26th July 2012

A couple of weeks now since my last entry. Well there was really not much to say. Last Sunday we moved our final belongings and ourselves up to King's Lynn. We managed to get everything in the two cars and roof box, including the two rabbits who we picked up from our friend on the way.

We had a lovely drive up, Kirsty was with me and Craig went with Helen. We stopped a few times because of Helen's knee but still made it in a little over 2 hours. I will not miss having to pack up on a Sunday evening to drive back to London.

This week has been quiet, I have been working and Helen relaxing from work but picking up the shopping and cooking chores. We have had our 3 things break, first Craig's guitar tuning key broke off, easy to fix once the new set arrived. The second thing was the lawn mower, whilst cutting the grass, it just started to smoke and died. I had planned to buy a strimmer anyway and got one with a new qualcast mower. The last thing was the ironing boards which collapsed whilst I was using it, the welding had finally given up, it was very old, so a new one has been brought to replace.

We have, because of this, hunted down our recycling centre. Quite a drive it is as well, right on the outskirts of the town, it did not take too long to get to but I would say it was about 3 miles aways at least.

It dawned on me yesterday that we have no secure income coming in anymore. Of course I was aware of this before but it finally hit home yesterday and it did give me a little panic. Helen gets her full salary which covers August and September so we have nothing to concern ourselves immediately, I just think it was the realisation that for the first time we would not have an a guaranteed income at the end of the month.

It also means I have to adjust the way I do the finances. My complex system revolves around a fixed income coming in, it covers bills first, then allocates an amount to various buckets, like Birthdays, Car repairs, Christmas etc, after all that we then know how much money we have spare each month. When we have a birthday present to buy it is paid out of the birthday bucket. So I have now had to look at what we have to pay each month without fail. I have x this by 3 and moved that amount into a holding fund so we have at least 3 months money. That amount will be put back into the main account each month to cover the bills. Anything we earn during the month we go into the holding fund. At the end of the month whatever we have in there over the 3 months worth will be allocated to the bucket accounts. These have been prioritised so the important ones get topped up first. Everyone has a system, mine is complex ( I think it is ) and overkill but I like to know exactly how much money we have when we need to buy something.

Of course it may not be a problem and fingers crossed Helen finds enough work to cover what we need to live as we do now. If i knew how long I had in my job it would help, but even yesterday they have cut my hours down. Instead of 5 days I now only have 2.5 days a week. So whilst it is something, it is not as good as it was, but even if that continued for the foreseeable future it would be large chunk of our monthly required total, with no mortgage now.

Anyhow the one thing we do know is regardless of how much money we have we will have a house which is ours and a roof over our heads.

Tomorrow is completion day, and once we have the keys we plan to assemble the wardrobes in each of the bedrooms and finally get all of our clothes hung up and out of the suitcases and boxes they have been in for the last 10 weeks. 

On Saturday we have the family up for my birthday, and on Sunday we plan to take over the beds and assemble them and get the kitchen stuff over and put away. They are leaving us a fridge freezer so that will help and we can then sleep in new house on Sunday night.

On Monday we have electrician coming to put on new fuse panel and we will spend the day taking over boxes and all of the other stuff we can fit in the car.

Once the rented house is clear of all the stuff we can move ourselves, we will hire a man and van to take the things like sofas, washing machine, fridge and freezer and rabbit hutch. Until then we will have to do washing at the rented house.

The broadband is due to be cut off from Rented on Tuesday 31st and turned on in new house sometime the same day. I hope that goes smoothly.

Then that should be that. Check back in a few days to see how it all went.

11th July 2012

Well we are nearly there. Just over a week and half now and we will be moving to King's Lynn. We are travelling up again this weekend and taking up some more stuff. Then there is another week of work for Helen and school for Kirsty, then my cousin Marks wedding on the Saturday and we move up on the Sunday.

