Thanks!

Thank you to all of you who have sent us 'New Home' cards and gifts - we're really touched by your care and support for us from afar.

In my house there are many boxes

Sorry to misquote Jesus in the title, but it’s true – you can check John 14:2 for what he actually said.

The current count is 114 boxes empty and flattened and 7 awaiting unpacking (94.2% complete). The fact that we’ve got so much done only 6 days after arriving here is largely due to Tasha’s parents Colin and Chris coming over for the weekend and helping us out. Yet as fast as we unpack them we seem to buy more! As I’ve mentioned in previous missives the storage space in this house is somewhat less than what we are used to, and especially in the kitchen where the apparent cupboard space to actual usable space ratio is somewhat low. So, after one round of unloading, some things went back into boxes until there was somewhere to store them. This entailed visits to Argos and a Swedish Furniture Emporium, and a whole lot more cardboard.

On the garage front, Martin Howard will testify that a couple of days before we left the Ferndown garage looked a lot emptier than it did six weeks previously. We decided that we would work out what to do with the remainder when we could see the extent of the problem. And the answer is - a new shed. I’ve got quite familiar with the Cambridge Yellow Pages, and my brand new built-to-order 10’x6’ shed with double doors (enough for 4 bikes, camping gear and 10 crates of Christmas decorations) will be arriving next week.

Also, there are nearly three large boxes full of things where a lack of storage space has meant that we’ll be saying goodbye to some more items. Our loss is Freecycle.co.uk’s gain.
The upshot of all this is that one room of the house is almost completely inaccessible as it’s full of flattened or yet-to-be-unpacked boxes. But everything else is looking good.

Things are looking good on the lettings front too – Colin and Chris helped us out on the decorating of 62 Fitzpain Road after it was empty, and it seems a well presented empty house lets a whole lot quicker than a full one. We’ve had 3 offers this week and are now proceeding with one of them.

So once more, and hopefully for the last time, how much stuff did Jesus actually carry round with him? I think a pair of sandals and a robe took considerably less space than the 2500 cubic feet we’ve just carted halfway across the country.

Time to go

There's no turning back now. In less than 9 hours time the removal men will be here. It's too late for me to call them to tell them not to come. So I guess we'll be off then. 2 days of packing and loading, trying to make sure that the rabbits are in the car, not the lorry, and that I don't end up taking a load of paint that is the wrong colour for the new house.

Beth and Isaac are being sent off to friends to keep us sane - they've struggled this last week with me taking things down in their rooms. Despite our promises of shiny new bedrooms it must be disturbing to see 'my space' being disassembled, your favourite posters disappearing, and even your bed being given away!

I'll be offline for a few days now - only partly because 'find a new broadband supplier' never made it onto my 'to do' list. Might be finding an internet cafe in Cambridge to deliver my next update.

See you soon!

So what have you been doing today?

In our last full week in Ferndown there's an interesting blend of panic and resignation to the fact that the removal men arrive in less than 8 days.

Today was a perfect example. Tasha took Isaac out for the day, in one of those 'last time we get a chance to spend time with friends' opportunities. I stayed at home to do some jobs (which are now starting to turn into 'preparing for move' jobs rather than 'rent the house out' jobs), and Beth stayed with me too.

Her objective was to sort out her wardrobe and iron her clothes. By the time Mum returned a few hours later she had managed to sew badges on her Guide camp blanket (my fault for showing her how to) and made a modest start on the wardrobe.

I, when quizzed on what I had done, could list that I had taken down two lights and replaced them with ceiling roses, tried to find the source of an elusive leak in the bathroom (and created a re-tiling job for tomorrow in the process), filled holes in plaster, shredded two large boxes of old paperwork, touched up paint in three random locations, and sorted out the top-up card for Beth's phone.

And that made me wonder what exactly I have done since I left work at the end of May. Without wishing to bore you, but to make me feel better, since I don't feel like I've had a day off in the last 10 weeks here's the headlines:
Week 1/2 - Holiday in Venice (ok, that's several days off, but they're the last ones I can remember!)
Week 3 - got my car MOT'd, had the boiler serviced, stripped the garage door and replaced the lock even after the garage lock bloke said they didn't do locks like that any more, spent 2 days in Cambridge finding a house, had a meal with our home group, sorted out the sheds
Week 4 - painted the garage door (2 coats, both sides), had the drive done (made lots of tea for them!), varnished the back door (2 coats, one side only)
Week 5 - visited the Diocesan Director of Ordinands in Salisbury, had 4 removal companies round to give quotes, hired a tower scaffold, painted the outside of the house ( 1 coat), replaced the TV aerial.
Week 6 - realised we hadn't asked anybody to rent out the house. Appointed 3 different agents to do so. Repaired garage wall where leaking drainpipe had washed away mortar completely from a single skin wall. Replaced leaking drainpipe with completely new guttering system. Asked 3 roofing contractors for a price for roof repairs. Led an afternoon Bible/prayer session
Week 7 - Took a shed down, levelled the patio under it, waited for rain to stop so I could repaint said shed. Took a broken pane of glass out of other shed - rain started. Started to repair leaking waste pipe in kitchen sink only to find I didn't have the right parts. Tried to give blood. Finally got to repaint plural sheds, after several days of forecast rain failed to materialise. Held farewell parties for Isaac, Beth and us. Stopped being a youth-leader.
Week 8 - started this blog. Course, Chessington, Funeral
Week 9 - 3 days in Cambridge/IKEA Edmonton, 2 days trying to remember who I am.
Week 10 - Appointed another lettings agent. Received e-mail from Dicoese reminding me that if I don't submit a budget form I won't get any money on Sept 1st! When have I got time to fill out forms??

I'm so pleased I left work when I did - I haven't got time to go to work - I'm too busy working.

Flatpack life

A few weeks ago I gave a sermon in which I discussed the simple life that Jesus led - free of the burdens of possessions he just wandered around Israel as and when he needed to. I showed a picture of my garage which was packed full of stuff, and then talked about how I needed to get rid of most of it, as I won't have as much storage space in Cambridge. That part of the project has been dealt with - and much of what remains will remain in the loft in Ferndown.

Earlier this week I seemed to spend most of a day in IKEA, as we looked for new bedroom furniture for Beth - in a bizarre twist of irony her new room is in the roof and her loft bed won't fit. We returned to Cambridge with a car full of brown flatpack boxes and a mattress strapped to the roof, several hundred pounds poorer. I only had to stop twice on the way back to resecure the mattress, which was trying to take off.

We then spent the rest of the day armed only with a screwdriver, hammer and allen key putting it all together. Come midnight everything was assembled, and the hallway was a distinct fire hazard, full of cardboard packaging, although by the next morning this was already recycled!

So, simplifying my life by buying more stuff and creating more rubbish......