiose schemes I’ve dreamt up to make the resettling easier each time. I remember having to buy a cheap iron rather than unpack dozens of boxes to find where I’d put it during the interstate move.
All the best with your move and what is “harvest coloured”? Being a city or bush dweller in the under-belly of the earth gives me no idea what this means.
I just remembered that I painted a 3 bedroom rented house in two weeks with the help of my almost adult children and a girlfriend. Not so hard? I was also attending university two and a half hours away by train for three days a week!
My favourite “Murphy’s Law” is:
The amount of work you have to do equals the amount of time you have to do it in.
Naomisu, thanks for the encouraging comments! I am planning on doing all my moving in the back of my small car, and borrow my church’s minibus for a few larger things. It is only about a mile away. I have plenty of experience of moving home. I remember doing so once by public bus! Well, no furniture involved that time, but lots of personal bits and pieces, I took a couple of suitcases full each day for nearly a month. It should be a bit easier this time, although there is some furniture involved.
“Harvest coloured” means a golden brown. It looks nice. But I can’t find my carpet online to show you a sample colour. So you will have to wait for my “after” photo.
Congratulations, It looks like a lovely home! 🙂
OOOooooooh, cool! 🙂
Looks pretty spiffy to me…
peter–
good luck with the move! are you packing up all the books and furniture yourslf, or hiring it out? packing books takes forever…