Skipping along ...

I modified my chalk board to include two countdowns - and updating it is part of my morning routine. 

There was a lot of organising this week, an unplanned dentist visit and a planned optical appointment - as well as many other happenings.

We're pleased with our progress.  On Tuesday night we purchased a bright yellow trailer - now dubbed Tweety (with a $9.99 sticker to add extra cheer)!  

The trailer was a good price and the seller was lovely, so it was a fun purchase - with him telling us stories, in spite of having laryngitis!  (We had another round of story-swapping when we returned on Thursday for an extra signature on the rego paperwork).  

Back in 2009 we made nine trailer trips when moving, in addition to the work done by paid removalists.  We're not sure how many loads will be necessary this time but having a trailer will greatly assist moving smaller items ourselves (and lessen the overall cost).

Our skip arrived on Thursday morning, which made for some early shuffling of cars etc in the back yard.  We had a skip last year also.  After researching, the cheapest rate was from our local council - so we did that again.

The 3 metre skip is the smallest size and will hold 4 tonne, the equivalent of three trailer-loads - or 12 wheelie bins. We'll put larger, flat stuff in first and then fill from there.

We've done well with our marketplace listings.  Most items have sold and we've recouped $195.00 so far.  Our $10.00 laundry bench cupboard was sold last weekend for $15.00 - and I deserved that small profit after helping load it!  

I later used the laundry cupboard cash to buy a fancy tea strainer from a local op-shop - much smaller, lighter and easier to pack!  Hooray!

Although I haven't yet tallied my efforts, I've packed a lot of my craft area and am pleased with my good work.

Vaughan brought home a big box of baked goodies on Thursday night.  We had a fire last night, and sat around it with baguettes and antipasto, a lovely finale to a productive week. Of course, we're always keen for fire-gazing but this one also helped our clean-up of scrap wood pieces.  Bonus!

Week 10 tally. Boxes donated: 2 (bringing that total to 19). Boxes packed: 1. Total packed: 113.

Sound progress?!

I started a chalkboard countdown on Saturday to keep track of days left till our removalists arrive.  We'll do some moving ourselves, once we have the keys - but will leave the big stuff for the professionals.  

We've mostly hired trailers for our previous moves but are thinking of buying one this time.

I'm pleased with my progress this week. Buddha is packed into a taller box with lots of pillow padding - and most of his treasures are also packed.  His chairs have been listed for sale - along with other furniture pieces.  

Erin and I bought more plastic tubs and some storage bags last weekend.  I've been packing away my craft room and infamous fabric stash. 

I'm more productive if I listen to an audio book as I work, so have been spending a few hours earlier in the day, which equates to several chapters of sort-of interesting story.

Around two years ago Nick made a vocal booth and studio downstairs - mainly utilising materials on hand, particularly all the moving blankets from our self-packed shipping container.  

We bought a roll of packing felt in 2015, then cut it into many large squares.

Nick's done great work over the past couple of days, taking down all that felt and removing his temporary wall.  

Usable components will be taken to our new house, possibly to be used there (along with the sound tiles he sourced last week).

Nick is back on night-shift for the next few days.  I'll continue with my missions - quietly!

Week 9 tally.  Boxes donated:  7 (bringing that total to 17).  Boxes packed:  21.  Total packed:  112.

Packing party?!

We achieved a lot this week.  Nick continued his work in the garage, packing stuff to go and sorting rubbish, ready for our skip bin.  (It's booked for the end of the month over a period when Nick is at home).

Nick has started taking apart his studio and some mouse-affected blanketing will be binned.  He found a great deal on older acoustic foam tiles and acquired those for a replacement set-up in the new house.  

Two insect enclosures were sold.  Various chairs were listed for sale.  Four of those have sold and we've had interest in others.  

Our larger tent is also advertised but we've decided to keep the smaller one.  

We talked about our removalist quotes and booked a company.  Now we have a moving date, I'm thinking a count-down might be good motivation.

I declared my birthday a packing free day, then planned an itinerary and enjoyed some excellent celebrations.  Nick and I spent the day in the city, viewed some wonderful jewelery - and generally took some time out.

