Tuesday 7 August 2012

A house and a home





In six weeks I will have lived in six houses in eight years.

That's moving house five times.

Packing everything I own five times. {Unpacking five times}.

Getting settled five times. {Unsettling myself five times}.

I've moved 300km from home then 50km closer, then back to where my heart wanted to be, then back and forth close by.

I'm done. I thought I liked all the change. {Exciting and all that!} But I'm just exhausted.

I want to stay still. {To stop and look around without moving}.

I want to put down roots. {And plant memories in the one place}.

I want to make the house we live in our home.

Fill it with photos of the four of us. And images of clouds, and blue skies. And the ocean {yellow sand and white-tipped waves}. And images of the islands that make my heart sing.

I want to fill a house with love and dreams {and then bask in their colours and warmth}.

Six weeks til we move. Six weeks, and {the four of us together} we'll make this new house our home.

Elisa xx

Do you move house often? Do you want to? Are you happier staying still?
 
{image by me, prettied up via app befunky}
 
 
 

13 comments:

  1. I have moved three times in the 40 years I have been on this earth. When I was five my parents moved into a new home, which they still live in. I lived there until I was 23, moving out the day I got married. My hubby and I lived in a basement apartment for two years and then moved to our current home where we have been for 15 years.

    So to answer your questions, no I don't move often. I have no desire to move, we love our home. And I don't know if I am happier staying still, but this home offers pretty much everything we want and need. It is not big, it is not new, but it if full of history, love and memories.

    Good luck with your move and all the best making your new house your home.

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    1. Thanks Kim! A home filled with history, love and memories sounds beautiful to me xx

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  2. I have moved lots in my life...to me my memories and history are in my heart and mind....I dont get sentimental about the houses, I sold my house 18mths ago and went back to renting and feel more settled than ever :)

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    1. Love your perspective Jen. Perhaps home is where our heart feels most settled. I like the sound of that actually x

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  3. Good luck with your move Elisa. I hope everything goes smoothly and with little stress. We are back from our holiday. We had a great time, but it's also nice to be home. Take care, Julie xxoo

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  4. After moving a LOT in my twenties, when Hubby and I bought this place I declared that I never wanted to move again!!
    7 years on - so far, so good!!

    When you decide you want to stay put - there's nothing more unsettling (or annoying) than having to move.
    Life is definitely about more than where we live, but I completely understand your desire to put down some roots and feel at 'home.
    xx

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  5. :0 all the best with your move. I have moved a fair bit since finishing uni...although have been in the same unit since we got married...but we'll be moving at the end of the year...and I hope after that we'll stay in that place for a while! I should be good at packing and unpacking but I am not!

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  6. That's a lot of moving, Elisa! The hardest move I've ever had to make was leaving the home I grew up in - I missed my Mum and my sister so much, and still do. My Mum said to me once that she loves seeing us as happy, settled adults - but that sometimes she wishes she could turn back the clock to when we were little girls and we were all at home together. I think home is family. So, home for me now is with Steve, but home will always be wherever my Mum and sister are too. I know you'll turn your next place into a wonderful home for your family. xx

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  7. My daughter and I have had a few homes too Elisa. I thought the last one, our palace so to speak, was going to be our last. I had waited for four years to move there, changed our community, my daughter's school ... everything to be there with my now ex partner. Unfortunately things didn't go to plan and now my daughter and I are in another holding pattern while I recalibrate. It's not too bad, home is where the heart is, but I yearn to finally settle my daughter, paint her room, get a litte dog (called Genavieve), and feel ... at ... home ... aah. I hope this will be the final one for you and the fam for a while, x

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  8. What a lovely post and WOW, six times. I have moved four times in 10 years and that's enough for me! Location wise, we'd love to stay here forever, but alas, our little home is being outgrown, so we'll have to make some big choices in the next 5 years I'd say. Moving is horrible in my opinion. Hope your move goes smoothly and you settle into your new space nice and quickly xo

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  9. Whoa!! That's a whole lotta moving!
    I hope your next move is IT for you.

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  10. I have moved house a gajillion times (not really but it is heaps). I have moved suburbs and cities and countries and it is exhausting.
    We once moved house using public transport. We didn't have a lot, but it still took several trips on two trams and bit of a walk in-between them. Transporting a TV in a shopping trolley between tram stops was the highlight of the move.
    We now have kids and have returned to Australia after 6 months in India. We are in another rental and as much as I want to make it homely, I am itching for a proper forever house. A house of our own that we can plant trees and paint walls. That is next. For now it is all command adhesive and dreams.

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  11. We moved to our current house about 5years ago (moved out for 6 months a year ago when we did the reno to accommodate the unplanned 3rd child) and my husband says he's never moving again!!
    Before this in our 16 years together we lived in 2 countries, 2 states in Australia and 7 different houses.
    We still find boxes we havent ever got round to unpacking...cos I loathe it!!

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Thank you for your words and support. I'm so glad you stopped by xx