I looked up the meaning of ‘discombobulate’ a few days ago as the word kept hovering on the edges of my slightly frazzled mind and seemed somehow appropriate to the way I was feeling: slightly disoriented, very confused, and somewhat frayed around the edges.  Seems it is a word that hails from North America, has a humorous connotation and is a reference to being disconcerted or confused.  Well, I’m not so sure about the humorous bit but the rest does seem to describe the way I felt during the first few days of last week.

Eddies came with two trucks.

The move did happen, as planned, on Friday, July the 17th.  The move of the furniture, that is.  The morning dawned bright and sunny but freezing cold and my feet turned to ice as I stood in the newly paved driveway directing pieces of furniture to new destinations.

Johannes and his team.

It was reassuring to see the same Eddie’s team who moved us out of Dunkeld under the competent leadership of Johannes, climb out of the truck and start the process of unloading numerous cartons and then pieces of furniture that had been in storage for the past 6 months.  It must be a thankless job, really, lugging someone else’s heavy possessions around and this team did it in the best of spirits.  Most of the men seemed to be Zulu-speaking and some of them even sang as they worked.  Within just a couple of hours everything was unloaded and stacked either in the house or in the garage and all the boxes and individual items of furniture had been ticked off Johannes’ list.  It was a pleasure dealing with them.  It wasn’t straightforward as despite all warnings, there were builders and workmen everywhere and the moving men had to pick their way over people and equipment but they did so without complaint.

Competing with the electric gate motor man.

Heavy Loads

Once they had departed though, the real work started.  It was daunting trying to decide where to begin, not least of all because the house was still teeming with builders.  We had numerous offers of help from friends, coffees hand-delivered and suppers promised but in the end, the process of unpacking and deciding what should go and what should stay comes down to the individual and there’s just no escaping it.  All well-wishers were given the option of dropping in for drinks the following week.

We finally followed our possessions into the house on Sunday afternoon.  We collected the three cats from the cattery (where they’d been resident for 6 months) at 5pm and brought them, squawking and squeaking to their new home.  They’ve settled in very well although we haven’t allowed them outside yet and keeping them in is quite challenging with so many people still in and out.

Monty settling in.

Izzie on a favourite chair.

Mishka without a care in the world.

Daisy, after the peripatetic  life she’s led this year, has adapted well and loves her daily runs in the park.

Straight through the garden gate… Daisy Heaven.

Thursday became the ‘come round for a drink day’ and when it rolled around we did think we must have been crazy to suggest it but it turned out to have been a great idea.  It was motivation to get better organised and nice to simply have fun and enjoy the space instead of working in it.

So from looking like this on Thursday morning –

Thursday Morning.

We managed to get the living room looking like this by Thursday night –

Thursday Evening.

Throughout the building process, I’ve been quite surprised by the number of people who’ve asked if we’ll be ‘buying all new furniture’ or simply making the assumption that we’d be doing so.  That is quite a foreign concept for me.  My favourite pieces of furniture are things that have been around me all my life.  Some of them belonged to my parents and some to my grandparents.  Seeing these much loved items ‘reincarnating’ themselves into new spaces and places is – for me – one of the most satisfying and fulfilling aspects of finding our feet in this new home.

And now with each passing day and each carton unpacked, we feel better settled.

Unpacking books in the library. All those boxes are already empty.

I did email the contractor today, however, to remind him that just because we’re at this address doesn’t mean the house/building site we’re living in is complete.  With the exception of a few subcontractors, there has been a marked lack of progress since we got here.  The generator, delivered weeks ago, is still not in operation and we have already had several episodes of  load shedding.  It’s a little frustrating  to think of it sitting in the ‘bunker room’ twiddling its little generator thumbs while we stumble around in the dark or sit doing crosswords by the light of our indispensable headlamps….

But I’ve also messaged Bernard several times just to tell him how absolutely lovely the house is.  In terms of the spaces, the light and the flow, it has turned out exactly how we hoped it would and we’re loving being here.

Showered with orchids.

Every now and then I stop in my tracks somewhere and remember envisaging that particular spot or space when it was just a couple of lines intersecting on a sheet of paper and now it is a room with a shaft of sunlight falling exactly where we hoped it would.  So far, I think it’s safe to say it is surpassing our expectations.  In fact, I’m starting to feel almost “recombobulated”.