A Moving Experience // Part 1: The Move

The time has come to write up something exciting - our experience with moving house and a bit of a photographic tour of our new home/property! This is post number one of two. Next time I'll show you round our new place... this time I'll show you photos of our move!

Our new property has 18 acres- hopefully enough room for Abbie's horses, some chickens, my brothers' inventions and treehouses and dirt bike tracks and bits and bobs, our dogs, some other animals (goats? beef cattle? we'll see!) and all of us. The house isn't as big as our old one, which has been an interesting experience given that we have a lot of stuff.

We eventually managed to move all our our lot of stuff and put it somewhere in our new place. This was managed with the help of lots of amazing friends, lots of cardboard boxes and a garage that most of the boxes were stacked in until we could put their contents somewhere!

Apologies for the photo quality. They are all from my cellphone (which takes horrific photos indoors) so if you don't like bad quality photos... skip them and read the rest of the post below the photos! :)

Lots of boxes.... 

Piles of filled boxes (and other random things) in the garage

Managing to empty things out a bit. This used to be lined with bookshelves and the hooks on the right had bags filled with shoes.

The famous couches that couldn't fit through our front door so had to go out through the dining room ranch slider and over the gate!

Our empty garage

Empty house

Empty dining room and kitchen and a Lydia sneaking through the photo

The first night in our new place. A bit of a shambles!!

Finding a moment to relax and catch up on texts/Facebook.

The builders doing their thing while we tried to move in around them

Gradually getting some things settled in

There were unexpected dramas.

For example:
- Discovering that the landline phone inexplicably didn't work and the previous owner didn't fix the problem but just used cellphones instead
- Discovering that the previous owner's fridge had actually been connected to the thermostat heating arrangement for power. Don't ask me how a fridge can be powered off a heater. I don't actually know. It's not ideal, I do know that much. It meant it was complicated connecting our fridge to the right things.
- Having to have the carpet and lino replaced because it had been ruined by dogs who had been allowed into the house and then not taken outside for bathroom breaks

There were some slightly stressful moments surrounding us moving house, let me tell you that.

But, all things considered, we're in it now. And it's becoming more like our home. We're slowly getting our pictures on the walls and putting books in bookshelves and sorting things out a bit. We got a walk-in pantry built into the kitchen which is AMAZING. Guys, walk-in pantries are the best.

There is lots of lawn where the younger kids can run and play. There are interesting things in the house to explore like a 'secret' passage behind the wall that goes between the two upstairs bedrooms.
There is a nice big lounge and a big conservatory which is doubling as a homeschooling and dining room. There are some lovely big trees on the property that we are going to make swings off and build treehouses in.

Yes, it's been stressful but it's getting better and more exciting as it becomes more like our home. :) A lot of us love it and the ones who don't love it yet still like it.

Keep a look out for Part 2 of the Moving Experience!

Have you moved house before? 
Did you have a good experience? 
Any tips for settling in?