So it seems just ridiculous that we made our Big Move up the Finchley Road, from Flat to House two and a half months ago now and I still haven’t blogged it, but that’s pretty much my pace at this blogging thing. So here we are in mid-October, having moved on 2nd August and it’s time for a little retrospective….

You probably all know, because I whinged on and on about it, that we had to up sticks at short notice and move out of our three bed flat on Broadhurst Gardens, NW6 (and area I LOVE, by the way) and you’ll know if you read my bi-monthly posts that we found a great house just up the road in Childs Hill, with plenty of space, a playroom for the boys and a garden, for not a wildly different amount to what we were paying in rent for our old place! We couldn’t quite believe our luck, yet here we are two months later actually living here.

Meanwhile, we had to get all our stuff out of one place, and into another. So somebody had to pack. And that somebody was my husband. I was in Cornwall, sunning myself with the boys, attending my grandmother’s funeral and getting emotional about the move. Because that’s what I’m good at. My husband is good at packing. Now that’s teamwork 😉

Gabriel’s Space Party was really the last day we properly lived in the flat with our stuff around us and knowing this I took some photos around the place in the aftermath of the clear-up that evening (while watching Andy Murray win his Wimbledon Final). I had a good look around and tried so hard to take it all in and store it in my memory properly, because my God, we had a good six years here, and how many memories were made here and how much we loved this place:

The following day we packed for Cornwall and the next time I saw the place, it looked like this:

Watching the piano movers trying to squeeze our Steinway Grand round the spiral stairwell was nerve-wracking:

And then the amazing people from Alexanders Removals turned up. These guys were the best removal men I could ever imagine. They were quick, careful, friendly and when we bought them lunch and coffee half way through the packing they were so sweet and gave me a little pep-talk (I was very emotional that day!) and were really understanding. We couldn’t have wished for a better experience. Moving is a stressful nightmare, but if you have to move, use them!

Then we were left to lock up:

I used to love this view sitting many hours long hours feeding or cuddling my babies here.

Our bedroom

The boys’ room

Where my babies played and slept, thousands of cuddles, co-sleeps and breastfeeds happened here…

Gabi’s old height markings. Can’t take them with us! 😦

Leaving for the last time.

Good bye.

My eyes looked upon empty rooms, but my brain saw this:

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As if one goodbye wasn’t enough for the day, that morning I got a call from Gabriel’s former nursery mentor, asking was I coming to the “Graduation Ceremony” today for the ones leaving for Primary School? I hadn’t known anything about it!! But there was no way I could let Gabs miss it, it would have broken my heart so even though it was a major inconvenience and Remus wasn’t that happy for me to bail on him mid-move, I took Gabs for his last goodbye to all his friends and teachers. It was so worth it:

By the time we got back (to the new house, not the old!) the removers had unpacked almost everything and were about to leave and we were left with the very, very long road of unpacking and settling in ahead.

So long Flat 3…. Thank you for the memories.