Pain in the neck day, more curtains and a rug

 Yesterday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right - well, it wasn't all bad, but more bad than good.  I won't bore you with all the details, suffice it to say that it was a downright irritating and frustrating day, with few things going to plan.  I was awake and downstairs for about 3 hours in the middle of the night, so that didn't help.  Oh, and because of being so tired, I think I inadvertently deleted some comments - I had a load of spam comments yesterday morning, and whilst deleting them all I accidentally deleted a few from my genuine lovely readers.....if your comment hasn't appeared, it's entirely my fault, sorry about that.

There were some good bits though during the day - I found another pair of curtains in a charity shop, brand new, still in the packet with price tag attached, perfect colour and size for one of the bedrooms.  Just £10, so of course I snapped them up.  And we were given a good quality large rug by one of our neighbours, think they changed their colour scheme and didn't want the rug anymore, they didn't want any money for it.  As we couldn't find suitable carpet remnants yesterday (either too small, way too big, or totally the wrong colour or pile), this rug will be perfect as a temporary measure for the smaller bedroom, until we can get the carpet.  And it will be easy to empty the smaller room to lay a carpet when we do get one.

By 3 pm yesterday I was really flagging, so gave up and sat down for the rest of the day and evening, my brain and body were in danger of shutting down completely.  Husband made himself a king prawn curry, using a jar of Thai green curry sauce....I was just too tired to eat it so had a slice of toast.  I went to bed early and slept like a log for about 4 hours, then Betty woke me up being sick on the landing.  She seemed ok, not unwell, and after we both had some warm milk (I give her my lactose-free milk) we went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours.

So this morning we're off to the new place again, taking some more stuff to unpack over there - and we're taking Betty this time.  Can't wait to see what she makes of it!  She's definitely a bit unsettled, she can obviously sense there's something going on (all the upheaval is a big clue!) and is shadowing me even more than usual. We're taking a bed, her favourite toy, water bowl, food and treats, so she'll have some familiar things over there.

I'm using up food from the freezer quite well, there are gaps appearing everywhere, it'll be nearly empty by the time we move I should think.

Boring admin stuff done, and a surprise pair of curtains!

 I did some of the change of address stuff online yesterday, it was all fairly painless (except for BT who for some unknown reason wouldn't allow me to do it online, saying I must ring them), just a bit long winded.  Also set up a Royal Mail redirection - wow, that's gone up in price since we last moved house 11 years ago, if I remember rightly we paid around £30 odd....it's now £87.  Which, considering we only get post delivered here about twice a week (they've been shortstaffed for months), is a bit of a cheek.  Oh well, has to be done.  It seems to be all paying out at the moment.  I haven't finished doing all the admin, but have done most of the important ones.

In the afternoon, I packed more stuff from the kitchen and utility room.  Having done a lot of sorting and decluttering in the kitchen, craft room, my bedroom and all the years old paperwork earlier on this year, it's making sorting and packing now much easier.

Husband got up in the loft to see what's up there - it still contains some boxes and bags that the previous tenant left behind (he also left furniture and a ton of junk and rubbish in the garage and utility room, lazy git).  Most of our stuff that's up there can go to the tip - if we haven't needed to use it for the past few years, then I'm sure we won't suddenly need it now.  There's not loads I don't think.  Husband did find a bag containing a pair of curtains - in very good condition and the right size and colour for our new lounge window, which is a big one.  I don't remember them at all, so whether they belonged to the previous tenant I don't know.  But they'll be just right so at least that's one thing we don't have to buy!

He also made a start on his big shed, sorting out a couple of bags of stuff for the tip, and some tools to take over to the new place tomorrow.  Considering he's not the most motivated man in the world, gets distracted (and bored!) easily and tires quickly, he's doing very well.  I do have to keep tabs on him and gently steer him back to what he should be doing, when he's forgotten or gone off course.

