A moving story
So the really big news that I can actually now talk about is that today we have finally, finally, finally exchanged on our flat. In just under two weeks time – on my birthday, no less – we’ll be moving down the hill and up the road to an actual house. Still in London, but further out. What Kirsty and Phil would call a ‘project’, it is an old-school Victorian terrace with stairs and an upstairs, a loft conversion, and direct access to our very own garden.
It has been a really long and really drawn out process, starting way back in July when there were still leaves on the trees. We accepted an asking price offer made on our flat on the day it went on sale. They pulled out a few weeks later. We found a house and thought we’d lost it. We accepted another offer on ours and had our house offer accepted. Then there was a long period where nothing happened. We came back from holiday and still nothing had happened. There were days of arguing over both a wall and loft insurance. Then it all seemed to happen in the past ten days, with sudden hard deadlines, lots of drama, missing sellers, millions of phone calls and the mild threat that we actually might have no-where to live for a while.
Anyone who says that buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do has clearly never bought and sold one at the same time – it is the most stressful thing ever. The actual moving part will be a piece of cake compared to this part, I’m sure (we’ll start thinking about it tomorrow but help! Any tips for moving house with a toddler? Removal company recommendations? Packing tips? That sort of thing) Tonight though, we’re drinking champagne to celebrate.
6 Comments
from fun to mum
December 4, 2013 at 10:47 pm
Good news! Cheers and enjoy the celebrations before the organising begins x
The Reading Residence
December 5, 2013 at 6:52 pm
Congratulations! Enjoy that champagne and hope all goes smoothly from now on.
Maria Alford
December 5, 2013 at 7:41 pm
My best tip for moving with little children is to get the removal company to do the packing as well as the moving for you. It does cost extra,but I saw it as investment in my sanity! Plus it was the only time in our lives we’ll ever need to do that,as we won’t be moving with small children again. There’s enough to do with unpacking and sorting,without giving yourself more work. It was great as they just came the day before the move and packed everything,so we could just carry on living as normal right up until then,and they provided all the boxes and other packing materials so we didn’t have to scrabble around for boxes and bubble wrap. Hope your move goes well x
Capture by Lucy
December 7, 2013 at 10:24 am
Congratulations! So exciting and completely daunting at the same time. We are finding our move so stressful, we put our house on the market on a Tuesday at the end of October and it sold in 4 days, we have found a house and everyone is aiming to move on the 20th December! It’s all happened so quickly, at a time when our working lives couldn’t be busier, that the stress levels in the house has gone through the roof! It’s horrible that such an exciting time has to get so unbearable! In fact this morning my husband has threatened to call the whole thing off. I do hope most normal people do the same at some point in a house move! Good luck and let’s share tips! xxx
Charlotte
December 10, 2013 at 9:25 am
Congratulations! Moving into a house from a flat is the BEST thing. Suddenly there is so much room!
Tips on moving with a toddler? Deffo use a removal company, it’s essential. We didn’t get ours to do our packing, we did that in the evenings once the little one was in bed and during the weekends one of us would take her out while the other packed. Packing while she was around was a little tricky as she liked to take things out of the boxes as soon as we put them in! On the moving day itself, we put Betsy into nursery for the day and moved while she was there (we were only moving up the road). This was so helpful and meant we could get some of the unpacking while she was still away too. Was very interesting to watch her walk around the new house thinking she was visiting someone and then watching her recognize various bits of furniture and her toys during the evening.
Good luck!
Flat out |
December 12, 2013 at 9:07 pm
[…] fall through of our house move that we only dared to think about actually moving when we finally exchanged last week. Which means the last few days have been pretty hectic. We have a big moving ‘to do’ […]