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July 6th, 2009
06:30 pm - We're In!!!!
My family and I are exhausted, disrupted, bruised and baffled. But we are here and it's lovely. Everything's taking a bit of reorganising (mainly Romilly's routines, to be honest), but we are well & truly 'settling in'. The move itself was enormously successful. We had bags of help and a bloody big van! By the time Roms returned home from Yoriko's house, her room was immaculate and we had a fully functioning dining room - just in time for tea! A massive massive thank you go everyone who helped - we couldn't have done it without you, you lovely people, you. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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July 3rd, 2009
09:57 am - Today is The Day...
I haven't heard anything yet, but today I pick up the keys for our new house. For reasons that I am struggling to fathom, I have a knot in my stomach the size of a space hopper and despite my current horizontal-on-bed-waiting-for-Roms-to-wake-up state, I feel enormo-stressed. All is quiet right now though. But not for long. The carpet cleaning man is due in five minutes. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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July 1st, 2009
10:25 am - Counting Down To New Abode...
and our house currently looks like a slightly tidier Civic Amenity Site. With more toys.
God, isn't packing dull?
I find myself itching to collect the keys and run up to the new house ('up' because it's up a big hill, obv)
let myself in
freak out because I don't know how to disarm the burglar alarm
gasp because the vendor has taken all the lightbulbs/coving/wood floor/carpet/doors delete as applicable
Jump up and down
Keel over.
Of course, it won't happen like that...will it?
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June 29th, 2009
12:19 pm - Let the chaos ensue!!
We complete on Friday. We move house on Saturday. We have a complete mental breakdown around...ummm...Tuesday?
We ARE moving though. This is obviously brill, fab, super-amazing etc. Especially given that we thought we were going to tell the vendor to poke his (very beautiful) house up his (sizeable) arse. I will pick up keys on Friday. The van will be collected on Saturday and beer will be lazily consumed whilst surrounded by boxes on Saturday night, followed by a 'splat' of exhaustion as C and I collapse onto a mattress, surrounded by parts of our bed.
Then on the Sunday, C will get up and go to work.
Collosal bad luck would have it that we are moving house during
a) a fucking heatwave
b) the busiest time ever at Clyde's work
A heatwave can be resolved with hosepipes, paddling pools, mineral water in spray bottles and, of course, GREAT BRITISH RESOLVE (i.e. the purchase of a bloody great hat and moaning several thousand times an hour). Clyde's work issues, much like Celine Dions career, are hideous and here to stay. Poor C.
Romilly will be spending Saturday and Sunday being chased around by factor 50-wielding grandparents, blissfully unaware of the mayhem going on in her new abode. Infact, she will be blissfully unaware that she HAS a new abode until Saturday night, when we pop her to bed in her new room for the first time. This is eeeek-some in the extreme, but she's a very resilient Mimi and went into her own bedroom with no grief at all. Fingers crossed all-round. For everything. But especially the survival of our beautiful dinner service...*wince*
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June 25th, 2009
10:06 am - We survived...
C has been back for nearly a week and on an emotional level, everything's back to normal (aside from Romilly signing 'where's Dadda?' about 2500 times a day). On a house-buying level, everything is far from normal and becoming increasingly frustrating as time goes on. The facts are as follows:
We are on top of everything. Funds are in place, solicitors searches are complete etc. We are at the point where all that needs to be done is exchange, complete & move.
HOWEVER
Our vendor didn't tell us the full story. We were due to exchange either before C went away or during the time he was in the US. We still haven't exchanged (the deadline was yesterday) because the vendors mortgage fell through. Apparently the paperwork for a new shiny mortgage should have been sorted by yesterday, allowing us to complete, but guess what!!? The vendors solicitor took an away-day and was uncontactable. Yeah, right...
Neither the vendor or either of the solicitors seems to give the slightest crap about the fact that we are supposed to be out of our current property by the Sunday evening. Yup, you read correctly. THIS. SUNDAY. EVENING. We are supposed to complete tomorrow. What a joke.
In a tragic/hilarious aside to all this, we went to measure up the new house last Saturday and met the current owner. He is mid to late thirties and plays computer games. A lot. In fact, he was so engrossed in his computer games that, despite having people coming round to his house, there were toys strewn everywhere, laundry drying in the dining room, a big stain on the second bedroom carpet and just a general lack of care. I guess he figured that we wanted it and he didn't have to make an effort anymore. This made me more angry than it should have. Also, now we have met the vendor, we now have a target for our frustrations. This is probably not healthy, but it makes me feel better anyway. Grrrrrr...
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June 15th, 2009
12:39 pm - Today I feel sad...
