Notes from the Road (4) - Leaving Lyn Behind

The final days at Lyn Street were stressful and unrelenting. The movers took all our shipment items on the Thursday and we had two days to get rid of the rest of our belongings and clean the house before the key hand over on the Saturday morning. Trying to do all of this, and especially around William and his toddler needs, was somewhat of a challenge, so we decided to hire professional cleaners. I don’t know if it’s my particular eye for detail or their ineptitude but I found myself having to go over things they’d missed on the Saturday morning just a couple of hours before Gary and Debra were due to come to the house. No matter how organized you think you are, those last couple of hours in a house before you move are always crazy; opening cupboards to find that you’ve not emptied the contents, and realizing that your freezer has a lot more food in it than you remembered.

Iain ferried items round to the Coopers, and Vicki from next door came in and took things off our hands that we wanted to go to charity. By mid-day I was alone at the house and it was finally empty. For the first time in about four months I actually had nothing to do. Unable to sit still, I found a brush and started sweeping the drive way to keep busy and keep the tears at bay. It was pointless. The tears fell as reality hit. I absolutely loved living in this house. It was a brilliant layout and really well equipped with the double, internal access garage and the open plan living room. It was warm, it was sunny, it was modern and it was great for having people over. Having William here was so easy as I could wheel him about in his buggy as it was all on the same floor, the bathroom was huge and everything was accessible through the garage. Boy, I’m gonna miss it. Five years is a long time in any place.