Moving day

Rupert and his friend Tim have moved all our furniture out of our friend's house and into our new house in Southwold.  It took them about an hour to carefully fit everything into the van and we met up with them outside the new house where we both managed to find prime parking spots right outside the front door - a rare thing in Southwold!

Our happy movers

Rupert and Time took a quick look round the house and sized up the problems!  Two different stair cases, both steep and narrow.    A quirk of the house is a sort of opening in the upstairs hall of the front part of the house which looks down over the stair case going up to the back part of the house.  As a king size bed needed moving from the front to the back they managed to pass it over the banisters of the opening thus avoiding two staircases.   Unpacking the van was fast and efficient and Rupert and Tim were uncomplaining!

The sitting/dining room is now crowded with furniture and needs to be 'arranged' and we still need another bed for the attic but we're getting there.

Filling up!

More boxes to unpack

While everyone was having a restorative cup of coffee I reminded Peter about the well outside the back door that we didn't know about.  Rupert had the flagstone up in a flash and behold, a large hole full of water.   Tim held Rupert's legs while Rupert went head first into the hole with a flashlight.  He reported on the size of the opening and we also tested the depth of the water - about 2m.  After much head scratching we put the flagstone back and postponed any decisions about what to do about it!

We uncover the well

The well

Looking down....

The next day Peter went off to a meeting in Great Yarmouth and I walked round Southwold to get my bearings and post our cheque for membership of the Southwold and Reydon Society.   According to Mrs. W, a good way to keep up with what's going on.  We were getting the tail end of a storm and the wind was cold and buffeting.  The waves were grey and pounding!  I managed to get home without being blown over.   Fortunately the garden is sheltered and I put in 1.5 hours and made a very small dent on the tidying up that needs to be done.  I made a large pile of broken plastic flower pots of all sizes, most of them so old that the plastic was degrading, and other assorted debris, and did a little modest pruning and weeding of some of the pots.   Much more to do!   In the end we may need a small skip to take stuff away. 

A discovery

Yesterday I had another telephone conversation with the very sweet elderly lady who owned Gordon House before us.   She's been checking that all is well and wanted to let us know about the Reydon and Southwold Society so that we don't miss out on what's going on locally! 

I asked her about the water pump outside the backdoor.

Mrs W.: "Didn't your surveyor tell you?  There's a well by the back door.   If you lift the flagstone to the right of the door, you can see the water!  We just couldn't get the pump to work, but there's water in the well. "

Something else to investigate!

We settle in to Southwold...

Our first overnight stay in Southwold - two nights.   The inherited mattress we frowned on turned out to be very comfortable.  We got stuck back into the kitchen and finished cleaning,  and unpacked the boxes we had taken down.  The oven took a while to clean as did the extractor fan, but what a virtuous feeling when you at last peel off the rubber gloves.   We managed to wash floors, vacuum carpets, mend things and gradually work out which beds to put where, with a lot of measuring
.  Peter found the instructions manual and programmed the central heating and I even had time to wash the window sills on the street and the tiles on the front step and net curtains.   I also met a lady who runs 'Rachel's Cleaning Service' and she is going in to do the bathrooms and the loos at the end of the week.  

A clean oven!

We moved the table in the kitchen so that we are now sitting by a big window looking out on the garden.    Talking of which, here are the before pictures.   As you can see, plenty of space to sit and quite a lot of overgrown shrubs and lots of pots!   Big and small.  Some contain interesting plants and others contain what look like weeds.   It's going to be interesting to see what grows out of them in the spring.  There are also very large plants/shrubs in pots that will be a devil to move as the roots have probably gone down into the concrete or earth.   I've signed up for a garden waste bin collection to cart all the weeds and prunings away.

In addition to the pots, which will be a pleasure to cultivate, and the overgrown flower beds, which will be a challenge, there is junk everywhere!  Buckets, plastic bags of goodness knows what and broken toys and broken household items thrown into corners.  We made a preliminary collection to go to the dump. There's an interesting assortment  of spades and buckets for the boys together with a little wheelbarrow that will probably make it to the beach in the summer, and some surf boards! 

It wasn't all work and no play.  We tried out a small television but no matter which bit we plugged in where, we couldn't get BBC only ITV and commercial stations.   We'll have to get a man in...  We also made serveral sorties to the shops.   Everything is literally on the door step.  It takes seconds to go and buy a paper.  And what's more there's a charity shop next door which has been very useful today.  We made three trips with arms full of things we have found in the house that we don't need.   

The only thing we didn't do during the two days we were there was go to the end of the road and look at the sea or walk on the beach!   Still, there'll be lots of time for that.

Moving day next Sunday.  Our furniture is coming out of storage at a friend's and being taken down to Southwold.  So more unpacking and arranging next week.

Towards the back gate and the street

The back door  (left) and the doors to the sitting room

Plenty for the birds!

Lots of pots

The kitchen window...more pots

A few things for the grandchildren and plenty of rubbish

Who's been living in my wall?

A little glory hole!

Pots anyone?

Add caption

Defunct water pump

We're in and spend the day cleaning!

We exchanged contracts and completed our purchase of our new house on Friday.  We arrived in Southwold on Saturday morning with a car load of bits and pieces and managed to find a place to park outside the front door!  So far so good.   Unfortunately the estate agent's office was closed as they were both out on viewings and we had to hang around and try to get a phone signal to chase them up!  Rather a downer.   Eventually the agent returned and we got our keys!

Here are multiple before shots!

