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After three months of intense renovations, the house had to be ready for us to move in. We had worked hard with the things we could do in the new house (putting together the kitchen cabinets, painting, some bits and bobs here and there) and also worked hard in the old house: to make it presentable for sale and to pack everything up. Friday November 29th was moving day, and it was stressful and exciting. We hired the same moving company who moved us the two previous times and it was the right choice.

Even though we got rid of about 1/3rd of our possessions, it’s still a lot of stuff if you see it all boxed up and stacked high! And because we did not have a clear picture of where things would go, for the first week we kind of wandered around in a labyrinth of boxes. But we quickly got our wardrobe, bookcases and the kitchen set up, and we could put the contents of a lot of boxes in their place! Especially the kitchen was a bit of a challenge: since the number and size of the drawers in the kitchen is different, it was a challenge (and still is!) to find the right spot for everything. And still we haven’t memorised every location: if we need something in a hurry we’ll just open every drawer in a panic… We’ll get there eventually.

We spent some time cleaning the ‘old’ house, and a week ago we had the official transfer to the new owners. It’s now officially theirs, and we have a large amount of money (or at least, it’s large to us!) on our bank account. But we also know that we’ve already used it all up in the renovation!

It felt immediately good to live here, even though it still is a bit of a mess. It’s very satisfying to gradually make the space our own, and to shape it into something that fits us. Yuzu is taking well to the space too: it helped that she found the familiar couch waiting for her, to use as her “home base”. We’re not letting her outside (yet).

Living in a tiny village has its charms: it’s much more of a community than the city. We’ve already spoken to more people here than we did in Nijmegen. We also introduced ourselves to the head teacher of the school that is our main neighbour, it was fun to look around this tiny country-side school in a relatively big building.

We’re heading into the Christmas period, with quite a few days off for me. Next to spending time with family, my goals are to rest up (these past months, and really this whole past year, has been stressful and exhausting) and make some good strides in putting everything in its place. Surely the next year will be better for us.

Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.