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Moving On

When your place gets too small, it is time to move. "Three removals are as bad as a fire," as the old saying goes. And some people are on the move all of their life... The move has been our big private project of this year. Just when the projects at work did require less travelling, we took the opportunity to relocate to a bigger place closer to the kids' bilingual junior high school (no, not to learn Zulu and Viennese, but English and German). On this page we are posting a few picture documenting our activity and we would especially like to say a big thank you to all those making this big step possible by helping us to physically move, carrying numerous things and provding their strong arms and equipment to furnish and light the new place.

"I'm gonna leave this place tomorrow, I'm gonna leave this town behind. I'll be gone before the morning on the other side of the mound.
That's why I'm moving on, I'm moving on. I've been hanging around too long, it's time I was moving on."
(Gary Moore, 1990, Moving On)

Evolution of a room: The beginning.

The kitchen with floor and tiles.

The kitchen with stove and furniture.

Project: Move

In one way or another a move is a project. It has got budget restrictions and a time frame for activities to be laid out and planned to ensure that certain targets are met. Within the build phase, corrective actions with walls, doors and floors may become necessary. After handover of the new place, at least 8-10 weeks ahead ordered deliverables like kitchen interior, closets, seating-accommodation and remaining furniture kick in. A cleansing activity may help reduce the amount of packing into the obtained numerous boxes. Flee markets may come in handy to reduce stuff, as identified.

The actual move highly depends on the availability of those helping hands by family and friends, you couldn't thank enough for their sacrifice. Planned in 2-3 phases, the move can be synchronized with furniture deliveries to guarantee the availability of proper storage room and seating possibilities. It may start with the transportation of boxes, shelves and portable closets in the proper vehicle. The activity may continue with beds and the remains, up to cleaning out the basement. A change of registration, mail forwarding and numerous notifications about the address change complete the move. Post-launch improvements such as the installation of curtains and other decoration help making the home cozier.

As we proceeded with the above sketched list of activities, a couple surprises kicked in, making corrective actions necessary. The first one regarded initial difficulties with lighting the place, as the concrete ceiling turned out stronger than the drilling machine. An uncle was quickly to the rescue with professional equipment. Cousins and friends took turns helping to move everything over, finally even the beds. In the meantime, I found out that I was not made for a hold up, for holding the hands above the head for a longer period of time - as for working overhead - would make me sweat heavily. Good luck anyway that the excitement was only temporary.

Empty rooms, to be filled with life still... and soon being haunted for Halloween.

Kitchen with curtains, lamp and baby. The girl'z room contains the obligatory fan carpet.

A leaking drain caused additional excitement, as the plumbers had to pry open the bathroom wall and the smallest room's floor in order to identify its source and fix the wet issue. Curtain rods, additional shelves, the last lamps and lots of unpacking were among the following activities. In the end, and even that is not too unusual with some projects, the unexpected hit once more: The furniture store called to cancel the next day's appointment. We were informed that the interior of the living room was not ready and we would face a delay in the shipment of almost one month. So much for not living out of boxes any more. While we continue working on the conclusion of the challenging project there is one more thing to say: A big thank you goes once more to all those, who helped making it possible.

The kids already had fun in the the boyz' room, as a fan carpet and some handy man work around shelves in the storage room would conclude the project.

For a month the Living Room would be still filled with boxes, then it arrived: The long awaited interior for the living room made it to the new address! Finally, a Wii completed the interior. Anyway, after all we have achieved within two months, it may be time to relax... on a carpet? Then there was the sad story of a metal rack breaking down under its load late night. Funny noise, actually... how long will we withstand the pressure in life? It was time to build a new wooden shelf for the storage room. And guess what, as soon as I put the saw and drilling machine to the side the space was occupied!

As we already thought, we'd be mostly settled with the move and ready to celebrate Christmas in the new place, in the night before Holy Eve the lamp in the living room went down, luckily catching itself at the electricity wire. A bigger hook was quickly organized and the small problem fixed. So much for last minute Christmas preparations... The New Year started with the return of the plumber, and soon we could sneak-peek from the bedroom into the bathroom and the other way round!

On the next Page you will find the rationale behind this Webpage.