The Move!

Our change of address notification, so Tama continues to receive his magazines.

We're absolutely exhausted, so no posts. Instead, here's a bunch of pictures of the move, featuring Tater and the kitties. Pictures courtesy of Iain. 

 

 

  

Pictures of the old house.

Home Stretch

Today is Saturday. The movers arrive on Monday morning to shift us over to 39 Sunnyhaven. I can't wait. It's been annoying having three houses to worry about:

Iain: "Do you have pictures of the house?"
Sas: "Which one?"
Iain: "The new one."
Sas: "Which new one?"
Iain: "The rental."
Sas: "Oh, that one. Yeah."
Iain: "But you've also got pictures of the other house, right?"
Sas: "Which other house?"

and so on....

We're hoping that finally being out of 61 Taurus (current house) and into a rental will free up some time on the weekends to really enjoy Auckland. We still have some big decisions to make for the new house such as paint colors, carpet, tiles, light fixtures. But this will be much more enjoyable now that the hard stuff (finalizing architectural plans, hiring a builder, fixing up and selling our old house) has all been done.

In the meantime, our biggest goal is to get out from under all of these boxes! Of course, in the midst of all of this packing and switching utilities and insurance and alarms and address changes and arranging for internet connections, Tama got pink eye and had to go to the vet.

In other news, one of my coworkers has had a cold for almost two weeks, and spent the last 7 working days at her desk sniffling and snorting repeatedly. Hints like, "Here's a tissue." and "Do you need some decongestant?" are blown off with infuriatingly obtuse comments like, "[sniff, snort] Oh, I hate the way [sniff] cold medications make me feel [snort, sniff]."

I've forgotten what it's like to work side by side with other people for 8-10 hours a day, but my tolerance is much higher having survived a year with The German and other classmates.

House Pictures

We stopped by the house yesterday. The windows are all in, the roof is being fixed, and the rest in on hold until we get approval to proceed by the local council. I checked out the landscaping (or severe lack thereof) and was encouraged by the huge Bird of Paradise bush and the sunshine we'll get in our backyard.

Below is picture of what will be our kitchen and dining room.

39 Sunnyhaven Road

Here are some pictures of our rental house. The bathroom leaves a lot to be desired but at least it's clean. The backyard has a lovely palm tree, but doesn't stack up against our current backyard. Sigh.... we spent one last Sunday evening on our deck, reminiscing about the last year and a half. Our nostalgic moment was cut short by the sound of screaming children from the house next door and we were reminded once more why we're moving!

New House (sort of)

(click on photo for better viewing)

We signed the lease on our rental house yesterday. We'll be living in the rental while the new house is being completed -- at least 4 months.

The dangerous thing about the rental is its proximity to the local stores, namely the booze store and Indian restaurant. I'm probably imagining this, but I think I detected the delicious smell of fish and chips wafting down the street towards our house.

The good news is, the rental is only about 5 minutes from our new house and on the same bus route for me to get to work every day. Iain's been doing most of the packing, and we officially move out of 61 Taurus in a week.