And goodbye, house

Our house settles tomorrow. We have been sleeping at our friends' place for two nights now, and Nick has been going back to sort out the stuff he was eBaying (because he's awesome) and cleaning (did I mention he's awesome? I only had to look at the unmentionables under the fridge for like 5 minutes before he whisked them away), so I hadn't been there for a few days.

Let's go back to the last time we moved out of "our place" which was in the US, when we decided to move to Australia. We moved in with my mom about 6 months before we set sail (so to speak - I wish we really could set sail rather than fly through LAX, but that's another blog post), leaving behind our first place, our first home together, Nate's first home. I was excited about the future, as I tend to be, and didn't bother sentimentalising our little apartment. Nick went back to clean it up, and I never looked back. He was peeved that I didn't go see the empty place, but I didn't really see the point. We were, after all, leaving it behind and going on with our lives.

I was happy this time as well to just let Nick clean it up and to move on. But our house has been good to us, and we lived there for over 5 years - actually the second longest I have ever lived anywhere in my life, and that's only by a small margin. It was the only home Maya and Eli ever knew, and probably all that Nate remembers. So I went back for the final walk through and clean, and I was a whole lot more sentimental than I thought I would be. I could picture my little children running around at the various stages throughout their lives. I could see little Nate, little enough to walk under the counter without bumping his head - something Eli has been too tall to do for quite a few months now. Their varying heights were marked on a wall for goodness' sake, and that's where I lost it a bit. And it occurred to me that that is precisely why I wasn't in a big rush to get back there. I feel sad. And nostalgic. And bloody sentimental. And that's ok.

Goodbye house. Thank you for never bursting a pipe or letting the rain seep through your roof. Thank you for being our safe haven for so long. Thank you for the memories you will always hold for all of us.