A little more waiting..

Lovely, reassuring Rogers Removals have packed my belongings into 4 containers & gone.  Now I'm just waiting for a phone call to say I've completed.

An empty house is a very peaceful place :)

Goodbye No. 44

Calm final yoga practice in an entirely empty room.

Bought hoover brush online to replace one erroneously sent to storage.  Trust that won't be the first of too many like purchases.

Boys due for final packing right now.  They aim to be done at lunch time.  I should have a few mins to eat my lunch up at Ally Pally.

M at work in Gatwick & needs to turn himself around pronto so we can see solicitor this afternoon to sort the pre-nup-without-the-nup paperwork. It would be great if we could sign contracts on new house at the same time - but solicitor silent on that one for now.

Thank you everyone for being there.

Lovely weather for it.

Knackered

A strangely calm day, watching professionals pack my home away, leaving a few essentials behind.  It was dismantling the desk that finished me off.  Can't access business brain without it.

Knackered myself untangling potted climbers from walls and fences.  Oz says leave the last ivy, whose roots have grown under the concrete.  She's right, but I've already hacked the poor thing about, it's not a pretty souvenir to leave behind..though as my gardening equipment is all on a van, I may as well.

Good thing Mr W has somewhere to live, as we're in limbo re: purchase.  Feels really weird here without Tiger.  I have a bed, sofa, microwave, tv and emergency food rations.  It feels like a strange variant on being under house arrest.  I'm only here because we're seeing the solicitor 4 miles away tomorrow, and the boys haven't quite done packing, or I'd be gone.  It is time the walrus said...

Packing up!

Packers here right now.

Seller's hysterical estate agent has actually got the day off.  All I can say is "Good!"

Action stations, or thereabouts

Just back home without cat [delivered to Staines, where I had a very pleasant lunch and tea out, with a very lovely M, with whom I may or may not be about to buy a very lovely house, legal wrangling permitting].  This place still looks like home, but doesn't feel like one without a cat.

Restful, enjoyable weekend in good company, without a single phone call re: purchase.  Neighbours and Jane & co here for a drink and a gossip yesterday.  Final night out at the knitting bar with M, followed by celebratory kebab - I never do quite get around to cooking for him.  God only knows what he thinks of me by now.

Parking blocked out for removals van by kindly neighbours with gardening bags.

All I need do now is eat, decide what's going to store, what's going to Staines, catch up with my lovely sister, and hopefully get a decent night's sleep before all hell breaks out on the phone again tomorrow.

Oddly calm..

..with a remarkably tidy house.  Not sure anyone would realise I was moving.  M is bringing containers over for my clothes; have identified bits & pieces that can go temporarily to his place.  That's it really.

Directing packing men on Monday, hopefully done & dusted in time for our afternoon appointment with solicitor.  Seller's estate agent blissfully quiet today.

Still need to unfurl a few potted climbing plants from fences, but it's quite breezy out there.  It can wait.

Have hoovered.  Am ironing.  How's that for a priority?  Guests & M to distract me this afternoon. Good.

No progress

.. just a lot of legal back and forth, with estate agent and me in the middle.  I like to think we're inching forward.  The sellers are getting fed up.

Neighbours & Michael here for drinks tomorrow.

So much packing, cleaning ahead.  No energy left.  It will all happen somehow.

What a business..

.. searches are back in... and now the buyers' solicitors need to answer our solicitors' queries before we can sign contracts.  Every time the ball lands in their court, I breathe out, every time it lands firmly with our side, I become somewhat frantic.

Was overnight in Staines collecting/delivering one small child plus Barbie bicycle to school.  Back home now minimising stuff for storage.

Took advice from very pleasant garden centre man - he'd gamble on digging out my 14 year old Cornus Kousa China Girl, centre piece of my front garden, wrapping its roots in hessian, keeping it soggy until replanting.  Or should I leave it behind, rather than risk watching it slowly die, unable to cope with the upset?  My buyers are OK with me taking it.

Here's a youtube link - Cornus Kousa  - sorry about the Pierce Brosnan ad, but I couldn't find an adequate photo ..

Hopefully, no more than a week in storage.  Hopefully.

Did I show you this?  They never did measure or photograph indoors... Farewell, my house

Voodoo dolls?

Someone, somewhere is sticking little pins into my effigy.

The vendors are ready and waiting to exchange, they've done everything they can to meet my completion date of Tue 30th... and we're still waiting for the searches to come back on their house, so we're not ready in the least.  The searches may yet turn up tomorrow, we could sign paperwork tomorrow, but we'll never, ever get the bank/solicitor to do their side of the deal in time for Tue 30th.  Maybe end of next week?  With a few days living in limbo, with a very considerate man who is doing his bit...

Tue 30th?

Estate agents still gunning for us to complete on purchase next Tuesday, same day I move out of this place.  My solicitor is saying 'not possible' - he hasn't even got our searches back from the local authority.

They'll have to fight it out between themselves.  I need lunch.  Plenty to sort here.  I need to get away from phone & laptop.

Windlesham pubs

The Half Moon, a mile away.  Him indoors will want to try the scallops.

The Windmill Pub, already tested with Judy.  Thumbs up. 1.6m walking route.

Surrey Cricketers, about 3 mins walk.  Sandwich lunches only, really.

The Bee, 1.5miles.  I must have driven straight past that one.  Need to check the food menu.

The Brickmakers lays claim to an eclectic wine list.  0.8 miles.

