Tag: Moving

Our new house…

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…is gradually, very gradually, starting to feel like home.  Sort of.

I spent most of today dismantling the old Ikea Billy bookshelves that we don’t have space for anymore.  The plan is to make new ones out of them, but I’ll get my dad’s advice on that when he’s visiting later this week.  I also put one Billy up in the living room as temporary shelving next to the TV.  If I like the way it looks long-term it may get a reprieve.  It’s currently holding all our ornaments, which sounds frivolous but actually has the useful function of giving us some time to work out which ones we like looking at enough to keep.

Boxes are also getting unpacked a bit quicker than expected.  This is mainly because twice a day I realise that I need something, but don’t know which exact box it’s in, so I have to go through a few before I find the thing.  There’s not really anywhere for the stuff to go yet, but I am finding a lot of temporary solutions.

This week should be a real breakthrough, as once my parents have visited, we will have the walls painted upstairs, meaning that we can get the furniture finalised up there, meaning that I can get all our clothes and accessories put away.  Well, in my case, about 40% of them.  Dear God, I have far too many clothes.  The amount I’ve pulled out of boxes this week has been enough to send anyone screaming into the night.  The main reason I’m so impatient to get to my target weight is that I can’t wait for the giant trying-everything-on-and-then-getting-rid-of-most-of-it session that I’m not allowed to have until then.  You never know what might suddenly look awesome at target, so I’m not allowed to chuck anything out till then, no matter how old and scraggy it is.

(I realised yesterday that one of my current-rotation bras is about twenty years old, judging by the style of the M&S label.  Somehow, I don’t think it will survive the cull.)

Never moving again…

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…well, at least until we have to leave Newcastle, if/when that ever happens.

The last week has been completely insane, with everything that could get complicated getting complicated.  The snow just hasn’t let up all week, meaning that various workmen have had trouble getting to us and we’ve had to reorganise things.  A particularly dopey delivery driver tried to deliver my new Pandora charm (a treat to myself for getting the move done) to the wrong address, meaning I had to go trekking out in the snow to try and find the tiny corner shop two miles away where UPS leave undelivered parcels.

Meanwhile, our phone, TV and internet, which was scheduled to be reconnected today, now can’t be, because the previous residents never bothered to inform their phone company that they were leaving the property, and so BT are having to do complicated legal stuff before they can get us connected (and didn’t bother to inform us of this prior to Geth calling them up today).  As a result, we’re now having to buy a temporary internet hub for the house to last us for the 10 days it apparently could take for this to get sorted out.

In more positive news, the carpet cleaning guy was at least able to show up on Wednesday, so our upstairs carpets are now clean, and we’ll hopefully be able to get the walls painted next week with help from my dad and his knowledge of house paint.  After that, I can get the furniture finalised in the upstairs bedrooms and finally start getting stuff unpacked.  It will all be okay – I just need to stick to the steps of my plan.

Also, I really hope this snow disappears soon, preferably until next winter.

2018 Ciders #11: M&S Devon Farmhouse Cider Medium Dry

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As the last week has been so insane with the move, I’ve been drinking a bit more cider than I really should.  This was another of my birthday ciders, which I had on Saturday night after a few glasses of prosecco.

M&S Devon Farmhouse Cider Medium Dry
M&S Devon Farmhouse Cider Medium Dry.

I was a little out of it (moving day had been a long day and the prosecco went straight to my head), but I do remember it having a vaguely similar taste to Breton cider, which is no bad thing.

Goodbye old house

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By the time you read this, Geth and I will be (finally!) fully moved into our new place, with all of our stuff, and will have gone to the letting agency to hand back the keys to the old house.

Partial solar eclipse
A picture I took of the solar eclipse on 20th March 2015, the first morning we woke up in this house. I remember standing in the front doorway to watch the eclipse.

The chaos of moving the last lot of stuff (still ongoing as I write this) will be over, and I will be firmly focused on the future.  I wrote a 2,000-word document the other night detailing my plans for the new house, and though it will be a lot of work, I am starting to get really excited about it.

