On Wednesday we finally moved house! There were only 3 properties and 4 parties involved, none of whom were being particularly obstructive, but it took an age to reach completion. I don’t think there was any point where I considered that it would all fall through but I did sometimes wonder whether we’d ever reach the end!
The estate agents, Sparks Ellison, did a fantastic job. They were responsible for all three properties so we were able to witness their professional approach to both buying and selling. They also were very good at communicating any progress (or lack of) to us. This is more than can be said of our conveyancers: ML Law. I probably couldn’t flaw their work but trying to get information out of them was like pulling teeth.
We had a short runway between exchange and completion so ended up moving with Pickfords who had availability if at a price. Christine was abroad in the three days running up to and including the move day. I wasn’t going to do all of the packing myself and hence we paid for that service as well. In about 4 hours the three guys had everything packed in to the back of a medium sized van. They headed off for a liquid lunch at the Dolphin (closest pub on my sat-nav too) whilst I did the final clearing up and chased down the new keys.
Christine’s parents were down looking after Emma which was a great help. She wanted to watch most of the action and only the promise of lunch (gingerbread man?) at Waitrose could drag her away. She arrived at our new house (all of about 2 miles from the old one) asleep! She wasted no time in starting to explore on waking up and seems to have settled in really well. The problem now is getting her to go out of the house! She does also seem keen to know when we are going to move again so presumably the experience was a positive one.
The Pickfords guys had everything unloaded pretty quickly and dashed off – not surprising given the long journey they had home. We’ve started to make a dent in the piles of boxes scattered all over the house. Sadly the weather hasn’t been great for us to enjoy the new garden fully.
Although the house is liveable in, there are plenty of major cosmetic changes we’d like to make in the name of modernisation. The fitted wardrobes, flock wallpaper, artex ceilings and peach bathroom all need to go and there’s also room for a new ensuite. It remains to be seen how much, even if we get the professionals in, we get done before the baby arrives in October…
Hey Dave
So what’s the address of the new place? Is it closer to town? Glad to hear the move went smoothly.
How’s Christine and bump going? Do you know what your having?
We’re having a roller coaster of a time at the moment – one good day, one bad. Ella has decided to drop her day time naps just at the time when I would love to catch up on some sleep! Oh well it’s bound to happen at some stage….
Today been good so far – Ella’s at childcare so that’s a great start, been walking with Katy and the dog and have just cooked a chocolate mud cake 🙂
Anyway enjoy settling in to your new place and try to get as many of those jobs done before the new bub comes along as your free time to do stuff just disappears with 2 kids!
nat
PS Katy say thanks for the toy and Ella loves her monster cards.
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