During next week we have various things going on, Helen has a leaving do at school, I am having a meal with my old work mates and we are planning a curry with my Mum and Dad. Craig has organised a get together with his mates on the Friday before we move, so it will be quite busy.

Kirsty visited her new school, we had a tour around and it looked really nice. We met the head teacher as well and they have some great things going on there. The school have just released a single on itunes called We Say - download it if you can, they are pushing for a top 40 place. The song involves every child at the school and is a great idea. The schools website is great too, it has a forum for discussion, praise areas and each class puts up things they have done. Very impressesd. Kirsty loves her school uniform, and her new school bag and is quite excited. She also met her new teacher who has also just arrived at the school.

So onto more sorting out, and deciding what to take up this weekend. I handed in the final forms to the solicitor yesterday, that should be all now on the Purchase of our new house, now it is just completion day 27th July 2012 and move in the following week, after the electrics have been sorted out.

We started this move process in February and 6 months on we are nearly at the end. It has all fit into place really well but getting to each of the milestones has been stressful and taken a lot of hard work.

Nearly there now.

2nd July 2012

So we are into July and in 18 days time we move to Kings Lynn. It will be so nice to be finally settled in one place. Helen will have finished work and we can start our life again.

We had the weekend up here which was unplanned. Originally just Craig and I were coming up Sunday night as he has two inductions days at Springwood Monday and Tuesday.

However my need for a bed proved too strong, so we all came up Friday night and I then drove Helen and Kirsty back down on Sunday evening before driving back up to be with Craig.

Next week we have a weekend in London. The following weekend we will be up again to Kings Lynn, starting to move some stuff up. Then the weekend after that we have my cousins wedding on the Saturday and then finally make the move up on the Sunday 22nd July 2012.

We have just found out the Kirsty has got her place at the school we wanted. It is two minutes walk from the house and she met a girl in Tesco's on Saturday who goes there. I had a walk up at school time this morning to see how busy the road got. I am pleased we got that school as I would not have looked forward having to drive anywhere at school time. Getting out of our road would not have been easy.

There is not much more to do really, completion day is set for 27th July 2012, just waiting now for our statement from the Solicitor to see how much money we have left from our savings so we can plan what we can buy when we move in.

26th June 2012

One more piece of the jigsaw is now in place. Yesterday at 3pm we exchange contracts to buy or new home. The only thing really outstanding now in the overall plan is a school place for Kirsty. That is in process and we hope to hear in a couple of weeks time.

The exchange yesterday took ages and I was in contact with our seller quite regularly as we were getting different messages from our solicitors. Basically one of them was lying because we knew exactly what both of them were telling us. In the end though it got done and we will have the house on 27th July 2012.

The saga of the drainage DVD still goes on. It has still not arrived so I asked them again. I got an email reply, they have now sent 3 DVD's out and just do not know why they are not getting here. They said that the engineer would do another copy and drive it down to hand deliver today. I phoned them back and said not to bother, the report was Ok and we will be in King's Lynn in a few weeks and he could deliver it then. The supervisor was insistant that he would hand deliver it, I tried arguing but he would have none of it. So we will see if it turns up today.

19th June 2012

5 weeks now until we move to King's Lynn and as each day passes I grow more tired and exhausted. We are also now half way through our stay with mum and dad having moved in 5 weeks ago, and although 5 weeks does not seem that long, to know we have only done half the time here makes it seems a long way away.

I am now getting fed up of my blow up bed, have to make it up each night and put it away each morning. I wake up have slept all night but my body feels like it has not slept in weeks.The constant trips across Enfield to get Kirsty and Craig to and from school or brownies is tiring whilst all along I am having to work and keep an eye on jobs that need doing.

It is harder than I thought it would be but I guess from my piont of view better than trying to complete and sale and purchase on a house at the same time. However I am very tired and a little bit short with the kids when they continue to expect me to fetch everything they need or want.