I am sad to leave the old place.  It was the first actual house I’d ever lived in (I’d always been in flats previously), and I will miss its spacious Victorian rooms (if not the cleaning that went along with it).  But I know that within a few months, I’ll be fully used to the new place, and will see it as my home and workplace.

I do wonder how long it will take us to stop automatically heading back to our old house when we’ve had a few pints in the pub, though.

The snow is here

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So the snow that put me off hiring a car for today arrived overnight.  Half a foot of it.  It’s very pretty, but a) I’ve been sick of winter for six weeks already and b) it’s very badly timed for us.

Snow-laden garden
A bunch of stuff in my new garden that I hadn’t even looked at until a load of snow fell on it.

We were awake at half past six, which was probably for the best, given that the fridge-freezer delivery guys showed up at seven on the dot.  I had to go back to the old house to wait in for the van man and finish off all my online tasks given that we’re going to be internet-less (shudder) for a couple of days; unfortunately, I soon got a call from the van man to let me know that he wouldn’t be able to make it today because of the snow.  It’s possible that he could manage tomorrow, but it’s looking unlikely, given that tomorrow’s snow is meant to be even worse.

Geth had a bit more luck this morning, as both the washing machine delivery guys and the locksmith apparently showed up without any problems, so we now have a shiny new fridge-freezer and washing machine sitting next to each other in the garage, and new locks for our exterior doors.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of van man and the fact that the carpet cleaning people are coming to the old house tomorrow morning, we’re going to have to spend the rest of today getting our remaining stuff across to the new house, somehow.  Geth is going to walk back and forth with as much of it as possible, and then hopefully we’ll be able to fit the rest in a taxi, even if it takes us a few trips.

I know from bitter experience that moving is never straightforward, but this move really is taking the cake.

Another cleaning update

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Cleaning is done!  Finishing it took all day though.  I’ve also boxed up all our remaining stuff for the van people coming tomorrow.  After that, it’s just a few things to finish off on Wednesday, and then we’ll be fully moved out of our old house.  Scary, exciting and also kind of sad – I am going to miss this place.

I will be throwing myself into the enormous project that is the new house though.  I’m not sure I’ll get much else done this year!

Cleaning the old house…

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The moving process is progressing smoothly!  Even if I am still having occasional panic attacks about OH GOD BUT ALL THE STUFF.

We started the cleaning of our old house today.  It’s amazing how much easier a place is to clean when it’s empty.  We should be done with that by the end of tomorrow and then the carpet cleaning specialist will be arriving on Wednesday to finish off the job.

The original plan was to hire a car to get the rest of our stuff over to the new place, but of course it’s forecast to snow heavily on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Of course it is.  I’m not super confident about driving at the moment as I’m out of practice, and I really don’t want to drive in the snow, so we’ve decided to hire a man with a van and get it all done in one go Tuesday lunchtime before the snow really hits.  After that, it’s just the wi-fi and phone connection stuff to pick up (we can’t get connected at the new place until Friday, so we’re eking out our internet access at the old place for as long as possible).

I’m going to be cooking in the new kitchen for the first time tonight, and then write down my plan for how the storage is all going to work.  The amount of work the new place needs is still pretty daunting, but I’m starting to feel a bit more positive about it.

New house day

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We got the keys to the new house today!

…and it’s going to need a lot of cleaning.  And painting.  And we’re going to have to get rid of a lot of furniture and a lot of stuff because there’s just no room for it in the new place.

It’s going to be a lot of work, and Geth and I are both feeling a bit overwhelmed and deflated.  It’ll be lovely…eventually.  There’s just going to be so much to do.

Yet another packing update

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No recipe this week, ’cause I’ve been packing boxes all day long and haven’t been very hungry.

There’s still a few areas of the house to pack, but today I really feel like I’ve broken the back of it.  Just a couple of hours more packing after I’ve finished work tomorrow and I think I’ll be mainly done.  There’s a few loose things that we’ll be carrying over to the new place ourselves after we get the keys on Friday, and then we’ll be all set for moving day on Saturday.

A few days ago, I was wondering how on earth we’d ever get it done on time, but between me and Geth we’ve done really well this week.  I’m getting really excited about getting it all unpacked and finding places for it in the new house!