Warm house
Jan. 19th, 2010 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livI foolishly decided to have my housewarming just about the first possible weekend after moving in (leaving aside the Christmas period, which is useless for parties). The idea was that it would encourage me to be organized about getting the house sorted out, which only worked partly; I got more done than I would have without the deadline, but not everything, and it was more stressful. But the good thing was that lots of lovely people were helpful and supportive, and the party itself was everything I hoped for.
First of all parents were incredibly helpful in advising me how to deal with all the paperwork and bureaucracy, and when I ended up moving in the last week in December, managed to find a removal company to bring all my stuff on the 22nd. And they donated lots of furniture, both from their house and stuff they found at places like Emmaus, including a really, really nice oak dining table. Not to mention preparing all my belongings (which they've been housing for most of the last decade) for the movers, and then driving up to Stoke to receive them when they arrived and make a start on the unpacking.
Thenjack provided a car and an unlimited supply of patience and good humour so that I could find all the equipment I needed, which involved a great deal of boring and stressful shopping. And Dad was brilliant again because he came up for a few days to help me with DIY. When we ran into difficulties, I ended up getting a handyman to finish some of the tricky bits, like attaching curtain rails to a slightly crumbly plasterboard false wall. I found someone by searching the university forums, and indeed Neil Rogers of Honeywood Joinery turned out to be very helpful and professional. So thanks to all these people, by the time Saturday came round I had curtains and lampshades in place, and enough chairs for everyone to sit on, and enough miscellaneous crockery to feed everyone, and usable rooms (although there are still some boxes in my bedroom and office). I should also mention ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
simont who did lots of driving and therefore brought my friends to me, and megamole and mathcathy who lent bedding for the sleepover.
It's also been really cheering to unpack gifts from friends and find places for them in my new home, the fruit bowl thatredaloud made me, the silver candlesticks and the dragon teapot and the flower seder plate that were thank you presents from my Stockholm community, and some home-made cards from doseybat from years ago, and hatam_soferet's little tiny split pea ladybirds (the annoying burglar alarm control panel makes the perfect shelf for an ornament which is too small for most displays). Plus I've been taking great satisfaction in using pseudomonas' hammer and screwdriver for fixing things.
jack arrived the evening before the big day and was incredibly calming and supportive. Mum came up with Dad and Granny on Saturday morning, bearing bread and cheese and fruit salad and homemade soup and her famous chocolate cake, meaning that we could have a non-stressful lunch even though I'd been taken up with party preparations and hadn't had time to organize anything. And helpful Tesco delivered a lot of party provisions, so all I had to do was wait for lovely people to arrive in the afternoon. And indeed they did; not quite as many of my colleagues as I'd hoped, as lots of people my age who had planned to come had problems with babysitting or sickness, so it ended up being mostly the older colleagues who don't have young children. And one of them brought another chocolate cake, iced with "Happy home :-)" and very tasty indeed. Also someone I've run into a couple of times in the labs, and whom I really like, so I was especially pleased that she seemed to get on well with my friends. A lot of the people who were coming from the south-east ran into problems with the main line from London to Manchester, but persevered anyway and made it in spite of several hours of delay. (So much for my plan to convince everybody that it's really easy to get to Stoke and you should all come and visit often!)
So there ended up not being that much overlap between colleagues who mainly came in the afternoon, and distant friends who didn't make it until the middle of the evening. I won't make a list because I'll inevitably forget someone and cause drama, but there were lots and lots of people I was really excited and grateful to see, though again it was sad that a few who'd originally planned to come didn't make it because they were ill or stressed. (It's always sad when people can't make it due to evil geography, but at least I was expecting not to see them.)
I went back and forth on the question a few times, but in the end decided to do the official dedication ceremony, including putting up my mezuzah, at the party itself rather than the day I moved in. Which meant doing it in the dark and rain after shabbat went out on Saturday evening, but I'm really glad I did it. It was really lovely, everyone who happened to be there at the time was all encouraging and not impatient with the weird religious bits, and AF held my prayerbook andjack handed me nails so I had enough free hands to do the actual hammering. It really does feel like my home has been dedicated in the presence of some of the people I care about. We warmed the house in a literal sense too, because Granny found my normal thermometer setting of 20 degrees too cold so I turned it up to 24, and the house got very warm very quickly and between the insulation and the mass of people inside it stayed warm for about 8 hours after I turned the heating off.
