Almost There

The moment is almost upon us. Tomorrow morning, we get the keys to the new house.

When we finally reached agreement with the seller over the price, it seemed like an awfully long time until we would be able to take possession of the property. Now, though, it feels as if the moment has come around very quickly. It’s been two months in all.

The essential things have already been taken care of. Home, property and liability insurance have all been arranged, which means I’ll sleep more soundly tomorrow. Our bed will also arrive tomorrow afternoon, even though we still have no duvet to go on top of it.

The alarm system already present in the new house will also be reactivated tomorrow afternoon, even though there won’t be much to steal for the first few days.

The bank transferred the remaining 90% of the purchase price to the notary’s account today. Er, that’s something I’m not going to think about too deeply.

Lots of things will be happening next week, too.

On Monday, a cleaning company is coming to give the place a good once over.

On Tuesday, the movers will be reuniting us with the stuff we haven’t seen since 10th August on the other side of the world. We’ll also be taking receipt of a new washing-machine and dryer. At that point the house will become a little more livable.

Sarah flies with Eloïse to the US for Christmas on Wednesday, leaving me to take care of whatever strikes me as worth doing to the house in her absence. I head out to the US myself on the 31st for twelve days. By that time, I hope to have the telephone, ADSL and cable TV sorted.

Since the contract on our rental house runs until the end of January 2006, we’ve decided not to do the move all in one go tomorrow. Rather, we’ll move stuff over there a piece at a time until it’s all done. It shouldn’t take more than a few runs with the bakfiets or the Greenwheels car. Given that we’ll have hardly anything at the new house until our stuff is delivered next week, I imagine that tonight won’t be the last night we find ourselves sleeping in the old house.

Tomorrow, though, stuff or no stuff, we’ll be sleeping there as a gesture, to welcome ourselves to our new home, the first either of us has ever owned. For all we know, we may well spend the next thirty years of our life there, so we have great expectations on the eve of our new acquisition. Our children will grow up there, we hope to make many new friends there, and this new house will be the place we call home for a very long time to come; perhaps even for the rest of our lives.

Stirring stuff!