The Sun, opposite the Post Office.

And the nearest tkmaxx is 6 miles away in Woking.  All is well with the world.


 

Time to go

The sun is out, there is a comforting hum of lawnmowers.  I was on the brink of sitting out and enjoying it - sorting stuff can wait.  Then the bass beat from down the road started up.

Time to live in the countryside.

One down, one to go

Finally - the exchange on my sale has gone through.  I'm moving out on Tues 30th April.  Where to is to be confirmed.

A little r&r is in order.  The sun is due out this weekend & I will enjoy it.

Is it time to order annual seeds for the next garden?

Not entirely helpful advice

Someone who shall remain nameless (but I'm buying a house with him) unsimplified my packing no end by saying "just bring everything you wouldn't want to lose in a fire at the storage place".

Lovely little explore of Windlesham with Judy yesterday.  The Windmill proved excellent for lunch, though the nearest pub to the houses was a sandwiches-only deal.  Four more pubs to check out in the village..
The postman was very friendly.  The Post Office sells cotton reels & takes in dry cleaning; the corner shop mends shoes; there's a tea & cake shop.; the pharmacy has reassuringly late hours; the village magazine is excellent value at 35p, and the country market is on the first Saturday of every month...  I'm torn between loving all of this and going not an inch further until these wretched exchanges go through.

Still waiting.

Pragmatism

Having given myself nightmares with the uncertainty of it all - am going to focus on packing up by 30th April; will move to Staines whatever state the exchange/completion dates are in.  I'm there three quarters of the time anyway, and it will mean I have one less set of 'to do' lists to worry about.

Aiming to start that project on Friday a.m.  10 days to pack up 22 years of stuff.  What could be simpler?

Enough research for one night..

Facilities nearest Windlesham...

Nearest police station - Woking (6 miles); 13 crimes reported in February, 18 outcomes [clearly some very active bobbies here].  Mostly car crimes.

Nearest swimming pool - either a luxury day at Pennyhill Park Hotel (3.8 miles) or find an excuse to use one at C's school (2.9 miles), clearly it's the sort of area where, if you want one, you build one.  Or you go 7 miles into Bracknell
Nearest train station - Sunningdale 3 miles (47-50 mins direct to Waterloo/Vauxhall);  or Bagshot (same).

Nearest cinema - Bracknell (7.8 miles) or Woking  (6 miles), or Camberley (7 miles).

Look, this is all very boring.  Windlesham is home to Brian May (rock legend, Queen, if you're so inclined);  Sarah, Duchess of York (definitely never going to be Queen);  and Glen Hoddle, England footie manager.

The village has a pram race every Boxing Day.  Beat that.  And a post office and a shop.  That'll have to do.

Go slow

Having 'sold' my house in January, it's boring waiting for it to be over.  It hinges on my buyers' outstanding mortgage offer - I chased my estate agent, he chased the buyers, their building society and their mortgage broker.  Still hoping to move on 30th April.

Meanwhile, our destination's sellers' mortgage valuation on the property they're going to [did you follow that?] won't happen until the 22nd, so the likelihood of turning that chain around by the 30th is looking increasingly unlikely.  Their estate agent said she wished all her buyers were as sanguine as I sounded - well, plenty worse happens in this world.

I've spent a lovely overnight in Bexhill-on-sea, where the sun shone brightly, with my Gardening Girls, who've asked all manner of questions about Windlesham, to which answer I have none.  Girls, I'll get back to you.. Enjoying the New Forest now, for a little r&r with M&C.

Waiting

Didn't exchange on my sale - shall just have to wait.

Let the packing commence

Working my way through an awful lot of redundant paperwork.

Books?  No.  This time, I will not get rid of any books.

Our mortgage offer has been formally issued.  Still not exchanged on either property, though.

Suspended animation, cont'd

All sides are promising me exchange of contracts this Friday 12th April.

In the meantime, I really don't know where I live.  Just bought two bags of groceries in Muswell Hill, having almost bought them in Staines, and now they're sitting in my Bounds Green kitchen where I can't quite be bothered to unpack them.

The sun has come out.  I will sit in it.  I can't plant anything.  I will give everything a bucket of water, that will feel better.

Limbo, chapter 99

My buyers still haven't exchanged contracts - blame falling squarely on their building society.

Lots of phone calls yesterday - solicitors pointing fingers at each other for slowing the chain down - are three links enough to make a chain?  It's only me, our destination property, and the wreck they're determined to refurbish.  If it gets much slower though, we won't be moving in on April 30th.

Bit previous of me to book the removals people, wasn't it?  Just can't help the odd moment of optimism..

Reassuring survey

All good - only recommendations were to sweep leaves from gutters & put an airbrick behind the fireplace. Mind you, he did list the house as 4-beds not 5, so either he had an alarmingly quick look around, or Bedroom 5 is only adequate for a small gnome.  I'll phone him.

M bought a red, 2 metre tall, angle poise floor lamp yesterday, very Pixar. A first treat for the house we don't even own yet.  It's sitting on a side table at the moment, looking entirely ridiculous, but making us both smile.

Inching along

My buyers didn't exchange - but only due to some technical hitch with their mortgage documentation.  Meanwhile, they've sent me a very charming email via the estate agent asking which brand of kitchen units I've got, as they'd like to order more of the same ..

Financial chap this morning; mortgage product chosen.

Glorious sunshine; three varieties of strawberry plants purchased.  Off for a walk before it fades.