I’ve been away for a little while, preparing for my move from Beautiful Brisbane to Magical Melbourne – see my Break in Transmission post.
Things have progressed quite a bit since that post. My parents have sold their house – it was on the market for just 7 days and someone snapped it up. They have a 30 day settlement contract, so they will be moving out in about 2 weeks! They are moving from Brisbane back to our hometown (Mackay) which is 1,000km north of Brisbane and I’m moving to Melbourne, which is 2,000km south of Brisbane. There’s so much to be done, so many things to remember to do, it’s a fairly stressful experience and I admit that I’ve become quite overwhelmed with it all at times.
I took a little longer to get going than my parents. I’ve realised that being single makes some things quite difficult – there’s so much that has to be done, so many decisions to make, so much work preparing – it would be so much easier to share these parts with someone else.
I’m finally ready to get going – I met with the real estate last week and yesterday the photographer came through to photograph my home and do the 360 degree layout so that interstate buyers can go through it remotely. It was cool to follow him around and see what they do and how they get the shots they need. It was a three hour process and I am very impressed with the level of detail they go to.
Preparing for the photographers and subsequent open house days was enormous. I had to paint over my pink walls in the living room and hallway (don’t worry, the pink door is staying!!). I had to take down all of my photos of people, which is most of my photos. Which means I had to take screws out of the walls and putty up the holes, sand and paint – what a huge process. And I had to declutter to the point of extreme minimalism. My family have been a fantastic help – they have so much of their own stuff to do, but they still make time to come and help me with everything. I’m so grateful to them.
I spent a few days in Melbourne last week, got to hang out with one of my besties for a night. It was like old times – neither of us can make a decision on dinner, we finally decided but then didn’t like the place when we got there, so we went to our all time favourite dumpling restaurant, which we should have gone to first. This happens almost every time, it’s kind of weird if it doesn’t happen this way 😉 We realised that we hadn’t seen each other for our birthdays (he’s in July, I’m in August) so we made it a birthday dinner celebration with wine and cocktails as well. It was a really good night. He’s going through some heavy stuff right now, but he still took the time to make sure I was ok. Non-stop chatting, lots of laughs and even a couple of tears – good tears 🙂
I was excited to find a fabulous apartment in Melbourne – a converted silo, very cool. I applied for it and MissGidget and I were accepted, but the timing wasn’t quite right so I had to say no, which was very sad but ultimately for the best as it was too stressful to think about paying a mortgage and rent at the same time.
On Monday, my home goes on the market and then we wait for a buyer to fall in love with it. Once I know when the sale will happen, then I can make a start on finding somewhere to live in my new city.
Ok that might be enough rambling from me for now. I wanted to let you know what’s going on with me. I feel bad for not being very present here lately. I do scroll through the reader when I have time and comment on some posts here and there. Thank goodness for Lucile, who is pretty much managing our PhotoRehab Cover Makeover Challenge all by herself and she is doing a fabulous job.
I did take some time out this morning to do a little mini photo shoot in my garden, I’ll prep those photos for posting soon. I’m also planning to post my Dark Side Thursday story in a single post soon so I can prepare for getting back to finishing that, but this week I think I have a standalone story for you from a recent trip.
On Sunday, I’m meeting up with an old friend, who is also a photographer, and we will do my next Changing Seasons shoot and then go to dinner and catch up. I finally feel like I can get a breather for a week or so while the marketing plan for my home gets underway. I know it will get superbusy again once the sale happens and I have to start packing for real!
Let me know how you’re doing. If you have any tips on dealing with the stresses of selling house and moving 2,000km away, please let me know. You know I love hearing from you all and I am thankful to you for sticking with me through this absence.
x desleyjane
Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist 
I’d love to hear from you!