Day 5 of 40 Bob

Yet another productive (and very hot) day in the backyard. The children were taking their oldest granny out for a belated birthday lunch, so I started on my own. First a couple of wheelbarrows with sand from the front to the back of the house. Then dismantling the framework of the trampoline some further. I changed my ‘normal’ old boots for garden boots in a huge male size because where I was working there was a huge chance to slip into the green puddle. No! I did not slip, the boots were just in case. It will take a little effort still but I am determined to leave not a single trace of the crater here.

It is really not a bad job to do with such lovely weather. I have a nice sun tan now as well as worked out. Time flies when you’re having fun and before long it was three o’clock and my mom arrived to take the promised tour in the new house. We chatted a little before we took off and unexpected all the kids dropped by too. I took the chance to have a few extra hands on lifting and detaching the framework and now that job is done too. Tonight we brought back the trailer and wheelbarrow. Me still in my working clothes, covered not only with mud but smear too because of the framework. I couldn’t help wondering if the man from the trailer might have confused me with Bob the Builder, while he was laying at my feet to unplug the trailer from the car. Normally when men are at my feet like that... nevermind, it must have been the hot sun burning my head all day long. 

Well, tomorrow I will dress up more feminine again. School in the daytime and in the evening I will go to the condolence for my uncle. 

Day 4 of 40 Love can move Mountains

Tons and tons of small pebbles (I called that gravel yesterday) and tons of bricks, the garden table, two deckchairs, 5 garden chairs, two potted Hydrangeas, one potted Fall Aster, the cover and elastic band from the trampoline, that’s what we moved today. Me and two of my wonderful kids. My son as he had promised, despite having a very short night, and my youngest daughter before she had to go to work.  In the new house was one of my middle daughters stripping almost all the wallpaper with her friend plus they helped to unload the trailer full of bricks. Mind you, it was extremely hot for a September day, we were soaked and covered with dirt but the spirit was good and I had a great day.

The kid next door in the new house welcomed us by giving a hand to unload the trailer. A good friend who lives in my new neighborhood came to see the house. My neighbor here in the old house will help tomorrow to fill the crater which emerged from under the trampoline. Another neighbor will teach me how to plaster the walls in the new house. My mom promised to repair the glass bead strings from the curtain for the backdoor. And my eldest middle daughter is coming over Monday again to help with whatever I’ll ask her. My brother will help out with connecting the washing machine and dishwasher and probably much more. My ex husband is pulling some strings when I want to borrow trailers, vans, wheelbarrows and more. And helps me in a lot of other ways, like the good friend he is. So many wonderful people and the best of all are my offspring. Today I really feel blessed. I also feel that I will enjoy a long shower. The rest, like a lovely massage for my overstrained  muscles, and a manicure for all my broken nails, well, I will make that up for now, probably while I am sound  asleep.

Just started

Uncovering Frogland, the big green puddle

Experts in how to transport goods safe (and experts in many other things as well)

Afterwards a little grocery shopping and why bother to go by bike when there's enough parkingspace? 

Day 3 of 40 Naked

Today I borrowed a small trailer and a wheelbarrow to move things from my backyard. By things I mean approximately 15 wheelbarrows full of gravel, a huge trampoline, a couple of iron fences, glass elements, a couple of plants, things I have stalled in the shred and some garden furniture. I’ll have got help from my son and in the meanwhile one of my daughters and two of her friends will continue stripping the wallpaper in the new house.

We will only work tomorrow afternoon because we all have other plans for the night. Therefore I prepared as much as I could already this afternoon. The result: the only recognizable element in the backyard as it was is the small statue of Venus of Milo. The rest looks very naked and unfamiliar. 

Day 2 of 40 Time's on my side

I don’t feel too stressed so far. Neither by difficulty to get hold of the superintendent of the new house for the necessary inspection and things I want them to fix (I have called several times today and at last sent him an email today). Nor by the cold I have now which must be caused by the terrible climate control at college. Or am I fooling myself and is this cold a sign that I might be slightly overloaded at the moment?  I don’t know. I don’t want to act like a sissy. However, to be on the safe side, and because I hardly slept last night, I took a day off from school today. They would rather miss me there than being exposed to my endless sneezing and coughing. Luckily I have almost 40 days left for this moving job and a weekend ahead.   

Day 1 of 40 The Wanderer

Taaadaa, I’ve got the keys of the new house! When the confirmation letter arrived yesterday about the termination of the rent of the old house, I thought for a minute ‘What if I won’t get the new house after all?’. Then I would have to become some kind of rolling stone, except that I need a lot more than laying my head somewhere to make it feel like home. That’s why I felt relieved to receive the keys after signing the contract this afternoon. And better still, at last I could snoop around in the new house unembarrassed to thoroughly inspect  every room and cupboard, without the former renter and estate agent present. I’d already loaded my car with tools and stuff to remove wallpaper and various things which are ready to move yet because they are used not so often. I like it when things are going as I planned them, however, this plan has not quite materialized and I act on impulses most of the time. Time to write my list and to pin people who offered their help down to it.

It was funny that, after signing the contract I went to the DIY and was greeted by the woman who is my future neighbor. She is working there and after a bit of chitchat she offered me a discount coupon. That’s a nice start.

40 Days to proof

When I would be English, I could tell you that I was really OTT last week. And that I subsequently have made a very long TDL (mostly in my head). But since I am Dutch it is just that I was glad to hear I will have to sign the contract for the new house Wednesday September 5, and I already ticked a few of the things on my to-do-list, like energy, phone and internet connection.

