So this week it’s a month since we moved… and I wrote this blog a little while ago but hadn’t posted it for a whole variety of reasons (one being we haven’t had the internet at home… but that’s a blog in itself) but I thought that seeing as it has been a month and I am actually feeling much more settled that I was it might be a nice time to post it now that it is all done and dusted.

We have officially moved out, although there are still a few boxes to unpack at the new place, all of our stuff is out of the old place, everything has been cleaned, and I have checked that the door is locked for the last time. I have said my last goodbyes, and even though I miss it, and it’s super convenient location it doesn’t suck any where near as much as it did… In fact, I think I am slowly adjusting, and not having access to it as definitely helped.

The Saturday after we moved in we returned to the old place to clean and say a long goodbye, only to return on Sunday to complete the finishing touches… and then after church, just for good measure we had a macca’s dinner in the old TV room (minus the TV) one last time. I have been thinking a lot about why it has been so hard to say goodbye, and I know there is an element of me just not letting go, but part of me feels like the house holds many of the memories that without the prompts of the location, might be lost… we had been there 3 years together, but Dave had been there for many many more… starting way back at school with saxophone lessons and then moving into the house for what was going to be a short house sitting adventure.  There have been some really important moments for both of us in that house, some happy, some sad, and while all of the memories are still there in my brain, it seems easier to recall them when reflecting in the room where they occurred.  And while time has started to heal my heart and open my eyes to some pretty awesome things about the new place, I have certainly found closure in the fact that it is done… I can’t go back anymore, it’s not just sitting there waiting for me to return, it is now back in the hands of it’s owners… and even though I am talking about it like it has feelings and would be experiencing all this with me… I know it is just a house… and it doesn’t know if we are there or not.  I do like to think that we showed it a good time though… So I have made a couple of lists to help me reflect and remember and save some of the memories from our time at Junction road.  

5 Things (actual things, not just feeling things or emotional things… actual things you can touch!) I will miss about the house:

1. It’s big backyard – it is actually huge, and it was really nice, a nice place to sit, to exercise and to look at.
2. The Massive tree out the front – there is something quite magical about this tree, yes it was really annoying at times, and it often seemed to make you more wet as you walked under in the rain rather than shelter you, but it is beautiful, the colours, the size, it’s age… it is incredible.
3. The toilet – I know this one is a little gross, but I will miss the toilet… 3 years in a house often means some significant toilet bonding time and if you don’t have a good toilet it can make some rocky times even more difficult.
4. The open fire – who doesn’t love an open fire? No one… that’s who!
5. My giant oven – the house had a massive oven, big enough for everything… I could have 4 massive roasting pans in there at once and still have room to spare… now I am going to have to work out how to do things on a smaller scale.

Honourable Mentions: The little green fence, it’s number ‘100’, the Island bench, the wooden blinds that let in beautiful morning sun and heating system that worked on a timer!

5 Things (actual things, not just feeling things or emotional things… actual things you can touch!) I am glad to say goodbye to, but will probably still deep down miss about the house:

1. The back door – it never wanted to shut nicely, it always did shut, but sometimes it was a bit tricky
2. The front door – ok so once, when I thought I had locked the door properly I pushed it just to check the lock had caught and it opened… it was locked… but it opened… It turns out that the door had warped  a little with the weather and just needed a little adjusting… but this started a long term paranoia that it would just open… and so a lot of door checking followed from that day on.
3. The unfinished bench – in the kitchen there is a patch of bench that is missing the laminate… I won’t miss that bit…
4. Sharing my space – being a house sitting situation there were quite a few things left in the house that belong to the owners and while over time, some of these were stored elsewhere it still meant that I had to share some wardrobes and bookshelves and cupboards.  Don’t get me wrong, having a furnished house that was already warmed and lived in was really nice, and I had more than enough rooms of my own things, but I am excited about the fact that the next house will only have our stuff in it and I will only have to share with Dave.
5. The lights above the sink – the lights above the sink stopped working and it turned out that it was going to be a massive job to fix… so we decided that we didn’t really need them… but it will be nice to be able to see the dishes that are being washed.

Honourable Mentions:  The gate on the side of the house that blew open and scratched my car, the piece of chip board covering the missing bits of wall on the outside of the house and the control panel for the heating that was just a little to high for me to read without standing on my tippy toes.

10 moments that happened in the house that I don’t want to forget.  

1. Christmas lights – I loved setting up our Christmas tree and lights at the house, not only because I love Christmas, but also because it was new and just ours  and the lights around the mantle looked pretty awesome.
2. The night we broke up – although it’s not a nice memory, it’s an important one and it happened in the house.
3. Coming ‘home’ to the house after our honeymoon and realising that I lived there now too, it wasn’t Dave’s place anymore, but our place.
4. BBQ Wednesday – these are the best and they all started at Dave’s place!  Way to many people jammed around the table with meat and salad and drinks moving back and forth, sometimes outside, sometimes inside but always fun.  At one time they even included a couch on the back step… ahh BBQ Wednesday!
5. There are at least 3 of these, but I am lumping them all together, but the nights I went a little nuts… and brought back crazy amounts of stuff from 24hr K-mart or went running in the rain… they are both long stories, but still memories to keep.
6. Making red meat casserole and cakes for Dave’s birthday… learning to be a bit wifey.
7. Tuesday Morning Prayer – this was a really neat time in the house, meeting with some friends to pray together so a specific purpose and period of time. It was just nice to be able to offer our home for this and for those prayers to be answered the way they were.
8. Dinner Parties – again there are a whole heap of these being lumped together, but this was the first time I got to through proper dinner parties, I couldn’t do it in Castlemaine because my little house was just too small, but it turns out I really like it.  I like having people in the house, showing it off a little and cooking… I just love the whole thing and that was where it all started.
9. Dave surprising me with my study – when I started my dip ed dave cleaned out the end room for me to use as a study, he put up the whiteboard, cleared the desk and had it all set up for me one night when I go home from work.  It was such a nice surprise.
10. One more lumped one, nights at home with just Dave, Dex and I and a movie in front of the open fire – they say it’s the simple things that are the nicest… and I think they are right.  I know this is something we will have at the new house too (minus the fire place), but when I really look at what I loved most about that place it was the fact that we were both there, it was our space.

Honourable Mentions: So these didn’t happen in the house but they are just a few extras that I will miss… the fact that it is walking distance to one of the best cafes ever and that it was walking distance so some of my best friends places which meant lots of walking together (I know this won’t stop either, it just takes a little more planning now).

So there you go… Junction road… our time there has come to an end, and I am actually ok about that… As my school would tell me… it’s not good, it’s not bad, its just different.  Different memories, different places, but the same people (maybe some new ones too along the way) and the same love… just housed differently.

I will still miss that house, and I know that at least for the next little while I will probably think of it often, but as I get more and more used to the new place, and make new memories there, I will also get more perspective and I know everything will be ok.