So as I said yesterday, it's into town this morning to choose and pay for more carpet, hopefully we'll be able to put the lounge carpet in the car to take over tomorrow.  I also want to get bedroom curtains and lampshades.  More packing this afternoon....although I might have to have a little nap, I've been awake since about 02.00 am.  I think once we've moved in, we'll both be sleeping for the first 48 hours to catch up!  😂😫

On the first day

 So we went over to the new place, found the keys in the key safe, let ourselves in and unloaded the car.  Put up all the net curtains.  Unpacked the kitchen equipment I'd taken over and put it away in cupboards (there are plenty of kitchen cupboards, very useful....although the design is not to my taste but we can't have everything - they're plentiful and serviceable so that's fine).  I've decided I don't like the colour of the kitchen vinyl flooring, so we'll get a rug to put over it temporarily, and lay some different vinyl in the new year.  I put up the new shower curtain and put toiletries in the bathroom.  Worked out where our furniture is going to go in the lounge and bedrooms.  There is space for a small table and 2 chairs in the kitchen, so I'm pleased about that.  Husband worked out where he's having the TV!

He then made a start on laying the hall carpet - he's laid carpets, vinyl flooring and laminate flooring loads of times over our 40 years of marriage, plus all the years of his previous one, so he knows what he's doing.  However, he's older and less fit now, so didn't find it as easy as in previous years, and it's fiddly with 4 doorways and frames to cut round.  He did half of it yesterday morning, which is fine, there's no rush.

There's a couple of minor problems we'll need to ask the lovely Housing Support officer about (Hannah, who showed us round), she comes over on Tuesdays to check on all 'her' residents in the cul de sac so we'll see her then.

Today I'm going to sit with my laptop and do all the change of address/change of services stuff, which I'm not really looking forward to but it's got to be done, then I'll get on with more packing.  Tomorrow we'll nip into town to choose the rest of the carpets, hopefully - as near to matching the brilliant bargain hallway carpet as we can.....it's a sort of fairly common neutral stone colour, so should be relatively easy.  And at least the lounge and bedrooms are simple square shapes, making it easier for laying.  We'll have a look in a few charity shops too, for lampshades and curtains.

The whole place has been redecorated, painted magnolia throughout.  Which is absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned - it's a blank canvas for introducing colour with furnishings and pictures.  We have lots of pictures already, including some of my own artwork, and even some pictures that have never made it onto the walls of our house here.  We've been told we can put up pictures, shelves and coat hooks etc, we don't have to get permission.

Operation move in starts today

 Big news first - had the phone call from the Lettings Agent yesterday giving us all the final details - I was under the impression we had to go and meet the nice Support lady who showed us round the other day, to collect the keys.  But no - the keys are in a keysafe at the property, we've been given the number and can go and collect them whenever we like.  So that's today then!  We can't take Betty unfortunately, as we'll have the car packed to the gunnels with initial necessary stuff, but hopefully we can take her the next time (in a day or 2), she needs to see our new home!  

Forgot to say yesterday - I told Andy (the Man with Van) that we'll be taking packed boxes and any small items of furniture that will fit in the car over to the new place a few times a week, prior to moving day.  He said if we could do that it would be so helpful, as it's loading up all the small stuff into the van that takes the longest.  But of course we're doing it because it will help us - well, me - enormously to be able to do unpacking and putting our things in place a small bit at a time, over a period of 2 or 3 weeks, so it's not one big mad busy-busy rush on one single day, followed by weeks of trying to deal with a mountain of filled boxes afterwards, and not knowing where anything is.  I am very organised anyway (being a secretary/PA most of my working life has taught me that), but with my anxiety levels nowadays I need to minimise stress as much as possible.

I was starting to feel distinctly panicky about packing everything up, but realised that the best way to do it is by tackling one room at a time.  So yesterday I did the kitchen - I've packed everything except the barest minimum of things we'll need before we move.  Husband made a start on his garage and big shed - I'm afraid he's on his own doing that, they're both far too cobwebby for me (being an arachnophobe), I never venture into them.  I know he's now regretting being such a hoarder!

We had a word with the second hand furniture shop that Van Man Andy had told us about - he said he's very interested in our surplus furniture, I've just got to send him photos via email and he'll get back to us within a couple of hours with a price.  So that's another problem crossed off the list.  He also had a very nice quality single divan bed for sale, we'll need to have a single bed to replace the current double, as the bungalow has 1 double, 1 single bedroom.  And our friend has told us that the local Vicar's husband will collect furniture and household goods for a housing charity he supports, so I'll get in touch with him in the next few days, he might well take anything else off our hands.  It all seems to be coming together very nicely, which pleases me no end.

I'm still feeling somewhat panicky though - I'm typing this at 03.00 am as my mind is churning too much to sleep.