The downstairs loo

The kitchen looking towards the hall

The cooker end of the kitchen

The hall and front door

Sitting room looking towards the garden

Sitting room looking towards the street

Stairs leading from the front door

Different stairs up to the back bedroom

Back bedroom

Back bedroom

Back bedroom ensuite

Strange opening looking from one part of the house to the other

Shower room

Study/bedroom

Little dressing room

Attic bedroom 1

Attic bedroom 2

The stairs down from the attic

A little work to do on the insulation

Useful little cupboard

Front bedroom

WHAT WE DISCOVERED...IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!!

• The lighting is poor almost everywhere
• There's a weak telephone signal - sometimes
• Your idea of 'clean' is not my idea of 'clean'...it was out with the rubber gloves and the detergent
• The oven extractor works and vents outside.  Yeah! 
• The front door bell works after all, it had been turned off at the fuse box
• Washing and scrubbing the gas hob made it damp and it tripped a whole load of lights etc.  We had to switch it off at the mains while it dries out!  Too much enthusiasm!
• The fridge cleaned up nicely
• The boiler in the scullery has been placed so close to the central heating timer that you can't get the little door open to read the instructions properly without leaning over the water softener and squinching yourself in a corner with your head titled so your varifocals don't work and you still can't read the instructions...
• The vacuum cleaner that was lying about last week has been removed but all the attachments are still in the scullery cupboard! 
• The washing machine works! 
• The switch that used to turn on the lights in the garage was disconnected when  the garage was sold to the man next door but we don't know if the power supply to the sockets in the garage was also disconnected and we need to find out soon before we start supplying electricity to garage owner. 
• The tops of the kitchen cupboards hadn't been cleaned in a long while...if ever
• The kitchen tiles are in a sorry state and need a lot of TLC and, no doubt, expensive 'product'
• It's icy cold inside the wardrobes in the front bedroom which makes us worry about the damp in the wall
• Somebody else's motley collection of clothes hangers is a depressing sight
• The sofa we have inherited with the house is comfortable
• The kitchen is not very well laid out with too little room for working around the hob and to the side of the oven...I feel a new kitchen coming on!   Surprise!  However, when scrubbed up it will do until we get the builders working on the damp.   
• There's too much yellow paint everywhere!   Pale yellow, dark yellow, acid yellow. I mean everywhere where it isn't red.  But, again, we'll live with it until the builders have been and gone.  
• It took us 5 hours just to do a few of the kitchen cupboards and a few odd jobs, scratching the surface of the kitchen really.  
• I forgot to take before pictures of the garden which is full of junk in all the corners but will make that a priority when we go again next week. 
• An upmarket fish shop and fish and chip counter has opened a few door up the road.
• We enjoyed ourselves!  It's going to be a lovely house.

And closer....

We went to see the house again on Tuesday of this week.  The work on the side of the garage is now finished.   The house is almost empty but there are still piles of the old lady's belongings in boxes and bags in the living room and kitchen.  These are supposed to be being cleared today.    We noticed a lot of 'stuff' in various corners of the garden.  Although the seller is having the house cleaned, I suspect we will have a bit of clearning up to do when we go and collect the keys...hopefully next Saturday.  I shall be taking my camera with me for plenty of 'before' shots.

Despite the bits and pieces scattered here and there in the house, we still love it - though Peter came away rather daunted by the work that needs to be done!   I'm putting my head in the sand and hoping for the best! 

January 2016 and inching closer to Southwold!

Well, the retrospective listed building consent has been granted and only one obstacle remains to our possession of the house in Southwold.   The garage adjoining the garden, now in the ownership of the neighbour behind, is tumbling down and a condition of his purchase was that he renovated the side of the building that forms a border to our garden and takes down the decaying wooden staircase that used to lead from upstairs in the garage into our garden - or what will be our garden.  Up until last week nothing had been done, but after some emailing and phone calls we got hold of the man's phone number and Peter had a conversation with him.    He sounded reasonable and claimed that he hadn't realised time was getting so short.  He was supposed to start work last Monday and be finished by 3rd or 4th of February, if not before.    

Now we wait to see if he's going to keep his promise! 

The garden and the offending staircase!   And the front of the house...so nearly ours!

 

December and no further forward!

Well, the flat is sold but nothing has happened on the purchase of the house in Southwold that we are so excited about.   Apparently when the current owner and her husband bought it 25 years ago they renovated it...pulled a wall down here, blocked a door there, took down a porch here, built a dormer window there...without getting Listed Building Consent!   Listed building consent has no statute of limitations.  If the planning authorities find a listed building that has been messed about, the current owners are liable and may be required to reinstate.  So we're signing nothing until the retrospective listed building consent that the seller has applied for comes through.   Planning authorities can be slow, so we are in limbo.  As soon as the consent comes through we can exchange contracts and complete immediately.   In the meantime the lady has moved out and the house is empty although she has left the heating on low.    So a very large room in a friend's house is stacked with our furniture from the flat and our study is full of boxes and bags.   I'm finding it hard to concentrate on anything!

Except knitting!  I am on my third Christmas present sweater for my great nephews and am racing to finish in time to get it posted.   And pottery. 

I started pottery in September and am loving it.   The class is full of friendly people and the tutor is excellent.  Each week she teaches a different technique and I am producing a steady stream of objects that a child would be proud of!   Still, I'm getting more skilled with each pot and having a great deal of fun!  Here's a couple of examples.  The two on the right are the result of my pots collapsing on the wheel, but I thought they looked interesting enough to keep and glaze.

It's another very windy day.  Yesterday when I went shopping my trolley was lifted off the ground!  Today I'm making the excuse of the wind not to go into the garden to do the much belated tidying up.  I shall tackle a pile of ironing instead.