Packing was a bit of a let-down after all that great adventuring but progress is continuing.  

Now our birthdays are over, I've packed away more glasses and a smaller teaset.  There are still a few glasses, for celebratory bubbles and similar indulgences as our settlement day approaches.

Erin donated another two bags in her down-sizing.  She's also sold more fish, to make moving her large tank set-up easier.  

Of course, life goes on around the moving missions. There's still work for Nick, TAFE for Vaughan, Erin's opshop volunteering - and my at-home efforts.  

Week 8 tally.  Boxes donated:  2 (bringing that total to 10).  Boxes packed:  14.  Total packed:  91.

Addressing the years (Queensland) ...

I didn't post here of our arrival in Queensland.  

At that stage I still saw Hamby Home(in)stead as being specific to the Victorian farm house and our life back then.  

Over time I relaxed my view and remembered the title was meant to seperate our camping and outings from day-to-day happenings at home, wherever that may be.  And so I did a re-cap post and re-activated the blog.  

What happened to our previous homes?  It's quite interesting!  Nick's fibro shack and the first home we shared together were both demolished, making way for more valuable properties. Nick's tiny abode was replaced with a huge house, which most recently sold for over $2.5 million!

Of course this one will also be demolished.  It, the one next door and surrounding land sold off-market for $8.5 million, to become a commercial facility.  

Our wedding house with the visiting kookaburras was renovated - as was the "brick box" that we moved into the following year.  I'm not sure about the house with all the building issues.  The smaller one after that had work done.

It seems the Victorian farm house has since sold, as part of a larger holding (240 acres), for 5.6 million. Wow!

Even though this house has issues, we have mostly enjoyed living here - particularly the visiting birds, frogs and geckoes.  Having only one neighbour and so much space around us has been wonderful, especially after our 18 months of vanlife!

By the time we leave, we'll have lived in this one house for over 5 and a half years (67 months).  That's the longest we've stayed anywhere - yep, a record!

We had 8 months together in our first home (though I lived there for 3.5 years overall).  20 months in the kookaburra/wedding house, then 27 in the "brick box".  Just 14 in the house with building issues.  Another 27 in our last NSW home.  3 months in our temporary accommodation at Kew, then 27 months of farm life.  18 months of van life - before 67 months as Queenslanders.

In 2015 we were facing our 7th move in 10 years. (Just about all of those moves involved other acute stress, aside from the move itself).  I added all the notice periods and the total was 400-plus days. That didn't include the couple of houses that were on the market before the notice periods kicked in - and I didn't bother trying to work out how long we spent unpacking/settling in the next house(s). At the time I calculated it could easily be 18 months to 2 years of those 10 years that we'd spent preparing to move, moving and recovering afterwards.

Addressing the years (Van life) ...

Nick's observation - "this caravan has served us well, though I didn't expect to be living in it". He paused and chortled, "if I had expected to be living in it, I would have bought a better one"! Vaughan's response - "it's not too late"! 

(March 2016)

There are some very pretty, restored vintage caravans.  Ours was not one of those.  It was a 16-foot Millard, built in 1974 (as verified by it's electrical certificate).  We bought it cheaply in 2014, with plans of using it for weekends away or holidays.  

By the time it came to us, it's dining booth and main bedroom had been removed.  The front bunks, kitchen bench and small wardrobe remained - as well as some upper cupboards.  It was more rough than ready.  And it leaked.

We had one or two nights in the van after exiting the original Hamby Home(in)stead and then we house-sat a beautiful home for a month, before starting caravan life fully.  

Our first caravan park was in Bacchus Marsh (60km south-west of our former home).  We stayed six weeks before moving another 24km west, closer to Ballarat (just 40km away).  

Nick commuted into Melbourne for his shifts and I spent four hours on weekdays (from September to December 2015), driving Vaughan back to his small school to ensure some stability for him.  He attended Ballan's primary school during 2016, just 5 minutes away from the caravan park - which was so much easier.