All now very real

 The Man & Van arrived exactly on time (reliable), a very pleasant and efficient young man, he loved Betty (has a Boxer dog himself) so that makes him ok in my eyes!  He asked lots of questions, took notes on his phone and took photos of all the furniture/goods we're taking with us, so he could work out a quote for us.  He emailed the quote a couple of hours later, it's a very competitive one and so we're going with him, the removal is booked - 9.45 am on 13th December (no it's not a Friday 13th and I'm not superstitious anyway 😂 ).  He also gave us the name and number of another firm he knows and has worked with, who will buy and take away our surplus furniture, so even better.

I'm having a phone call today from the Letting Agents, to finalise the last details for the bungalow and make arrangements for us to collect the keys.  We've then got to take Betty for her grooming session, postponed from Monday at the groomer's request, going into town afterwards to get a very small top up shop and do a couple of other things.

I packed a couple of boxes of kitchen equipment yesterday, initial stuff we'll need for our first day at the property - crockery & cutlery, kettle, tea towels, cleaning supplies, tea & coffee, packet of chocolate biscuits!!, etc and made a list of other things we'll take for that day - pair of steps, new hallway carpet, net curtains and rods, 2 dining chairs, small vacuum cleaner, whatever tools husband might need.  I'm not a fan of nets but decided to have them initially prior to moving in, to give us a bit of privacy whilst we're taking stuff over and working there.

Thank you for the comments and ideas regarding my mobile phone problem.  Having given it some thought, I've decided to keep my phone and contract - I really like my phone and it works just fine in most other places, including the caravan.  However, I will buy a 2nd phone, a cheaper version of my current phone and get a sim-only deal with O2, who have the best coverage at the new property.  I think it will be the easiest solution for me.

Gemma's Person, it's been exactly a year since we first went on the housing register, so although it seems like we've been waiting forever, it's not really that long, especially since we were told at the beginning that it could take up to 5 years!

Oh and today we're giving our current landlords our official leaving notice.  So as of today it all suddenly becomes very real indeed!  I've definitely got butterflies in my stomach now. 

Things are progressing

 We had a good, if busy and spendy, morning yesterday.  Went to town to buy a few essentials to take to the new place next week - kettle, washing up bowl and dish drainer, kitchen bin, doormats for front and back doors, etc.  We also went in a carpet showroom that we've used several times before, they have a huge range of room size remnants of both carpets and vinyl flooring at reasonable prices.  The kitchen and bathroom have had new vinyl flooring laid, but we'll need carpets or vinyl for the lounge, both bedrooms and the hallway.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take the room measurements with me - I took a notebook with measurements written down, but it was the wrong notebook - the measurements were for the windows, the floor measurements were in a different notebook😒  Trust me!  The only floor measurement I could remember exactly was the hallway - amazingly, we found the perfect sized remnant, in the right colour and a good quality hardwearing weave, which they'd reduced to the incredibly cheap price of just £25 - we snapped it up, of course.  Brilliant.  We'll go back with the correct measurements next week.

From my point of view, there are only 2 things that aren't ideal with this bungalow - the electricity meter and mobile phone coverage.  The meter is a prepayment card key meter, which we have no knowledge of having never had one before.....Hannah the housing lady who showed us round said that it works by us going to a shop and purchasing credit which gets put on the key, the details automatically get transferred to the meter/account once we insert the key into the meter.  I'm not keen on that idea at all, but Hannah said we are perfectly at liberty to change service providers and ask for a standard meter to be installed, so I expect we'll do that.  I'd rather carry on paying by direct debit, as we've always done.

Both husband and I have the same mobile phone service provider - however, there is unfortunately no coverage whatsoever, phone signal or wifi, inside or outside the bungalow, for our provider - must be in a blackspot.  Husband's phone is PAYG and he hardly ever uses it anyway, so that's not a problem - however, I use my phone a lot and do everything on it, so I need to change providers.  And therein lies the problem - I have 18 months left on my 24 month sim only contract with them, and will have to pay a huge amount if I wish to leave the contract early.  I have no desire to carry on paying for a service I cannot use - well, not at home but I suppose I could still use it elsewhere, at the caravan e.g. - but nor do I particularly want to fork out a few hundred pounds to end it.  Both Hannah and the neighbour told us who the best mobile service provider is, so I guess we'll have to go with them.  Any ideas anyone?  When I spoke to our current mobile provider, they were less than sympathetic, more or less saying if I want out of the contract I've got to pay up, and that's that.  

