We have a house!
Well everything went fine with the house, it is ours, we are in it and all is good.
I've been updating facebook regularly but this morning decided here may be better. I can ramble at length (under a cut) and people can choose if they want to be bored by tales of flooring and kitchens and gardens and what not. So I'll do a quick update of the last two days and then hopefully post each evening. It'll also get me back into the swing of posting again!
Well the packing was long and tiring, we didn't get to bed until gone midnight on the Thursday which was much later that I'd been hoping but I got nearly everything done. It was just the cleaning that got left.
We woke up crazy early and Sam went to get petrol whilst I did the last bits, unfortunately Sods law was in place and someone stole the parking space in front of the house. It was 5am! Sam had been sure no-one would steal it and declined my offer of bins to save it. As such we had a little walk to the car but not as bad as it could have been.
We got the cats and the stuff in and managed to leave at 6:45 only 45 mins later than our ideal time. I took the first driving shift and it went quite well. We stopped for mc Ds brekkie then again for a loo break when we got past Ripon. I chose that point to pass the driving to Sam, I'd driven for longer than I had before and was getting a little sleepy. We had some really heavy rain and a couple of broken down lorries but otherwise it was an uneventful drive which passed quite quickly. The cats settled down fairly quickly although I think Giles was a bit nauseated, he kept moving from one side of the boot to the other trying to get comfy. All in all it took 7.5 hours, not bad at all.
Someone met us at the house and gave us the keys and answered some of our questions. Then we went to get the cats out and met all the neighbour kids, at least we thought it was all there was a lot of them. I wasn't as good as I could have been, they were in a pack and they had Scottish accents and I wanted to get my babies out of the car, but I managed to still be nice. They are nice kids, they wave each time we see them now.
The cats set up camp on the stairs as apparently that was the best place in the house and we headed out to Tescos for sustenance. Sam made me do the driving so we could work on bay parking. At home we generally had a tidy up day really, we were both quite tired from the journey. Swept the bedroom and discovered staples in the floor so set about removing them. Someone came round and showed us how the boiler worked. We got heating sorted out, bed blown up, that was about it. Ended up going to bed without dinner as was just too tired really. We did take a lovely picture of the sunset though.
On Saturday we got up, cleaned up the bathroom and showered, felt good. The bathroom isn't bad. It's got a black, grey and white theme which wouldn't have been my first choice but its ok. Discovered a hole in the bath tub though so that is out of commission. Anyone know if you can repair holes in fiberglass bathtubs?
Headed to the shops for what would be a very expensive day. Found some net curtains, bought the cats some bits to help them settle (scratching post, toys etc), talked about hamsters and rats as future pets :-D, looked at vinyl for the kitchen. Then we went to homebase to get a few bits. We decided to check their laminate, we had decided to go with Ikea laminate. We saw some cheap ones and one we really like. It's Oak effect and is textured so it feels like wood under your feet. It's also designed to that each piece of laminate has the print of one plank, makes it look really nice compared to the one with the several planks on one board. Then we found out it was 10% off today, last day. Felt like someone was smiling on us again. Looked around and saw cheapy vinyl tiles. After a little discussion we decided to floor the kitchen for as cheap as possible and once we get the finances a lil bit more recovered look at redo-ing the kitchen. We bought the other bits we needed, had a browse through kitchens and went back to find out if they would have enough laminate in at the mo for us to come back later and buy or if they would be getting more in. We were told they had enough and if we bought today and signed up for one of their store cards we'd get an additional 10% off. We were definatley being smiled on. Bought all the laminate and underlay and beading and vinyl for kitchen as well as the other lil bits. Spent £750 odd.
Swung by mc ds and headed home with a heavy boot. We'd forgotten the net curtains but it was still a productive day.
At home there was more sweeping, offers from children to help carry stuff, more staples to be pulled and the bathroom was shaping up. We decided to roll with the grey, black and white theme and I think it'll look good. Lugged all the boards in side and finally had something to sit on. Woohoo.
We took a drive through Newtongrange and Gorebridge grabbing takeaway menus. Decided on a chinese and had takeaway for dinner. Chinese wasn't great :-( Bed was soon after as was shattered.
Sunday was another busy day. Ordered fridge, went shopping for more bits, got the net curtains we missed on Sat, had another trip into Homebase, decided to replace the skirting boards in the house at a later date so will return the beading and buy some lovely skirting boards we have our eye on when Homebase next has a 10% off day, they should match the floor nicely. Also managed to look at hand rails for the stairs to go on the wall. Should be cheaper than I was expecting which is awesome. I'm liking cheap at the mo :-D
At home met our neighbour to the left and got the names of two of the children. Then got the names of thier siblings and pets and it all got a lil confusing.
At Ikea we found some very much reduced garden furniture so we have a table and chairs wahey! Got to work hoovering more rooms, cleaned some kitchen cuboards, made furniture, moved boards to thier rooms, pulled up more staples and cleaned more.
It's a long long process, lots of cleaning and lifting but I am sooo happy right now. I really feel like this is where I'm meant to be and I love planning how we will have this house with Sam. :-D
Right that's it, best get back to actually doing stuffs!
