How have you settled in….???

“How have you settled in….?”

Anyone who’s moved house will know that the second you get through the door, people will start asking how the settling in is going. Not withstanding the fact that most of your life is still in a box ‘somewhere‘ and that you can’t find the box with the kitchen utensils in, people still ask how you’re doing!

I think we’re doing ok, we arrived at our new bungalow at 1pm on the Friday before Christmas  – the same Friday the rest of the world was calling Black Friday where the whole known world was out celebrating the Christmas period. Were we celebrating? Of course but not for the same reason! We finally unloaded the last box at 8.10pm, in the dark, in the pitch black with no outside light and with the boss telling the boys that if they didn’t finish soon, they wouldn’t get paid.

With that, the boys virtually ran to get that last box in, we all had a moment of ‘thank goodness that’s done‘, there were thanks, hugs and more than a few kisses shared (oh yes, we were THAT grateful!) and at last we had the place to ourselves.

The only room that was remotely ‘liveable‘ was the bedroom which did as it was named and contained a bed but nothing else; we collapsed, muttered a quick “yey, welcome to our new home” and crashed right out!

Since then, we had to get the place ready for an early Christmas dinner for 13 when all the ‘kids‘ came, cooked said dinner on a cooker that was in the utility room down some steps from the kitchen and the rest of the house (that needed precision timing and help as I sat there and shouted out instructions and who has a cooker in their utility room anyway!), hosted an actual Christmas dinner for 4, a New Year’s Eve for 2, two birthdays, hung some pictures and then, after a few day’s of nothing, welcomed the builders in for the Grand ‘let’s extend the kitchen‘ project!

We had to sort this quickly, we had a decent sized kitchen but with the cooker, fridge, freezer and the washing machine all in a different room and in order to have the one level, accessible home I need, something had to be done. So this is where you find me now my lovelies, sat on my bed whilst listening to the shovels scraping, the dumping of earth and the mixing of concrete outside my window!

We used to have a utility room, it is no more. We used to have a step into said utility room, it is no more. We used to have a patio outside the utility room, it is no more…..

What we do have is a really fabulous looking dining room shaped hole;

a beautifully shaped hole all ready for the concrete and blocks that will transform our home into the accessible home I’ve been looking for, for so so long.

So in answer to the question “How have you settled in?” I can confidently say, “not too bad thanks, it’s coming along, we’re getting there slowly!”