Old Skills, New Skills

Moving home allows you to start afresh, to have things as you'd like them to be.

For me, this meant doing things I'd not done for years and using/finding other skills which I'd seldom used. In our situation, this proved possible as for 3 months we had two homes - our existing house and the flat we were going to move into. So, I had the time to prepare things and do them as we wanted.

This began with some decorating. The flat was in pretty good order decoratively, but the lounge and bedroom needed 'freshening up.' A list was drawn up of what would be required and a trip made to one of the local DIY store's. Paint, brushes, rollers, dust sheets, tape, cleaning solutions and cloths were purchased and taken to the flat. An outline schedule of decorating was drawn up, which meant twice-weekly trips to the flat were required, to do it. The bedroom was the room identified as to where I'd start. Things were ready, now the work could begin.

So, I started. My first trip took place and I prepared the bedroom and started its ceiling. It went well. Despite a slightly sore shoulder, there were no other problems. I then progressed onto the walls and finally the woodwork. I must admit, that despite my initial reservations, I found the whole process quite therapeutic and enjoyable. The radio played in the background and I slowly fell into a relaxed rhythm where progress was swiftly made. Next, I moved into the lounge and repeated the process. Things went well overall with just some minor 'spillages' or mistakes. Whilst, the result is far from being that of a professional, it looks good and both Margaret and I are happy with it. That was the first revisit to an old, infrequently used skill.

During this time we had also ordered some replacement bedroom furniture. I'd never shopped at IKEA before but our son had. I'd assembled some of the bedroom furniture he'd purchased and was impressed by its design, ease of assembly and solidity when assembled. My skills in self-assembly furniture previously had been 'mixed', but as I'd had this recent good experience and as our budget was limited, we decided to order from IKEA and I'd do the assembly myself. The furniture arrived on time. I must also add that the IKEA process of ordering and delivery was impressive. You are kept informed of the progress of the order and its delivery throughout the order. Next came the assembly. The parts were laid out and checked and I must admit it looked somewhat daunting. The instructions, (with drawings) were read and rather tentatively I began assembly.

As with the decorating, it all went surprisingly well. There were one or two mistakes made along the way, which were easily rectified. All in all, there were 4 pieces of furniture to be assembled. The first cabinet took me about one and a half hours to complete. But, as I developed my skills and became more used to the process, I speeded up. By the time I had done my fourth cabinet, the timeframe was down to an hour or so. As I said before, I had no previous experience of IKEA products (and I'm certainly not sponsored by them). But, I was very impressed with the end result, which I think we'll be using for many years to come.

One of the assembled products

Next came the removal, which we decided to do ourselves. This was to prove to be far more testing. Doing one removal would be enough, but due to circumstances, I finished up doing three!!

Now I'm a 60-year-old bloke and I thankfully remain relatively fit. But this was to test me and my body significantly.

It began with moving our son, to his new flat. Thankfully, he didn't have too much furniture (he was purchasing mainly new stuff for his flat). But he did have a kingsize bed, lots of electrical gadgets, his clothes and a wardrobe. His new flat was on the first floor and this proved challenging as the staircase was long and had a couple of bends on it. It was hard work and an introduction to what was to follow.

Next came our daughters move. She, her partner and family had been hoping to move for months and had become concerned as to whether it would ever happen. The experience for them had not been a good one, with frustrating delay upon delay. When it did finally happen, it came at an alarming speed, giving them little time to pack and properly prepare. This move was much bigger, than our sons - in fact, it was much bigger than our own would be, as it was a family of four, rather than one (in our son's case) and two in our own move. Van load upon van load was transported, the thankfully short distance between their old and new homes. Despite there being more of us, I was exhausted and can't say I found the experience anything like enjoyable - with the exception that it meant they were now in their long-awaited new home. This was good to see.

So, that took us up to the third and final move, which was our own. Over the previous weeks, we had already moved much of the stuff we'd be keeping via the van and car. But our van had now been sold and the situation was rapidly changing. COVID 19 was beginning to become more prevalent in the UK and the government was giving signals that things would be changing. We had anticipated moving into the flat at the beginning of April 2020, but this needed to urgently change. We had to move everything forward by just over a week. Much of what was to be moved had already been done, but some big stuff still needed to to be taken. We no longer had a van, but thankfully my brother did. He (and his wife), very kindly offered to help. They brought their own van to us, helped us load it, transported it to Ipswich and then assisted us in getting into the flat. For this we remain extremely grateful to them - we wouldn't have managed to do it without their help. Our gratitude to them is enormous and we thank them for this. It felt so good to finally have made it to our new home. To have our son and daughter also settled into theirs. We were exhausted, but lockdown gave us plenty of time to recover.

My learning from it all has been great, I can decorate and assemble furniture. But, there is one thing with which I did struggle. If anyone ever asks me to become a removal man. I'll politely decline. SELF REMOVALS ARE NOT FOR ME!

If needed in the future, I'll always use these guys!!!!!