I've been updating facebook regularly but this morning decided here may be better. I can ramble at length (under a cut) and people can choose if they want to be bored by tales of flooring and kitchens and gardens and what not. So I'll do a quick update of the last two days and then hopefully post each evening. It'll also get me back into the swing of posting again!
Well the packing was long and tiring, we didn't get to bed until gone midnight on the Thursday which was much later that I'd been hoping but I got nearly everything done. It was just the cleaning that got left.
We woke up crazy early and Sam went to get petrol whilst I did the last bits, unfortunately Sods law was in place and someone stole the parking space in front of the house. It was 5am! Sam had been sure no-one would steal it and declined my offer of bins to save it. As such we had a little walk to the car but not as bad as it could have been.
We got the cats and the stuff in and managed to leave at 6:45 only 45 mins later than our ideal time. I took the first driving shift and it went quite well. We stopped for mc Ds brekkie then again for a loo break when we got past Ripon. I chose that point to pass the driving to Sam, I'd driven for longer than I had before and was getting a little sleepy. We had some really heavy rain and a couple of broken down lorries but otherwise it was an uneventful drive which passed quite quickly. The cats settled down fairly quickly although I think Giles was a bit nauseated, he kept moving from one side of the boot to the other trying to get comfy. All in all it took 7.5 hours, not bad at all.
Someone met us at the house and gave us the keys and answered some of our questions. Then we went to get the cats out and met all the neighbour kids, at least we thought it was all there was a lot of them. I wasn't as good as I could have been, they were in a pack and they had Scottish accents and I wanted to get my babies out of the car, but I managed to still be nice. They are nice kids, they wave each time we see them now.
The cats set up camp on the stairs as apparently that was the best place in the house and we headed out to Tescos for sustenance. Sam made me do the driving so we could work on bay parking. At home we generally had a tidy up day really, we were both quite tired from the journey. Swept the bedroom and discovered staples in the floor so set about removing them. Someone came round and showed us how the boiler worked. We got heating sorted out, bed blown up, that was about it. Ended up going to bed without dinner as was just too tired really. We did take a lovely picture of the sunset though.
On Saturday we got up, cleaned up the bathroom and showered, felt good. The bathroom isn't bad. It's got a black, grey and white theme which wouldn't have been my first choice but its ok. Discovered a hole in the bath tub though so that is out of commission. Anyone know if you can repair holes in fiberglass bathtubs?
Headed to the shops for what would be a very expensive day. Found some net curtains, bought the cats some bits to help them settle (scratching post, toys etc), talked about hamsters and rats as future pets :-D, looked at vinyl for the kitchen. Then we went to homebase to get a few bits. We decided to check their laminate, we had decided to go with Ikea laminate. We saw some cheap ones and one we really like. It's Oak effect and is textured so it feels like wood under your feet. It's also designed to that each piece of laminate has the print of one plank, makes it look really nice compared to the one with the several planks on one board. Then we found out it was 10% off today, last day. Felt like someone was smiling on us again. Looked around and saw cheapy vinyl tiles. After a little discussion we decided to floor the kitchen for as cheap as possible and once we get the finances a lil bit more recovered look at redo-ing the kitchen. We bought the other bits we needed, had a browse through kitchens and went back to find out if they would have enough laminate in at the mo for us to come back later and buy or if they would be getting more in. We were told they had enough and if we bought today and signed up for one of their store cards we'd get an additional 10% off. We were definatley being smiled on. Bought all the laminate and underlay and beading and vinyl for kitchen as well as the other lil bits. Spent £750 odd.
Swung by mc ds and headed home with a heavy boot. We'd forgotten the net curtains but it was still a productive day.
At home there was more sweeping, offers from children to help carry stuff, more staples to be pulled and the bathroom was shaping up. We decided to roll with the grey, black and white theme and I think it'll look good. Lugged all the boards in side and finally had something to sit on. Woohoo.
We took a drive through Newtongrange and Gorebridge grabbing takeaway menus. Decided on a chinese and had takeaway for dinner. Chinese wasn't great :-( Bed was soon after as was shattered.
Sunday was another busy day. Ordered fridge, went shopping for more bits, got the net curtains we missed on Sat, had another trip into Homebase, decided to replace the skirting boards in the house at a later date so will return the beading and buy some lovely skirting boards we have our eye on when Homebase next has a 10% off day, they should match the floor nicely. Also managed to look at hand rails for the stairs to go on the wall. Should be cheaper than I was expecting which is awesome. I'm liking cheap at the mo :-D
At home met our neighbour to the left and got the names of two of the children. Then got the names of thier siblings and pets and it all got a lil confusing.
At Ikea we found some very much reduced garden furniture so we have a table and chairs wahey! Got to work hoovering more rooms, cleaned some kitchen cuboards, made furniture, moved boards to thier rooms, pulled up more staples and cleaned more.
It's a long long process, lots of cleaning and lifting but I am sooo happy right now. I really feel like this is where I'm meant to be and I love planning how we will have this house with Sam. :-D
Right that's it, best get back to actually doing stuffs!