May this be my last move...

Another week has passed and it's been another week of cleaning, packing, washing, emptying cupboards and painting.

I am so glad that we still have two months to sort things out before we move but our idea of doing as little as possible to the place has changed to making it as liveable as possible.

I am sure that the new owners will move in and want to change wall colours and/or renovate but at least I know that when I leave here we are leaving them with something they can easily move into and not feel they might need to make changes right away.

The roofs are painted as are the gutters and the down pipes. Johan fixed the front verandah roof of the flat which was damaged when I drove into one of the poles with the bakkie some years ago....don't ask...it happens quicker and easier than you think. All the windows have been re-puttied, glass panes replaced where needed and window frames painted. The patch on the main house front verandah ceiling where rain came through from the roof gulley during a torrential storm earlier last summer has been cleaned, given undercoat and the whole ceiling repainted. The toilet is painted and I'm busy with the bathroom at the moment.

There is still lots to do.....the rest of the ceilings must be painted and all the rooms walls painted too....no more colour, just a neutral off white. Lastly the burglar guards must all be scraped down and painted. The days are filled and progress is slow but as I said we still have time.

Thank goodness winter is on it's way and the grass doesn't need cutting. The horses are keeping the grass nice and short so at least there is little that needs to be done around the house. During the summer months as I saw weeds popping up I pulled them out.  Just the vegetable garden will need to be tidied...that is if the rabbits don't quite get their job done before they go to a new home. Before we leave we will fill in the holes the dogs have dug and fix up the fences from the horses, but that is one days work and can be done last minute.

It's not like we have moved a lot in our 33 years...that is compared to some people but this will be our third. The first was from Curran Street on the outskirts of town to Winterskloof up the hill and down in the valley. In the 12 and a half years we lived there Johan rebuilt the whole house on the inside, other than the bathroom. The house was old...built around the time of the first world war. The bathroom was the last room to do but it wasn't done before we put the house on the market.  We moved to a much bigger house with a huge garden so Johan's parents could move in with us. Johan's mum's health was failing and his dad couldn't manage on his own...anyway that's another story. Curran street was awesome and I was very sad to leave but at the time it was the best move under the circumstances. 
Willow Lane on the other hand was built by the Italian prisoners of war during the second world war. The original house was small and compact and over the years it was added on to. When we bought it, Johan loved the character that the building gave but now it annoys him. The narrow passage leading to the bedrooms with it's wonky walls and sloping floor are no longer character but something that has to be changed. After living there for ten and a half years we discovered that the sloping floor of the passage left the bedrooms on the inside below the floor level on the outside causing damp and mildew...not good for anyone's  health at all. Anyway that too is amother story...lol
Our second move was much further away...all the way across two provincial borders from KwaZulu/Natal to Gauteng. The house is small...too small for me but the land is awesome. Oh how we have loved having so much space around us. There is much I have loved about living here and much that has annoyed me... most especially the dryness and the dust that never quite settles but is always swimming in the air.

Now we are moving back home...another 10 and a bit years of our lives together and in all that time we have spent most of our efforts fixing up outside...housing the pigs and the rabbits and the chickens and the horses and the dogs and the birds...everything has had a home, a space of their own and in all this time we have spent little time working on our home...lol.  Till now there hasn't been a great need and even now it is all cosmetic. The foundation is solid, the rooms are fine. A lick of paint is all it really needs to give it a facelift and at least the walls are straight.

We had another buyer come to look at the plot just over a week ago...I hope they noticed our efforts because moving is hard work and I have decided in amongst all this packing up that this move will be our final move...well I certainly hope so, otherwise I may just be living out of boxes...