We have moved back into Jan Juc. We are slowly reestablishing a home for ourselves and finding our land legs. It is hard work, frustrating and delightful all at once.

We moved Anui into its berth last Friday. It was a tight fit, but she is safe. We took a car load of gear back to Jan Juc over the weekend, the first of a few trips back and forth.

The move back to Jan Juc

We had forgotten how much work is involved in moving – physically and mentally! Our bodies are aching, reminding us we are not as young as we used to be. We are also amused by the things we miss from Anui, the constant gentle movement that helps you sleep at night, the fact that on a boat everything is close at hand and you know exactly where everything in!

There are trade-offs between our life afloat and our life on land which will require lots of adjustments, some easy, others more delicate: scenic anchorages Vs crowded suburbia, restricted living space Vs a roomy home, endless compromises Vs convenience, seclusion Vs proximity, quietness Vs bustle. We will see how the next months develop, how we feel, and what we decide. We are thoroughly enjoying the ease of living, the convenience, reconnecting with our local friends, and still being next to the ocean… although no longer in it!

First things first: cleaning frenzy! The house had been recently vacated by the tenants who had not bothered to clean a great deal. There were 9 years’ worth of cobwebs hanging from the rafters and ceilings, dirty walls, a grubby kitchen and ensuite. To make matters worse we had had the jarrah floors sanded and polished after they left, which left a coating of red dust at the bottom of the lounge, kitchen and sunroom walls and floor to ceiling windows, new carpet was in but not quite finished, internal doors removed which needing to be trimmed by our carpenter to suit the height of the carpet piles… the place was filthy, the deck rotten, the garden unkept. It did not feel like our home and we were quite depressed!

It took a whole day to clean inside before we could even open the garage door. Then our focus was to find a bed and a fridge so we could at least keep our food cold and crash after that first exhausting day. Thank god for our friends Gloria and Gary who fed us that night!

The next few days were spent moving furniture and opening boxes. It sounds easy but just imagine: we have to condense the contents of two and a half houses into one (Brunswick, Jan Juc, and some pieces from both our deceased parents). This means at least two of everything. So there are decisions to be made as to what stays, what gets given away or sold, what will be kept in case we move north later.

We were concerned about vermin: rats, mice, moths. All things considered, we got off lightly. There were a few disappointments: three precious family heirloom chairs were moth eaten, which we will have recovered, we had to throw away a small rug that moths were still feasting on, and a few boxes attracted mice (strangely enough they loved chewing through soap) but we think we fared well. All our linen and clothes were kept in vacuum bags which protected them. We have gone through it all and given away a large amount to the Salvos. There will be another round of culling… we accumulated way too much ‘stuff’. But the good thing about having been minimalists for 9 years is that we feel a lot more detached and it is easy to let go of things.

In the process, we have a real mix of emotions and reactions, moments of delights at rediscovering old treasures, joy at selecting the best of our furniture, surprise at some of the junk we kept, annoyance at finding the mess the house got left in. Funny things happen: we are constantly losing stuff, asking “where I have left my phone, glasses, keys”… or moving to one room to do something, then getting distracted by something else because there is so much that needs attention. We get lost in memories, we get sidetracked, we have all sorts of lists running because our concentration has turned to mush, we project far ahead then step back to the present. Call us scatter brains! We are getting through the workload though and making the house feel like home again. It is different to how it used to be, it will take a while to feel settled, but we don’t have to complete it all quickly. And where we thought we would leave constant maintenance behind, we have a long todo list on the house which has been neglected for 9 years. It will take time.

Pussycat Bengie has adapted incredibly easily. Cats can be funny about changes in their environment and go into hiding for a while, or howl for days. Not our Bengie. Whether in the boat, the car, the house, she is used to moving around and as long as we are with her she is all good, although she draws the line at plane trips in the luggage hold! She loves fossicking about in the garage and often reappears from her forays covered in cobwebs, which is a funny sight. She has a wander morning and night in the garden, enjoying chewing on blades of grass, investigating under the house, sniffing around the empty boxes piling up on the deck as we empty them out… And she is an expert at finding the sunny spots around the house for a snooze. We are amazed she made it back here as she is ever so thin and not eating a lot. But she seems happy and comfortable.

We are grateful for our friends and neighbours, Gloria and Gary, who have given us a hand moving gear, and have been great moral support through our ups and downs. We are confident things will get easier and we can soon let go of some of the tension we have been holding for months. Hopefully Wade will soon be able to have a surf and Chris will be back to taking landscape photos.