Solicitors and Surveys

I have written a few times about my frustration with various professionals who have to be involved in house sale and purchase.  Specifically, I have had such trouble with solicitors who seem to live in a world of their own, and seem to think that since they will be paid regardless, does it matter who they annoy by taking so long?  We had trouble when

We actually live here now

Never move house just before you have a holiday.  We have just returned from a 16 night camping holiday to our "new" house, and it just feels so strange; after all, we had only spent 13 nights here before the holiday, so we didn't really know what it was like to live in this house after spending so long restoring it.  We came inside and walked around admiring the handiwork as though we had never seen it before!  Do we actually live here now?  We own it, it's all ours!  We had even forgotten where things were - which drawer contained the cling film in the kitchen; more importantly, where was my clean underwear?  I didn't realise how bad it was until Jane came home tonight and asked why there was so much stuff in the sink.  "Have you forgotten that we now have a dishwasher again?"  Or is that just my age?

Apart from my memory, the other trouble now is motivation.  For the last nine months I have been working to a plan (sort of) which basically was to do all the necessary things so that we could move in.  Having achieved that, I now have serious problems in personal motivation and prioritization.  There is so much to do in the house, quite apart from our plan to re-build the brick extension (which is about to fall down) and sort out the garden/drive.  I can see why people talk about taking ten or more years on their period property renovation, so I must stick with the weekly lists of tasks and make sure that I achieve what I aim for each week.  There are also loads of boxes containing the assorted miscellanea of 37 years of marriage, and for once I do not have a storeroom or garage to hide them in; in fact, I don't even have a store for my tools which are now getting in the way.

The good news is that we have submitted our revised planning application for the brick extension and conservatory; my aim is to start the repair of the existing building in September (for which we don't need planning permission) and hope that the full approval is forthcoming soon after.  However, after previous encounters, I am not counting any chickens as far as the council are concerned!

A Milestone Achieved

There is a very odd satisfaction of sitting on a settee surrounded by boxes in a house that could only be described as a mess.  There's a bunch of cables which connect me and my computer to the outside world - amazingly the broadband is working (after last year's experience with well-known company, I had VERY low expectations!); there's a TV aerial on the arm of the settee which, much to my surprise, gives a good digital picture (better than at our rented house), and we've just had a meal cooked on our new range, preceded by a well-deserved G&T.  There is no mortgage on this house, and most tasks are done.  Can life get much better than this?

We still have to hand back our 12 year old rented house, and I'm glad to be getting rid of it.  It is a cheap and cheerless modern box, made with haste and no love, using poor materials and a pretty bad design.  For instance, we could not fit our king-size bed into any bedroom with any other furniture at all, so for the last year we have been in a small bed which gave me cold feet.  I've never known a house before where the HOT water supply to upstairs could freeze in winter - OK, I know last winter was pretty cold at times but surely there are rules about where the pipes are laid?  Also, it was always cold in the kitchen - I cannot believe that there was the correct amount of insulation under the floor, and it had some very cheap uPVC doors and windows.  You could actually see daylight between the two seals on the French doors in the kitchen, and the step outside was not supported (until I put some blocks of wood underneath it).  Overall, that modern house really made me pleased to be the owner of this lovely old house, even when it was overgrown, cold and damp!

This week, we have been doing various finishing touches to enable us to move, which we achieved on Friday.  Phil and Jaye, the plastering duo, helped us to move, using Phil's van which was given its first ever spring clean in order to be fit for the purpose.  The weather was wet and so I was glad that we had not fitted new carpets throughout.  However, we had decided to have two new bedroom carpets done, and these were fitted on Friday morning; an earlier date was not possible as I wanted to fit the new bedroom wardrobe before the carpets came - it was a close run thing as I was still doing the wardrobe at 5pm on Thursday.  We also had BT come along on Friday to install a telephone line to the house for the first ever time; initially the technician said that it should have been surveyed first and he was going to leave us, but then he relented and we discussed possible solutions.  The job took him more than five hours and then he left in a hurry, leaving his ladders behind.  Consequently the first incoming call on our new number was from the BT man himself, enquiring about the whereabouts of his ladders!

I'm now making a list of priority tasks outstanding: top of the list is fitting the shower screen and sealing the edge of the bath; next the completion of the wardrobe so that all our (i.e. Jane's) clothes can be hung up again.  Hopefully our last extravagance, a large purpose built bookcase, will be installed early in August so that a lot of boxes can be emptied, and then there's just the kitchen tiling, sash window refurbishment (x7), curtains, the rest of the carpets and the small matter of the decrepit old extension which we haven't yet touched...  But it's now our home, and we love it!