House vs Rondawel – What We Love About Our Move
The house is bigger...
Which pros transpired from our recent move from midlands meandering to sectional title suburbanism? Well, shops are closer. And our house is bigger.
The house we left in the hills is a rondawel, a round hut among all the other round huts on the hills. Initially the hut had a ground floor only, but as the family grew it got a second storey. Have you ever seen a double storey rondawel?
All five of us would sleep upstairs in the cone thatched roof, basically, and clamber down a ladder every morning to the living area.
The ‘living area’ was kitchen, lounge and dining room, PLUS bathroom, all in one circle of 28 square meter. My three darling children grew up ascetic, see?
Yet the moment they set foot in a shop, they would come alive to all the brilliant possibilities of the stuff around them, and turn into relentless consumers. No-one taught them this. It just happened. And I find that although I am generally very good at saying no, I get tired and lose focus if every minute is filled with at least six “Please buy…” requests.
...and the shops are closer
So that is why shops should not be close, right? No! Living in the sticks means going shopping is a whole day’s affair and everyone tags along. I could never nip out to anywhere. It had to be planned, and prepped, and packed. After fifty minutes of horrendous mountain driving and many car sick groans we would eventually hit the coast and high way. Twenty minutes after that we would all peel out of the car, sticky and in need of the loo. Then we would be starting to look for a place to have the next meal – hey, the one we had before we left is already more than an hour ago and the kiddos are niggly. Hubby spent umpteen glorious mornings in Wimpy with a glazed over look on his face and a mega coffee in hand, while the children careened on the jungle gyms and I ran through the shops trying to tick something, SOMETHING off my list.
Now I pop in and I pop out and by the time they realise I have gone I’m back with the goods. Painless.
A bigger house needs more furniture of course
About the bigger house. We still have a modest home. Three bedrooms two bathrooms isn’t massive for five people. But in the beginning it was absolutely cavernous for us. We all slept in the same room on Night One, huddling together a bit like sheep out in the open would. And like I told you previously we had precious few possessions with which to fill the space.
I speak in past tense, however, because seven months down the line we shake our heads at everything we have already hoarded and how we have already, in several unguarded moments, dared to say the house was too small. Consumers!
But that is a story for another time.
Cheerio!