Clyde flew out to New Jersey this morning and won't be back until Saturday. We so rarely spend time apart that this bothers me far more than it really should. This morning Romilly sat in her high chair doing the signs for 'where's Daddy?' and I suddenly felt so sad. She couldn't understand why Daddy's car was still on the drive, but he wasn't in the house. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that we will miss him dreadfully this week. :-(
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June 13th, 2009
09:51 am - Do you ever...
want to go for a walk, but don't purely because you're not actually sure whether you could stop? A bit like Forrest Gump?
I did actually go on massive walkathons years ago. Just me and my DiscMan (showing my age). I'd go for miles for no other reason than I needed to be away from other people for a bit. On a couple of occasions I actually came to the end of my energy and realised that I actually couldn't face the walk home and cabbed it. That was daft and expensive.
Yeah, I guess this means that there is a distinct possibility that I'm actually really one of those whacked out scary FG autistic-types, but have been supressing it all my life. Forrest Gump was a happy fella mostly though, so maybe it's not all so bad.
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June 11th, 2009
12:58 pm - My daughter looks like a post-goan hippy...
I have, in a fit of 'I will try anything' lunacy, purchased a hazelwood necklace for Romilly. According to the blurb Hazelwood has VOODOO PROPERTIES that can help to eliminate the pain of teething, constipation, nappy rash and eczema in children just through skin contact. If it works, then I'll be a convert for life and probably buy myself a bracelet (I can't let the poor child suffer alone - if she has to look like an extra from 'The Beach', then so shall I). Otherwise I'll just chalk it up to experience and think twice before buying into one of these natural 'miracle' cures. Nothing ventured, nothing gained etc...
It wouldn't be quite so bad if the necklace didn't arrive at the very same time as her new swimwear. It is like a mini wetsuit affair that covers her arms to the elbows and legs to the knees. Team that with the necklace and she looks like an extra from Home & Away. Sans surfboard, obv. Hehehe...
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June 10th, 2009
12:20 pm - It occurs to me...
that I've really not mentioned our Future New Home much. Although, if you have spoken to me in real life over the last few weeks you are probably sick to the back teeth of it. Either way, it is HAPPENING. That is, we are hoping to exchange by the end of next week and are confident enough to start thinking about the moving process, how we will use the house and what we envisage doing to it. Clyde keeps using the word 'Hülsta' quite a lot. This both shits me up (£££££££!!!) and excites me enormously (élégant!).
Anyway, Future New Home is beautiful. It is Edwardian and has lots of lovely original fireplaces and cornicing etc. The ground floor is all gorgeous polished wood and high ceilings. The kitchen is a bit small, but emimently workable until such a point that we can extend (like everyone else in the street seems to have done!). It has a 130ft garden that we intend to semi-landscape and create a vegetable garden, terrace and a play area for Roms.
On the 1st floor are bedrooms two and three - both a lovely size and in lovely condition - and a new fitted bathroom. THEN, in all its stunning loveliness, is the loft conversion and master bedroom which overlooks, well, utterly everything and is beautiful. The surveyor was actually very impressed indeed with the standard of workmanship. This only makes me love it more.
On the slightly scary side, it's expensive (although, not necessarily for what it is, given that they dropped a sizeable chunk of cash off the asking price - bless you credit crunch) and it's permanent. C and I have moved about a fair amount in our time. One of our house-buying criteria was 'will this place drive us mad in two years time?'. For quite a few places we looked at the answer was a resounding 'yes'. For this one, it was a resounding 'no'. But I think we need this and Romilly definitely needs a family home to grow up in.
Next week Romilly and I are 'Sans Clyde' for a whole week, as he is off to America for work. We will miss him dreadfully and will be emailing him to the point of distraction. Poor man.
No doubt, I will be spending the week in a state of 'OMG!!!' as distractionless evenings will allow the enormity of everything to suddenly dawn on me. I am already sorely tempted to order a job-lot of bubble wrap and and a Dymo label Printer. I am Monica. *head in hands*
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June 9th, 2009
11:07 am - Well...
that went far better than expected. No sooner had I made my last update and was feeling a bit rubbish, my beautiful colleagues presented me with a glorious red leather pringle handbag of joy. It is utterly delicious and inspires all manner of covetous remarks. Yum yum yum.
On Saturday night C and I went out for a fabulous meal, preceeded by a fabulous cheeky Kir Royale (it's been a while, friend!). An obscenely expensive and highly alcoholic bottle of wine later and we were well on the way to oblivion. A trip to a couple of drinking holes and some more obscene wine (although for the wrong reasons this time - Tommy's firewater is evil) and we had used up our babysitting credits. This turned out to be a VERY GOOD THING, given the magnitude of hangover I endured on my actual birthday. God, it was awful.
Anyway, the long and short is that I was spoilt rotten, flattered a shocking amount, didn't sober up fully for 24 hours and felt rather good about it all in the end.
Right, must away. Taking Roms to Gymbabes (and evacuating my office, as it stinks of Romerfart).
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