Moving house

We have moved house! Into the big smoke we go, so that we can be closer to Husband's work and that way he can be a full time parent. Moving with a baby wasn't fun, but it wasn't impossible either. Pichan is just learning to stand and LOVES getting into boxes. So packing was a bit of a trial as it was a case of two items into a box, one item out by Pi. He also, likes to eat cardboard- hence his more recent nickname- Yagichan (Little Goat). Most of our boxes have been nibbled...

We hired professional movers, and while they have a full service move- which includes packing and cleaning- we went with the cheap "pack it yourself". They were very fast loading everything into a truck, and clearly they had played Tetris before. They also disassembled the furniture that needed it, but thankfully we didn't have to take our book shelves apart or most other things. Anything the disassembled, they reassembled. I did the crib myself though- thought I would help them out. They also brought "hanger" boxes, so the clothes went from our cupboard, into a box with a rail and then into our new house cupboard (they did that). They also set up the furniture at the other end, and removed and installed our aircon (for a charge, though).

The key to doing it with a baby was just to be organised. Pichans room was the first one we set up, and made sure we put all his decorations up so his room looked practically the same. It was all ready for his afternoon nap and thankfully he transitioned really well. We were dreading terrible nights sleep, but it was no worse than normal We were in no hurry to unpack, so the last of the boxes has only just been unpacked today.

Cleaning the old house though was another matter. I should have taken some of my friends up on the offer to babysit. Pi got so bored and we spent half our time stopping him from drinking bleach, or putting his finger in power sockets, or getting his fingers jammed in the doors. While the basic clean doesn't take too long, we took 5 hours doing the worlds most thorough clean. Washing windows, washing the groves in the doors, all the skirting boards, cleaning fly screens, above the stove etc. I don't know if Japanese people leave houses that clean normally- as you are charged a 'cleaning fee' out of your deposit no matter how clean you leave it (I believe)- but we figured that being foreigners we should do an extra thorough job. In Australia the real estate agents can be so picky about the smallest things so we wanted to make sure we didn't need to go back.



(The last sunrise from Ninomiya)

Now that it is all finished we are so happy to be in our new house. Only 20min walk to Husbands school, 4LDK so lots of room for Pichans things, and while it is on the hill of doom, aka Mt Everest, we have a sense of community up here as well with lots of small children on our street. All in all, a success, but I won't want to do it again any time soon.




Finally learning 'how to adult' in our new house...