A New Home - The Story So Far

Imagine, if you will...

...the cinema goes dark, the curtains draw back, the projector whirs into life. A simple couple lines of blue text are on screen (something about a galaxy that's far away) when suddenly there's a fanfare blasting into the auditorium that makes everybody jump. There then follows way too much text drifting through the screen and off into the distance giving everyone an update on the story so far. That, my friends, is where we are now...

Moving Home During a Pandemic

The whole moving house process was, as I feared, a complete farce where everybody seems to feel allowed obliged to try and help themselves to a hefty wad of our cash, and where our timeline (despite being the only ones actually doing any moving) was completely irrelevant. Much like our wedding. I was going to write all about the moving process in detail (including reviews of each of the companies we had to deal with) but nobody deserves to have to read through that much vitriol, so I'll keep this brief.

After much, much, much delay we finally managed to agree a moving date. However, this left us with just over 4 days to pack up our entire home. This was quite a challenge, especially when you can't call on friends or family to help! Somehow we got it done by the end of the last day, only to discover that there wasn't actually the paperwork in place to guarantee that we would actually be moving in the morning. 

Given how the rest of the process had been, it was easily believable that the date could slip but to add to the jeopardy there was a lock-down starting the next day so any change in date was likely to cause a load of new problems.

So moving day got off to an "exciting" start where we had to get everything loaded up despite not knowing if we were actually moving. Thankfully our solicitor kicked some serious bottom and by lunchtime everything had been sorted.

The removal guys started off enthusiastic but soon got bored and just dumped stuff wherever there was room. To be fair, I was also bored of policing it and just wanted it over with as much as them.

Because of the lack of preparation time (and the tips being closed to all but health-hazard issues) we had had to move lots of stuff that we would otherwise have thrown away. So the following weeks were full of sorting through boxes, moving boxes so that furniture could be reassembled, unpacking boxes and then repacking boxes with stuff that would have to go into storage until there was space for it.

It's only now, some 5 months later, that we are actually in a position to start renovating this 70 year old house. There is much to be done; projects that were planned, new problems that have already arisen and probably plenty more stuff to come. I'm going to have to pick up quite a few new skills quite fast and I'd love it if you'd join me on this journey.

Details of The Plan are available on the dedicated page, here. Then I can start doing some progress updates in future posts and leave links on that page. You never know - it may end up being useful for someone!