P'tite Soeur brought me original art (I had no idea my sister moved in such elevated circles!) as a housewarming present from her and the brothers, and homemade fudge, andblue_mai brought me a little basket of spring. Plus lots of people brought interesting and tasty edibles and potables, including several bottles of bubbly and some purple beer, and square Jaffa cakes (!) I didn't quite get to talk to everybody properly, but it was so so lovely to keep hearing the doorbell ring and announce another wonderful person coming into my house. I did very very well on the hugs front, too. And there was plenty of good conversation and plenty of silliness (at the tail end of the party when we were tired and not very sober we ended up playing the twisted version of 20 questions that Claire described at the Relativity New Year party). It was also great to get the chance to introduce friends from disparate groups to eachother and see them getting on well.
Another reason my friends are wonderful is that they helped so much with the clearing up that by mid-morning on Sunday everything was back to normal. I also really appreciated havingjack around for the afternoon so I could wind down after all the party excitement without feeling melancholy and alone.
Oh, and I have left over: a long black scarf which I think isdoseybat's, and a washing bag that I think belongs to jack, and a small black umbrella with unidentified owner. If you want me to post stuff back to you, let me know an address and I'll do so.
Surprisingly enough, I don't yet have enough bookcases or storage systems generally. And there are still a few minor DIY jobs that I need to tackle, like putting up coat hooks and towel rails and such. But generally I have a working home that makes me feel relaxed and content when I walk in through the door after a day at work. Also, internet is supposed to be arriving on Monday; I'm a little peeved that TalkTalk's assurance of four working days turned into 21 after I'd already committed to them (while I could have cancelled the contract, at that point it would have taken even longer to find an alternative and get get things set up from scratch), but if it does get switched on seamlessly after only a month of dongle misery I shall be reasonably content.
First of all parents were incredibly helpful in advising me how to deal with all the paperwork and bureaucracy, and when I ended up moving in the last week in December, managed to find a removal company to bring all my stuff on the 22nd. And they donated lots of furniture, both from their house and stuff they found at places like Emmaus, including a really, really nice oak dining table. Not to mention preparing all my belongings (which they've been housing for most of the last decade) for the movers, and then driving up to Stoke to receive them when they arrived and make a start on the unpacking.
Then
jack provided a car and an unlimited supply of patience and good humour so that I could find all the equipment I needed, which involved a great deal of boring and stressful shopping. And Dad was brilliant again because he came up for a few days to help me with DIY. When we ran into difficulties, I ended up getting a handyman to finish some of the tricky bits, like attaching curtain rails to a slightly crumbly plasterboard false wall. I found someone by searching the university forums, and indeed Neil Rogers of Honeywood Joinery turned out to be very helpful and professional. So thanks to all these people, by the time Saturday came round I had curtains and lampshades in place, and enough chairs for everyone to sit on, and enough miscellaneous crockery to feed everyone, and usable rooms (although there are still some boxes in my bedroom and office). I should also mention simont who did lots of driving and therefore brought my friends to me, and megamole and mathcathy who lent bedding for the sleepover.It's also been really cheering to unpack gifts from friends and find places for them in my new home, the fruit bowl that
redaloud made me, the silver candlesticks and the dragon teapot and the flower seder plate that were thank you presents from my Stockholm community, and some home-made cards from doseybat from years ago, and hatam_soferet's little tiny split pea ladybirds (the annoying burglar alarm control panel makes the perfect shelf for an ornament which is too small for most displays). Plus I've been taking great satisfaction in using pseudomonas' hammer and screwdriver for fixing things. jack arrived the evening before the big day and was incredibly calming and supportive. Mum came up with Dad and Granny on Saturday morning, bearing bread and cheese and fruit salad and homemade soup and her famous chocolate cake, meaning that we could have a non-stressful lunch even though I'd been taken up with party preparations and hadn't had time to organize anything. And helpful Tesco delivered a lot of party provisions, so all I had to do was wait for lovely people to arrive in the afternoon. And indeed they did; not quite as many of my colleagues as I'd hoped, as lots of people my age who had planned to come had problems with babysitting or sickness, so it ended up being mostly the older colleagues who don't have young children. And one of them brought another chocolate cake, iced with "Happy home :-)" and very tasty indeed. Also someone I've run into a couple of times in the labs, and whom I really like, so I was especially pleased that she seemed to get on well with my friends. A lot of the people who were coming from the south-east ran into problems with the main line from London to Manchester, but persevered anyway and made it in spite of several hours of delay. (So much for my plan to convince everybody that it's really easy to get to Stoke and you should all come and visit often!) So there ended up not being that much overlap between colleagues who mainly came in the afternoon, and distant friends who didn't make it until the middle of the evening. I won't make a list because I'll inevitably forget someone and cause drama, but there were lots and lots of people I was really excited and grateful to see, though again it was sad that a few who'd originally planned to come didn't make it because they were ill or stressed. (It's always sad when people can't make it due to evil geography, but at least I was expecting not to see them.)
