It’s true what they say

Moving house is widely regarded as one of life’s major stressors. It’s something which Michel and I have never really done. Not in a conventional sense of packing up one house and moving straight into another. I was young when we first got together and moved into his place. Having spent 6 months abroad I didn’t have many belongings. Soon afterwards we moved into a house my aunt owned and stayed there for the next 25 years. During that time we bought a small house in France for our holidays. This gradually became the place we spent more time, completing a major renovation when Michel retired, making it suitable for full time living. For a while we still divided our time between the UK and France, before becoming resident in France. The clearing out of our UK house took place over a long period with no official moving day.

So, when we made a quick decision this summer to make an offer on a new house, our naivety was strong. I did know that moving would be a big undertaking. But, that many people do it plenty of times over the course of a lifetime. I’d read up about taking care of the dogs and minimising the upheaval for them. And pushed thoughts away of it being August, the month where things shut down and the heat is fierce.

July and August are now a distant memory as I sit here in the new house wondering at how warped time can become. Moving day was mid August and a week later my brother and his family arrived from the UK to help us settle in. That week involved long days of unpacking, unwrapping and trying hard to avoid worrying about how uprooted the dogs might be feeling. As I now can appreciate, they coped with the stress much better than I did. The days of that post-move week passed faster than I have ever experienced in my life. They started early, 6am and I would sit down at 9pm and wonder how it could be. But when my brother arrived the laser focus on getting the house straight all proved more than worthwhile.

We shared long, enjoyable days relaxing well into our new home. Which is very much a place where family and friends can come together and relax. As we live away from most, it’s important to us both that we have a welcoming home. This is a house made for this, with a design which encourages conviviality. And then there’s the garden.

This is the biggest reason for us moving. It’s a large, level, mature garden with plenty of interesting corners and spaces for the dogs to explore. We loved our old house but the garden was always a hard one to manage with its steep slope and different levels, multiple stone steps and separate spaces. I wrote in ‘Saving Susie-Belle’ about it not being the easiest garden in the world for her to enjoy. Now, we’re at the stage in life where our garden has to be easier and more enjoyable for all of us.

Here the garden is ideal and the dogs now spend their days pottering in and out of the house at will, exploring it. There’s no limit to how interesting it will be for them, and us over time. We have lots of ideas and a few plans for what we’ll be adding. We’re keen to support as much wildlife and biodiversity as we possibly can. And Michel will have a whole new potager to develop and enjoy.

We are very lucky we found this property. We didn’t want to move out of the area and knew we might have to. As luck had it, we’re 10 minutes from our old place, friends and community and all our familiar walks. With the extra fun of having new walks on our doorstep to explore.

So, while moving house is certainly one of the bigger stressors in life, I know we’ve been fortunate that ours has gone smoothly and successfully. And has been absolutely worthwhile. Now to get on top of all the work and non-house things which took a back seat through the chaos.