We were seeking a QLD relocation, though had expected it would happen much quicker due to restructuring at Nick's work.  We really thought we'd spend a couple of months in the van at most.  Instead it was our base for around 18 months.  The entire interior measured approx 2.75m by 4.5m (including our beds). The four of us shared the space with Bandit.  

It still amazes me that we managed for such a long time, under fairly tricky conditions.  Not only were we living at exceptionally close quarters (with Nick doing his usual shift-work) but we'd swapped rural life on a 5-acre property for a small site in a caravan park with communual amenities.  

Of course when living in such limited space there was even greater incentive to get out and about.  We often dined al fresco at a nearby reservoir or in the local forest for open-fire BBQing or camp oven dinners.  (The van/tent didn't have an oven and the park was too basic for a camp kitchen).

As a funny aside Erin commented late in 2015 that caravan park life wasn't as bad as she expected.  Seemingly she had visions of us morphing into foul-mouthed bogans!

At first we used our larger touring tent for storage and a gazebo as a cooking and dining area. By May the chef (!) complained often of being cold, so we bought a bigger, cabin tent to provide an indoor “kitchen”, dining area and walk-in-wardrobe / storage room. It was flash - with pseudo-Persian carpet (bought on sale at Spotlight)!  

Although the tent was larger, it was still warmer in the van on cold nights so we tended to retreat to our beds for reading, games and craft-work - or using the computer. (We didn't have TV). 

We were lucky to have an extended house-sit from July to early September 2016, staying in a lovely mud-brick house.  It snowed before we moved into that house and during the first few days there.  

A proper kitchen with plumbed sink, indoor bathroom and wood-fire.  Bliss!  So much better than tent cooking and walking to the amenities block!

When we moved back to the caravan park, Nick was officially confirmed for Brisbane relocation.  

There was excitement and special celebrations - cos the alternative was redundancy.  

We'd been in transit just over a year, so were keen to leave as soon as possible but had five more months of caravan life before we headed to Queensland.

Addressing the years (Victoria) ...

I started to review our many addresses in this post, which details our homes in New South Wales from the time we met in late 2003 to receiving notice in September 2012.  

We had an exit date of 5 December but were also facing a work relocation, so had no idea of where we'd end up.  On top of all the other missions, I was Vaughan's distance education supervisor and we still needed to submit weekly work.

We only received confirmation of moving to Melbourne two weeks before our exit date.  There was an offer of three months temporary accommodation and some other relocation benefits but no company support person to organise the move.  

Nick took on those roles, in addition to his usual work.  He didn't receive his new contract until two days before we left - and it wasn't correct.  However we were committed to going, so we went.  I wrote this post on 3 December.  

Our temporary accommodation was a 3-bedroom serviced apartment in Kew.  We had a kitchen but generally dined at a particular restaurant, as part of the relocation deal.  We treated the restaurant as a second (albeit much busier) home and would play card games while waiting.  The staff all knew us and would offer menus as a "nicety".  

Nissa joined us from Perth for a Christmas visit and we baked our festive goodies in the apartment.  We chose to enjoy several holiday meals at "home".  

Finding a real home was our New Year focus.  I printed a report of all Victorian schools and cross-rerfenced the smaller options against commute times and available rentals (in the right price bracket).  Google was definitely my friend as I had no idea of where any towns/suburbs were located.  After much research we signed a lease in early February - for a 3-bedroom house on 5 acres of a much larger property.  The house was the smallest of any we'd had.  We bought a 17-foot van for Erin to use and hired a 20-foot on-site storage container (as there was no garage/shed on the property).  

That was our original Hamby Home(in)stead and this blog was initated to document our various experiments in semi self-sufficiency.  There are many posts of our time there, nearly two and a half years of rural living.  We adopted chooks, raised a poddy calf, started a vegetable garden and processed fruit from trees in the yard.  It was a much colder climate than we were used to but we mostly enjoyed living with so much space around us - so there was huge disappointment when we received notice that our landlady wanted her family to live at the farm instead of us.