From the day on I have to sign the new contract through the day I have to hand in the keys of this house are 40 days. Convenient enough when that would be all I have to focus on. But quite a challenge when there are many things that can’t be put on hold. For example there is the Machine Learning course I started recently which does require about 10 hours a week minimum for 10 weeks in a row. And tomorrow the minor Brain & Cognition begins with a tight schedule that requires attending daily classes. In between that I will have to strip wallpaper in the new house and do lots of other things but also strip this house from everything I want to take with me. Believe me, every day so far I think of something new I need not to forget.

Since moving houses is in the top 10 of stressful events already on its own and the fact that I am pretty stubborn and a perfectionist who can’t easily delegate, there is more than a small chance that there will occur some troubles the coming forty something days. Not so imaginary that I might suffer from temporary losing stuff which I desperately need to have for school or work. Or that one of the external links in this chain (for example Energy company, Telephone company)  is weaker than I want and causes my isolation from the connections I need to go on.

It is also a fact that people like to know about how other people struggle. No offence, but that makes it also a great opportunity to increase the number of readers and followers of my blog. I like to be followed (as long as it is not stalking!) therefore I decided that this will be the thread for my blog. Wouldn’t it be nice to read 40 short updates from me and this project to witness my downfall to utter insanity? Or, even better to me, to read that studying psychology is an advance to tackle stressful events with a Zen like calmness and a serene smile. Then I could make a book about it afterwards, my first “Self-help guide of how to survive moving houses, living your life and keeping your sanity”. I might have to reconsider the title of such a book a bit, perhaps a little shorter. Anyway, that is how I’ve planned to continue this blog. Short updates which may put a smile on your face, a tear in your eyes or an indifferent shrug of your shoulders. Comments are welcome but rude ones will be removed of course. Let’s move it, I’ll be back here on Wednesday!

Cliffhanger

My summer break is nearly over, officially, that is. Unofficially I was hardly aware that I had a break. It was a different Summer than last year, anyhow. I had not made any vacation plans this year, I was exhausted at the end of the term and there were still a few tasks that needed to be done before the new semester would start.

I started with working on the website of my practice for a couple of weeks, which is nearly done now. I also nursed an extra pair of rabbits from a friend. I became lab assistant for my bachelor project’s tutor, I have to run a couple of more tests for her. And I was a freelance taxidriver, bringing the children to the airport and picking them up again. The only convenient thing about driving to the airport in the middle of the night is that there is very little traffic but after so many times I still feel a little jet-lagged without even entering a terminal. Between their different trips I took up on being a control centre on my own. Meaning, avoiding the news except when the Ghanaian president passed away when my daughter was backpacking in that area.

To distract myself I have done something I was thinking of for quite a while. The thing is, I have two Klippans. Those of you who are familiar with IKEA will know immediately what I am talking about. Klippan is the name of a couch, sold by IKEA. Translated it means cliff, I found out. Never realized that I could be sitting so comfortable on a cliff! It is a simple two-seat couch, or like how IKEA describes it, a loveseat. You can easily squeeze three people on each couch. Mind you, they will have to love each other, sitting so close together, but that happens only occasionally. And it provides indeed a good starting point for lovey-dovey activities. It also does have a removable, washable cover and all that, plus the low pricing, makes it the perfect couch to me.

When I moved in here I started with one Klippan and within two years I had bought a second one. That was all I could fit in this living room but on occasions when all the kids are at home, it is not enough. Therefore I was thinking of changing the two couches into a corner couch and even extent one side of it with a third one in time. Desperate in need of some physical exercise this Summer, to be able to sleep normal again and to distract my thoughts of not going away this year, I plucked up the courage to really perform what I had been thinking of for a while.

I turned the couches upside down to inspect their inner parts briefly. I already knew they were slightly different, the oldest one was delivered in one piece whereas the newer one had the arms and back parts delivered separately. But when I carefully inspected them more I found out that the newer one revealed more of its construction where the other one had had those bits covered neatly. Curiosity kills the cat but makes the job much more exciting. I therefore decided to start with the oldest one. I could do with a little excitement after all. Equipped with a  bodkin I started with removing the many staples. First the ones in the Velcro fastener and then the ones in the cover. I did not open the whole thing, just the part to be able to remove the arm. As soon as the hole was big enough to take a peek I discovered to my horror that it was almost completely made of polystyrene, with bits of wood here and there for the staples. I could have covered it up again and quit the idea. But hey, that’s not like me.

The wooden parts were very thin and were glued on the polystyrene. Have you ever sawed polystyrene? I would strongly recommend it. When you want to have a snowy landscape in the middle of a hot Summer’s day. Thank God, my equipment also consists of a vacuum cleaner. With my bare legs and sweaty forehead covered with tiny white particles I worked my way through the couch. Optimistically thinking that if the project would fail I could always throw the couch away and buy a second hand one on the Dutch E-bay (lots of them there, what would you make of that?).

Anyway, the job was not so hard to be done. I only had to replace two legs of the coach after removing the arm and put the fabric back with the stapler. With some kind of wonder glue for porous material, I glued the wooden shelf with the legs back on the polystyrene.

All said and done it was time to refurbish the cover. Therefore I fitted it over the new model and unpicked the stitches of the now excessive fabric parts. All there is left to be done at the moment is sewing a new piece in it from the leftover and then it’s like new. That is, for a prototype. To become a little more like I want it, I have to do something with the arm of the other couch as well, to make that part and the back of the changed couch more equal.

I will wait with extending it with a third couch until I have moved houses. Oh, yes, that’s another thing I have been doing these months, house hunting. More about that next time.