Last week, we got Sky Broadband. Today, Sky TV was installed. Our new home is coming together. Granted we have no running water, or gas to heat the place during these cold winter nights; but at least we now have the essentials.
Moving house is probably the biggest thing that I have ever done. Almost three weeks on, and there is still lots to do. The last week or so has been a little frustrating to say the least, but there have been plus points too…
The Good
We finally have broadband! Living without access to the internet for as long as we did was hard. There is only so much you can do with a poor 4G signal, on your mobile phone. When we told Sky that we were moving home, we took them up on the offer of an upgrade to fibre broadband. Wow. It was worth the wait!
Web pages which load instantly, superfast downloads and no buffering during videos. I remember when we first got internet access in the late 1990’s. It would take half an hour to download a single MP3 from Napster – when it was free and illegal. This was when you didn’t lose the internet connection, because your sister picked up the telephone downstairs. This new broadband will download an MP3 in a second!
The Bad
Two companies – Argos and Yodel. Since moving, I have been living out of cardboard boxes. This is because I have no wardrobe. We decided to put our faith in Argos and entrust them to deliver our new furniture. Claire’s wardrobe was arrived without too much trouble – besides a rude delivery driver, with a bad attitude. My wardrobe was also delivered. It came in two boxes. One box contained Part #1 of the wardrobe. The second box was a television stand. Fucking marvellous.
One week, and many heated Twitter and telephone conversations later, the replacement was due to arrive. In the morning, Claire checked Yodel’s delivery status. There were over one hundred deliveries before ours. ONE HUNDRED! How can one delivery driver deliver that many parcels in one day? Even Father Christmas would struggle. Needless to say, my wardrobe did not arrive. We realised this at about 7pm. This was confirmed a couple of hours later, when Claire received a text message, which read something along the lines of “We’re not delivering your parcel”. It may as well have read “FUCK YOU”. Thanks, Yodel. I am not in a position to speculate about working conditions for these drivers, but giving them such huge delivery targets (100+ in a day) is worrying.
The following day, Part 2 of the now hated wardrobe arrived. At this point I was expecting to see the ghost of Jeremy Beadle. Yodel had only given me the same fucking box as before! Yes, that’s right. Two boxes, both of which containing the same pissing parts! To add insult to injury, the Yodel delivery driver refused to take away the old boxes, containing the original wardrobe and TV stand.
Sigh
I’m getting bored of writing this. I am sure if, by a miracle, you are still with me, you are too. So, let’s just say we bought a new wardrobe from a shop. The original boxes of crap are due for collection tomorrow. Fancy a bet if anyone will turn up?
The Ugly
Nothing ugly. Quite the opposite. Our new house is beautiful. I am still yet to believe it is ours. It is a wonderful home and will become even more beautiful once we’ve finally settled in and all the boxes are gone. Once this has happened, I’ll upload some photos – including the wonderful view from our bedroom window, which looks onto the Cotswold Way countryside.
You know how I said the other day that moving house was hard? Well it just got one step harder…
Everything has been moved from the old house to the new one. The removal firm – AJ Removals – were incredible; packing and moving our possessions and furniture. Had we not had this help, it would have taken months to move ourselves. Now comes the tricky part. Unpacking!
There appears to be hundreds of boxes everywhere. We have started to unpack, but working out where to put everything is a nightmare. My clothes are all in boxes. Until I can buy and build a wardrobe, I can’t move the clothes; but until I clear the boxes, I can’t get a wardrobe! Aaarrrggghhh!
My coffee machine is lost, which is causing great distress. We don’t have Sky and while I found my old Freeview Box, the aerial is shit. I could hardly watch I’m A Celebrity, last night due to poor reception.
I did discover some useful finds on the Freeview box… recordings from 2013. Amongst some interesting documentaries I saved, over four years ago, are old episodes of The Football League Show and Match of the Day. Watching bits of them, I can see that Leeds were shit back then and shit now!
Right now, with the mountains of cardboard boxes, it looks like a task we will never complete. I am sure we will… in another four years time.
Tonight, is the final night in our old house, where we have happily lived for over four years. Do I feel emotional about it? No. I feel a stressed, overwhelmed and tired.
We have loads and loads to pack, despite the removal firm boxing up the contents of our book/DVD shelves and kitchen. I tried clearing my wardrobe today and was amazed at how many clothes I have! I’m sure my jumpers and shirts have been breeding like rabbits in there.
This afternoon, we spent a delightful three hours in our new house. It was freezing cold and we had nowhere to sit, as the furniture isn’t being moved in until tomorrow. We had to wait while our new carpets were fitted and an engineer fixed our boiler. Yes, we bought a new house, only to find that the boiler is buggered. Luckily, it is now fixed. The carpets are lovely, although took a long time to fit. I started to get frustrated and almost had a Victor Meldrew explosion, when I heard the fitters upstairs, watching videos on their mobile phones!
Earlier today, Claire and I had two meltdowns. Luckily, not at the same time, so we were able to support the other one somewhat. The amount of work we had to do looked like a mountain. It is still a bloody big hill, which we’ve got to climb by tomorrow morning. It’s fair to say Mount Everest has become Ben Nevis. However, because of the work we have done this afternoon, and some very generous offers of help from our caring parents, we are on our way.
As of today, Claire and I are officially homeowners. We are on the property ladder and all grown-up! Well, the grown-up bit is up for debate.
This has been a few months in the making, but I was reluctant to blog or tweet anything, until it was confirmed and we had the keys in our hands. Making any announcement anytime sooner would be tempting fate.
We are not moving far. Not only are we staying in the same area of Bath, but we will be living on the same street! Just a couple of hundred yards up the road. We love the area where we live and it is very close to where both of us work. We also knew that we couldn’t rent forever – we were at the mercy of the landlord, who could evict or put our rent up, without us being able to do anything about it. Not anymore! No more getting permission to hang a picture on the living room. If we want to drill a massive hole in the wall, we can.
There has been loads to sort out with the house. I must have spent hours on the phone to and emailing mortgage brokers, solicitors and insurance companies. That’s all before moving in. Now it’s a case of getting a locksmith to fit new locks, getting a plumber to install a dishwasher *, calling the energy supplier to give our readings and obtain a Smart Meter, getting Sky installed **… the list goes on!
* Yes, a dishwasher. We are finally getting a dishwasher. Since I left home in 2006, I have always had to wash by hand. I hate it. I would rather clean the toilets, after someone had explosive diarrhea.
** We need to get our Sky TV and internet ASAP. I was devastated to learn that we will be without internet for almost two weeks. No Sky+ for almost three! These utilities are up there with air! Never mind if we’ve got no running water – we need our television and internet access. Pray for us and send the Red Cross round.
I will try and take some photos to upload soon. At the moment, the house is looking very empty as we are yet to move in. The big removal day is Thursday. We have someone to pack our stuff and take it up the road for us – a man with a van; or more likely men with ven.
About Me
So you stumbled across my blog. No doubt after searching for something bizarre on Google. Before you hit that 'Back Button', why not stay and have a read for a few minutes?
If you are after a website which gives advice on how to hack an iPhone X, download the latest Steven Seagal movie, or view nudy ladies, you've come to the wrong place and may now press 'Back'.
However, if you would like a lifestyle blog, written by a 30-something chap, living in Bath (England), feast your eyes on this.
You won't discover how to copy PlayStation 4 games. What you will find is a blog, covering life in the West Country, the highs and lows of supporting two unsuccessful football teams, while sharing a house with a wife and rabbit.
All written by a man, somewhere on the sanity-scale between normal and eccentric.