I went back and forth on the question a few times, but in the end decided to do the official dedication ceremony, including putting up my mezuzah, at the party itself rather than the day I moved in. Which meant doing it in the dark and rain after shabbat went out on Saturday evening, but I'm really glad I did it. It was really lovely, everyone who happened to be there at the time was all encouraging and not impatient with the weird religious bits, and AF held my prayerbook and
jack handed me nails so I had enough free hands to do the actual hammering. It really does feel like my home has been dedicated in the presence of some of the people I care about. We warmed the house in a literal sense too, because Granny found my normal thermometer setting of 20 degrees too cold so I turned it up to 24, and the house got very warm very quickly and between the insulation and the mass of people inside it stayed warm for about 8 hours after I turned the heating off.P'tite Soeur brought me original art (I had no idea my sister moved in such elevated circles!) as a housewarming present from her and the brothers, and homemade fudge, and
blue_mai brought me a little basket of spring. Plus lots of people brought interesting and tasty edibles and potables, including several bottles of bubbly and some purple beer, and square Jaffa cakes (!) I didn't quite get to talk to everybody properly, but it was so so lovely to keep hearing the doorbell ring and announce another wonderful person coming into my house. I did very very well on the hugs front, too. And there was plenty of good conversation and plenty of silliness (at the tail end of the party when we were tired and not very sober we ended up playing the twisted version of 20 questions that Claire described at the Relativity New Year party). It was also great to get the chance to introduce friends from disparate groups to eachother and see them getting on well. Another reason my friends are wonderful is that they helped so much with the clearing up that by mid-morning on Sunday everything was back to normal. I also really appreciated having
jack around for the afternoon so I could wind down after all the party excitement without feeling melancholy and alone.Oh, and I have left over: a long black scarf which I think is
doseybat's, and a washing bag that I think belongs to jack, and a small black umbrella with unidentified owner. If you want me to post stuff back to you, let me know an address and I'll do so.Surprisingly enough, I don't yet have enough bookcases or storage systems generally. And there are still a few minor DIY jobs that I need to tackle, like putting up coat hooks and towel rails and such. But generally I have a working home that makes me feel relaxed and content when I walk in through the door after a day at work. Also, internet is supposed to be arriving on Monday; I'm a little peeved that TalkTalk's assurance of four working days turned into 21 after I'd already committed to them (while I could have cancelled the contract, at that point it would have taken even longer to find an alternative and get get things set up from scratch), but if it does get switched on seamlessly after only a month of dongle misery I shall be reasonably content.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-19 10:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-20 10:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-20 10:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-20 10:35 am (UTC)Not to mention preparing all my belongings (which they've been housing for most of the last decade) for the movers, and then driving up to Stoke to receive them when they arrived and make a start on the unpacking.
Have you removed all your possessions from your parents' place now?
I went back and forth on the question a few times, but in the end decided to do the official dedication ceremony, including putting up my mezuzah, at the party itself rather than the day I moved in.
What's this dedication ceremony? I have a vague memory of the dedication of the new Hillel House in Edinburgh in 1997, but don't remember it involving any more ritual component than putting up the מְזוּזוֹת with a בְּרָכָה. I certainly didn't do any more than that when I moved into my current flat.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-20 10:43 am (UTC)I do have everything I've ever owned in the new house, yes, it's quite exciting, really. Even my undergraduate notes, which in some ways I don't want, but I also can't bear to throw them away.
I've never looked at chanukat bayit in an Orthodox siddur; it may well be that the ceremony is a Reform invention. Our siddur has a couple of short readings, the Shema itself, and the blessings. I know I could have done it with just a blessing and no particular ritual, and that's what I would have done if I'd been on my own and rushed to fulfil the mitzvah the day I moved in. To me it felt more meaningful to wait and do something a bit more special to mark the beginning of a new phase in my life.
סדר חנוכת הבית
Date: 2010-02-06 08:56 pm (UTC)The service is in the Singer's after all. Dr Sacks says in his commentary:Ah well, something to remember for next time I move house.