Moving DayS

Our initial plan was to move on Saturday 12th Dec. But then a few days before that, it turned out the removalists said we didn't make a booking with them even though we did.

So now we had to vacate the house by Sunday 13th Dec but we didn't have a removalist! On Thursday, I called up the ads on the Gumtree website (like a local classifieds) and found a cheap removalist for $65 per hour. We couldn't go more expensive than that because the journey to F itself would take up 1.5 hours (thus $97.50 just for travel!). They confirmed that they could fit all our stuff in their truck but they could only do it on Friday. Yikes! So one day earlier than planned; the day right after hubby's graduation.

On Friday, they arrived with a medium size truck with small, flat tires!! I was quite skeptical that they could fit everything in and bring the truck all the way to F on those wheels and survive. Miraculously they could fit in everything except 3 bicycles, 2 bookshelves, Layth's big box of toys and a swivel chair. It was quite impressive!! (photo: middle left)

Then on Saturday, we went back to the old house to clear the house of the extra "little" things (understatement yaa...) . Hubby went off to find a trailer to hire. When he came back, I was shocked to find a huge trailer (photo above) attached behind our car!! It was the same size as the truck the day before!!!! HAHAHAHA. Since it was big, we decided to keep some things that we had intended to throw out because they couldn't fit the first removalist truck. We intended to clean the house on Saturday but just packing "little" things onto the trailer took nearly the whole day (just shows how much junk stuff we have). So we drove the trailer back to F. It was so heavy, the car couldn't go faster than 80km/hr. The hardest part was to maneuver the massive thing.

On Sunday we went back to the old house with the trailer and scrubbed the house from top to bottom, removed the house of rubbish (which was a lot!!! including a sofa bed). We dumped the rubbish at the waste transfer station ($20 per cubic metre) and returned the trailer. Then we headed off to F (again!!!) but not without stopping by at Sofia Camberwell to eat.

Total cost of moving:

Removalist $350

Trailer hire $100

Toll for 3 days $30

Petrol for 3 days $100

Rent & bond $2600

Dumping fee $20

TOTAL $3200

This of course doesn't include the hidden costs of having to buy snacks, water, meals (because we were too tired to cook or couldn't find the stuff to cook with hee hee).

But the new house is a delight Alhamdulillah. Can't believe we found it and got it as fast as we did. Layth loves the wide open space and I love the layout - much easier to do chores. Unlike the old house where the laundry room is OUTSIDE.

So far things are still in some boxes but Mak has significantly unpacked most of my stuff! Rajin betul Mak. I was planning of postponing unpacking until Mak & Ahmad go home. Hihi. I guess mothers just can't keep idle.