I’ll break this down a bit for those not interested in the minutiae of the past few days; you can skip to which bits interest you the most…
Friday: Exchange and Complete
The contracts were officially exchanged on the house Friday morning, we completed at the same time and had the keys for 11am. A thorough check of the house uncovered:
- The previous owners had an unhealthy obsession with a nail gun
- Someone had been in the garden and nicked the rotary line left by the owners!
- Part of the central heating had died, which means every time you turn it on it blows a fuse
- A broken window lock, a useless dimmer switch and a crack in the loo
But otherwise, no dramas.
Saturday: Moving Day
We had planned to drop Isabel off at my mum’s, getting back to the cottage (old place) in plenty of time for the men from Simply Removals to arrive with the van between 12 and 3pm. In reality, we ended up stacking task after task and we ended up dashing to the new place for 10am so that A.S.T. Floorcoverings could come measure up, on to my mum’s for 10:40 to drop Isabel off, a dash to Homebase (DIY/furniture store) to pick up a few bits (and ended up spending over £100!!!) and then a speedy drive back to the cottage to wait for my mates from work who were helping.
With the help of my work colleagues, we moved everything downstairs ready for 12, and waited. And waited. And waited. 2:45pm comes around and I phone Simply Removals to make sure they were definitely coming: “Oh, the guys were held up a little at a previous job, they’ll be there in half an hour“. So I wait 30 minutes, and nothing. At 3:30pm I rang again, and enquired as to the whereabouts of the men; “oh, they’re stuck in traffic, give it 15-30 minutes“. We waited some more. 4pm rolls around, by which point the removal company are an hour late, and so I rang again. I asked where they were, and was told they were stuck in traffic (again?) and they were 6-8 minutes away. I also asked as to how customers are compensated for lateness, and was told we get nothing until the guys are 2 hours late and then we’d get a 10% refund. The guys finally arrived at 4:10.
What pissed me off the most about the whole thing was not the fact that the Simply Removals guys were late; shit happens, people get held up. It’s the fact that I was lied to on all 3 occasions. It wasn’t until the new guys got here and said that they weren’t the ones supposed to be doing it that I realised what had happened. From what I made out, the original guys were held up for a lot longer than expected and instead of the company letting us know, we were fobbed off with bullshit about traffic while they got 2 other guys out to us. It’s a shame, because the men moved bloody fast and had the whole move complete in less than 2 hours in the end.
Unfortunately their delay had a knock on effect for the rest of the day, though. Food shopping that was to be delivered between 4 and 5 had to be fielded by Karl while I dealt with the move, and Isabel ended up spending more time at my mum’s. Boxes could not be sorted into rooms until later, we didn’t have time to put the bed up properly and we all ended up with a very late bedtime (and a very cranky toddler).
After That…
It’s all been a bit of a blur since then. A combination of crazy unpacking, getting the various rooms set up, and then on Monday we had to take everything out of the living room again ready for the flooring on Tuesday (which is done, and looks fab; see below).
We’re waiting for the gas people to get back to us re: heating, but the house is holding a nice steady 18+ degrees C, which makes a nice change (to put that into perspective … the cottage temperature dropped to 15 degrees within 24 hours of us moving out and it’s only held there now because that’s what we’ve left the heating on!) I am looking forward to lower bills :)
We’ve already started demolishing things. We removed a tall cupboard frame from the kitchen which had been used previously to hold the fridgefreezer. It had no door on and looked a mess so Karl and I ripped it out. We just have to touch up the paint behind where it was sat but it already looks loads better. We (well, my brother) also ripped out a mock hearth thing in the front room which had been constructed out of timber blocks and tongue n groove stuff. Yuk. Now to decide on paint colours…
Pictures
Original estate agent pics:
Front room before we ripped the carpet out (they were taken in the dark, hence the shit quality):
Front room with the new flooring in:
So there you go.
09 Jun at 10:03 pm
Ooh the new floors look awesome! And your kitchen is adorable, I am so jealous!
09 Jun at 10:12 pm
Lovely new floors :) Are you going to change the wall paper as well, or are you going to leave it? Also, from the pictures the garden looks to be very narrow, is it, or is it just the picture?
09 Jun at 10:16 pm
God no, the wallpaper is going as soon as I decide how I want to decorate!
The garden is weird. We have a big front garden (not pictured) which is mostly gravel, and that goes round the side of the house and meets the raised area of the back, which is also grassy. We then have the lower gravelled patio area and the long thin strip (which I hope to use to grow veg).
I will have to take more pictures of the garden because the estate agent photos just don’t make sense.
10 Jun at 3:41 am
I do love the kitchen and it is always fun getting your own place that you are buying, so much you can do. :) Without being told you can’t do it or if you do worried about landlords. So happy for you guys!!
10 Jun at 3:58 am
Exciting! I’m glad it all went well, moving company aside. =D The new floor looks lovely.
10 Jun at 8:52 am
These things are sent to try us… although there was a slight delay with the van the rest went pretty well I think, things could have been a whole lot worse believe me. I think my first thing to paint would be that dark door in the kitchen – if you white gloss that door you will notice a massive change in the light in there, the back door makes it look so dark but all in all we think the house is lovely. Obviously it will take a few weeks until everything is away where you like it. Izz certainly seems to like the new place and has taken the move very well considering how young she is.
10 Jun at 8:52 am
Things never seem to go quite as planned, do they? Glad it all came together in the end, even if it meant a very late night. It must be a wonderful feeling to finally be in ‘your’ home. :)
10 Jun at 9:08 am
We’ll get it sorted. Gas should be on by the end of today, I’m looking at how to sort all the doors so they shut properly..we’ll get there.
10 Jun at 2:55 pm
Congrats! I like your new home. Once Izz will get less clingy once she realizes that this is the new home & you are not going to move her again, lol.
10 Jun at 4:04 pm
Congratulations on the new home! The new floor looks nice.
11 Jun at 6:59 pm
Congratulations on the move, it seems to have gone pretty smoothly even with the hassle with the removal company.
12 Jun at 2:36 am
I always find that when I’ve got a plan for things like that, something goes wrong. I’m in the process of house hunting at the minute and even before I’ve found a place I’m finding that things are going wrong.
Your new floor looks great though. I much prefer it to the original carpet. :)
12 Jun at 4:58 am
I totally adore the tiles in the kitchen!