Anyway, I won't dwell on that for the time being, we'll be having broadband and landline phone installed from our current provider - the signal over there is apparently much better than here (well, it could hardly be slower than the 0.5 mbps speed - well, snail's pace - we get here!).  

Yesterday I got the paperwork to pay the first month's rent - I actually paid up till the end of December.  Just the keys to collect now, which will be next Tuesday I think, and we can start moving in.  I have periods of calm where I feel relatively in control (lists, lists and more lists!), interspersed with moments of complete and utter panic.  And I felt like I haven't slept for a week!  So I took 2 amitriptyline last night (I've been avoiding taking them) and slept like a log.

Husband has been round and told virtually all the neighbours - he takes after his mother, it was a family joke that if we wanted everyone to know something, we told her and said it was a secret 😂😂.  But then I guess I've told all of you!  The neighbour who threw us the 40th wedding anniversary party back in May, said she'd like to give us a leaving party - we thanked her but gracefully declined - to be honest, I'd rather leave with as little fuss as possible, and a party would be a whole afternoon when I could be doing some more packing.  It's not like we'll never see them all again anyway - we're only moving 15 miles away, and we'll be coming back every 6 or 8 weeks - me for my haircut with my hairdresser neighbour, husband to go for brunch with his best mate neighbour.  So we'll be able to catch up with everyone then.  

I want to say a huge thank you for all the lovely comments and emails I've had, including plenty from people who rarely comment, and some who can't comment at all on the blog (something to do with Blogger I think, sorry I know nothing about that).  You're all so pleased for us and that makes me very happy, thanks so much. 💜  To the reader who asked - yes we are in credit with our utilities, I am arranging for refunds from one or two, and the others will be transferred, hopefully.  I shall be spending a couple of hours this weekend sitting and doing a load of admin stuff on the computer, change of address and utilities etc.  And Rambler, yes the garden is secure, it's enclosed with a stone wall on one side, fencing the rest.

IT'S OURS!!

 The viewing went very well....other than the fact that the weather didn't oblige us, it was dark and absolutely peeing down - again!  We all remember 1976 as being the year of the very hot summer....well I think 2023 will go down in history as the year of the perpetual rains!  😠

The rooms are, by and large, quite similar in size to our present house - one of the bedrooms is smaller, but at least it has a built-in wardrobe (the larger bedroom has 2) so that's a bonus.  The kitchen is a couple of feet bigger than my present kitchen and has much more work surface area and more cupboards, which I'm really pleased about.  There should hopefully be room for a small 2-seater table and chairs - if not there's probably room in the lounge.  The bedroom that will be mine definitely has room for my craft desk, I'm glad about that.  Wet room shower, so no more climbing in and out of the bath for a shower.  And no stairs!

The garden is pretty, about 1/3 smaller than our present one, and is very well maintained, with stone chip *beds* with paths in between (so low maintenance) and lots of large flower pots, with shrubs and roses in beds around the edges.  There's even what we think is an apple tree in the middle of the front lawn - how nice!

The carport is very big, plenty of room for the car and anything else we want to store, and much to husband's delight, behind the carport is a brick built, fully enclosed outbuilding that will be ideal as his shed.  Beyond that is a paved area behind a low wall, which currently has nothing in it and is crying out for a greenhouse.  It just gets better and better.

And....in the afternoon we had a phone call from the Letting Agent - the bungalow is ours if we want it!!  (of course we do).   And shortly after the call he emailed us the official offer letter 😁🎉🎈🎆

He's sending the tenancy agreement for us to sign electronically tomorrow, and will ring again on Friday to give final details, arrange our rental payment by bank transfer/direct debit and arrange key collection.  I'm so happy I could burst!  We're looking at moving in on or before the 15th Dec, so we'll be largely settled before Christmas.  I've arranged for the local Man & Van I spoke about to come and give us a quote for removal tomorrow.

Despite being so tired I could drop, I lay awake for a few hours last night, mentally working out where all the furniture is going.  

I am staggered by how suddenly this has happened - for the past year, up to a month ago we were putting bids on suitable properties nearly every week, with no success.  But now.....WE ARE MOVING!!