Once again - aren't libraries wonderful?

I'm currently sat typing frantically away in Banbury Library. We've arrived at our new home to find there is a fault on the BT line, and they can't get an engineer out for a month. Hence the continued Radio Silence.

Otherwise, the move went reasonably smoothly. Pickfords were amazing, best money we've ever spent. Their admin is not great, but when the boys turn up - wow!

We've managed to get all our furniture and boxes into the house (Remarkably. I couldn't believe how much stuff we had). Now we've just got to work out where to put it all.

Fenny Compton looks very promising indeed. We went for a walk last weekend, past rich hedgerows full of berries and rosehips, up to Burton Dassett country park which looks like sand dunes and is inhabited by sheep who just don't care about traffic at all. Wonderful place.

I hope anyone reading this is well, and hope to be able to communicate more soon when we get a phone line. Stay safe.

Radio Silence

This is it – the day has come. Today, we dismantle our home and tomorrow we move. So I will be offline from now until we manage to get a telephone line and dial-up connection, which could be a few days.

Then I’ll be back with tales of countryside life, and settling into a village community.

Meanwhile, stay well - and Beth, I hope you soon get news of your move.

Admin admin admin

I've listened to a lot of music today - on the phone, whilst holding to talk to gas, electricity, insurance, council, and water people. I think I've done it all.

I've also labelled furniture with the name of the room it will move into; sorted out our tangle of various keys; arranged to drop keys off; tried and failed to arrange to pick keys up (which is a little disturbing); completed the handover file for our buyers; and made up a survival kit of toilet rolls, light bulbs etc. like wot Pickfords suggest.

I have now got to start tidying up and cleaning. I've been putting it off. Although, what's the point when we're going to have movers trampling about the place? I'm still not sure how the moving day is going to work. Once the van is packed, we've got to run round with a hoover and take keys to the estate agent and still get to our new place to let the removal people in. How?

Links

I've just worked out how to add links to my blog template. It works! There are now some links with 'Previous Posts' and 'Archives' in the left-hand column. I think I'm finding my way around this thing.

Otherwise, it's been a day of admin. Defrosting the freezer, packing files, taking down shelves, filling in insurance forms (calculating the value of our possessions - ouch), printing out more change of address letters, making lists by the dozen, eating leftover frozen soup and stew (we think). It must be time for tea and biscuits?

*wobble*

Feeling very wobbly today. I had many anxiety dreams last night about moving to our new house. In one of them, I was hugging a friend and we were both crying. I think that upset me most.

Our friends came round this morning and I realised how much I will miss having them just round the corner. Scarlett asked for a 'big cuddle'. It's as if she knew.

We bumped into the lady that we had bought our current house from (8 years ago) in the Post Office this morning. She promised to keep an eye on the place! She agreed it is a hard house to leave; she still thinks of it as her house.

But I have to move on, don't I?

I made a list the other day of all the things I will enjoy:

- being able to get out on my bike (my only means of transport as I refuse to get a second car)
- going for walks from the back door and walking through countryside (rather than housing estates)
- starting my art and design foundation
- being able to get up at normal time (instead of with the birds) to get to work

I just wish we could have taken our house and our friends with us!

Smug

Next to me is a pile of envelopes containing change of address notifications, ready to post tomorrow when I get some stamps. Once I had worked out how to use Word Mail-merge, it was a doddle! You just create an ordinary table for the addresses and reference numbers, and then merge them into a letter and onto labels. Now, I know this probably doesn't seem such a huge deal, but I'm really chuffed that I worked out how to do it! Apart from anything else, it will make the whole process so much easier when we move again.

Confirmation at last

I've just heard that Rick's reference finally came through, and our tenancy has been confirmed. Just in time to send out the change of address notifications with one week's notice. Phew.

Measuring Progress

On Monday evening, we finished work earlier than usual and headed down the M40 to measure up our new house. It hasn’t been cleaned yet, so is still depressingly grubby. Armed with tape measure and notepad, we tried to map the layout. Not easy; I don’t seem to have the right bit of brain to do diagrams.

This morning, using the actual measurements, I refined my little graph paper plans of where our furniture will go. There was a nasty moment when I compared the width of the sofa with the width of the lounge door. However, having re-measured the sofa height and compared it with the width of the patio door, I think there may be a solution. Apparently, Pickfords are very good in such situations anyway.

The house has not been lived in for some months, and feels quite abandoned. I’m hoping that with some TLC and attention, it will feel more like a home. And as for the garden – well! The house is choked with ivy; the gravel drive carpeted with dock and dandelion; and there is some creeping weed (name unknown) wedged in-between the paving and the house. Any ideas how I can stick to my principles and tame that lot without using chemicals?

We have a date!

After spending an afternoon on the phone and speaking to just about every employee in Pickfords, we managed to book a moving date. We are moving on the 19th of August. That's the first date they could possibly do. Which is kinda handy, given that it is our completion date! Talk about cutting it fine.

It's a relief actually as it gives us more time to get organised. Moving next Friday was a silly idea.

The champagne finally got opened last night. Very nice it was too.

This morning, our buyers are coming round for a handover. Which means I'd better get wielding the duster. I've been a bit slack of late *blush*

Oh, come on!!

Still waiting to know what date we will be moving. It might be as soon as next Friday - but depends on a number of factors including the Royal Mail service and availability of Pickfords vans. I'm going crazy, knowing I have to give 7 days notice to various people and I can't do it!

Meanwhile, I've been playing with scissors and graph paper, tape measure and blue tack, trying to work out what will go where. I've come to the conclusion that whoever designed the house we (hopefully) are moving to had a good sense of humour, and something against wall space.

Right, I'm off to do another load of washing.

A new view

This is the view from the back of our new (hopefully) home. Countryside!

At last!

Just had a call from Rick - we exchanged contracts this morning. HURRAH!

And there is no-one else applying for the house we want, so hopefully that should go through OK.

Pickfords Man came this morning to measure us up for the move. They need ten working days notice, which could be tricky. But I think everything is basically going to be OK.