No more news on the Purcase of our property, we are all ready and I have no reason to chase it. We took Marion to see it last weekend and she loved it. We noticed the pointing outside had been done. Hopefully we will exchange contractes in a few weeks time with completetion near to end of July, that would be perfect.

Other than that it is work, kids, shopping, cooking etc but in more difficult circumstances than normal, shopping daily because there is not enough room to store a weeks shop, cooking meals around when my parents are having theirs, which changes every day. Cant wait to have a wardrobe again, living out of a suitcase is no fun, it seems I am just wearing the same clothes, recycling them as they get washed/dirty but as each day goes past it is a day nearer to moving and it will be really nice to be settled in one place once again.

13th June 2012

Further on the drainage inspection report. The post arrived today but nothing regarding the inspection report. I phoned them again and my contact there was not in. Planned holiday or recovering from dealing with me, I am not sure. Anyhow I spoke to a new person but all she wanted to tell me was they had not received it either and could not do anything until they did.

I told her I understood this and tried to take her through the story but she seemed uninterested. I got a bit firmer with her as I was getting frustrated now, I really felt like I was getting fobbed off and I got put through to her manager. Anyhow a quick chat to him and he contacted the engineer. My copy was put in post yesterday this was confirmed, although I still do not believe it. I wonder what postal service the engineer is using as so far nothing has been delivered.

Anyhow what he did agree to do was email the report to the person I was speaking to (manager). The manager told me this and said as soon as it was received he would forward to me.

I waited but not expecting anything. Anyhow two hours later an email arrived with the report attached. I opened it eagerly looking forward to reading through this extensive report, which no one could tell me about, or email me about or even get delivered by post.

I started at the top, it had the addresses on there, date and job number. Underneath this it said:

FINDINGS: The investigation into the drain has identified that the line is in very good condition.

Then I laughed. That was the report, nothing else, no other words, paragraphs, explanations or anything. This is what I had waited 3 weeks for and what could not be discussed on the phone, emailed previously or posted from Norfolk to London.

Now don't get me wrong I happy with the findings, it means we have no problems, but surely someone could have read that out over the phone to me 3 weeks ago.

A call to BT was next regarding some microfilters missing from our broadband delivery, which were re ordered but have yet to arrive, that though is another story.

12th June 2012

How difficult would it be to get a drainage inspection done and report I asked the drainage inspection company on 15th May 2012 following something highlighted on the survey that suggested there might be a problem with the drains. The nice lady at the other end said no problem at all, we can schedule the job for you and within 1 week you will have a DVD and full report.

Excellant I said and paid her the money. Inspection was booked in for 22nd May 2012. They did not show up. It was rearranged for 24th May. Once again a job overun and they could not do it. They finally inspected the drains on Friday 25th May 2012.

So we waited for the report. One week on 1st June 2012 came and went but nothing was recieved. No problem I thought we are in no rush.

However come Wednesday 6th June 2012 and still nothing received I thought something might be wrong. So I contacted them. After holding for a while and waiting for people to ring me back I found out report would be emailed to them that day and then onto me.

So we waited again. Nothing received by next day Thursday 6th so I rung back. This time was told that engineers computer was being fixed so it would be sometime later. He had put copy in post to company 26th May 2012 so they should have that. No they did not.

So we waited again. Monday 11th June I rang back again, surely his computer was fixed now. It appears not but due to this he has put another copy of the report in the post to the company, on receipt they would scan and email to me. He confirmed it was posted to them first class.

So we waited again. Tuesday afternoon 12th June still nothing so I rung again. The report had not arrived with them yet. So I got quite angry now, although it does not really affect anything, I would like to see the report before we exchange. After much discussion it appears the reports are not emailable anyway. I think they make alot of things up. They told me it was top priority, on receipt they would post off to me. I then suggested they should contact the engineer and tell him to send me the report and DVD direct, today, first class post. They agreed to ask for this.

Something smells funny here, and I hope it is not the drains.