Once we processed the shock (and grief), we started to prepare for yet another house move - our 7th in ten years.  Nick had experienced significant work challenges earlier in the year, so we decided to start seeking our fortunes elsewhere, preferably somewhere warmer!  Over 100-plus days we culled far more ruthlessly than ever before.  Our chookies were given away and our hefty heifer was sold.  We packed our 20-foot shipping container with everything we wanted to keep.  And we moved into our caravan.

Addressing the years (NSW) ...

Nick and I met in late 2003, in New South Wales.  Back then he rented a small fibro shack, which was about 10 or 15 steps from front door to the back - and then the same distance to the creek edge.  It was a pretty, peaceful place. We'd sit by the water, watching fish and the occasional sting-ray drift past.  He could sail from his back yard into Tuggerah Lake!  

At the same time, I was renting an older four bedroom home near Lake Macquarie.  The girls and I had plenty of space the weeks they were with me and I rattled around the weeks I was alone.  The location wasn't quite as peaceful as Nick's but I grew potted herbs and tomatoes on the large verandah - and would enjoy al fresco meals there, admiring the distant lake views. 

I'd lived there nearly three years when Nick moved in with me in December 2004.  The owners delayed their plans to terminate the lease and move in when they learned of my/our pregnancy but we did move in August 2005, when Vaughan was just four months old.

We moved 30km further down the coast to a quieter (and cheaper) lakeside suburb.  It was closer to Nick's work, because he worked full-time (and I was on maternity leave).  

That house had a huge lakeside park reserve next door with picnic tables, netted swimming area and waterfront walking trails.  We were married while living at that house and Vaughan had his first birthday there also.  

Soon after Vaughan's second birthday we moved again, just 600 metres away into what we dubbed the "brick box".  We were a street back from the lake, in a line from the spot where we were married.

A bit over two years later we were on the move again.  Our third one in the five years we'd been together.  Nick spent several days in hospital after our arrival - he'd been sick and overdid things due to the time limitations we were dealing with.

That house was closer to the beach, which we all enjoyed. We celebrated Vaughan's 5th birthday in great style but had moved again before his 6th.  14 months was our shortest time in any of our homes but long-standing building issues weren't disclosed prior to moving in.  Once we raised them, we received notice to move.  

Our next home was smaller, which presented challenges but it had direct access to a huge reserve and that was great.  A lot happened at that address. Nick and Erin became emergency WIRES carers, with Nick also taking on snake relocations.  It was a learning experience for all of us to have so many wildlife visitors. During our second year School of Hamby was opened, when Vaughan commenced Distance Education with me as his supervisor. 

On our second anniversary of moving in, we received a Notice of Termination.  Nick was already facing a work relocation so we packed and culled (while still doing school work) - preparing for our 5th move in seven years.  I'll pause here and pick up the story in a new post.

New month - new enthusiasm!

It's been a big week with much achieved - and we even did some packing!    

We enjoyed "Christmas in July" silliness on Saturday night.  I'd planned a roast dinner anyway, so decided to make a bit of fuss before the month ended. 

My lovely china is mostly packed, so I used a simpler setting with picnic plates and a plastic tablecloth. (The crystal dessert bowls were still out cos their box is MIA - bonus)!

By Sunday night we had made contact with four removal companies, booked a skip bin and started work downstairs, culling and organising.

Through the week we've been able to revise our exit date (in keeping with our settlement and moving dates), obtain three removalist quotes and pack 40 boxes!

Nick and I have different approaches to packing.  I label my boxes with a short list of the major items inside.  Nick prefers a short-hand approach to labelling!

Nick did most of that packing, sorting downstairs and in our garage/shed area.  

200 bottles went to a local recycling centre - in exchange for $20.00.

Today we took old batteries to a metal recycler.  What an interesting and busy place that was!  We're now $41.60 or so richer for doing the right thing. 

We both had dentist appointments this week.  Mine was a planned visit.  Nick's wasn't but fortunately was an easier fix than he'd expected.  Hooray!

Week 7 tally.  Boxes donated:  3 (bringing that total to 8).  Boxes packed:  40.  Total packed:  77.