The Weekend Edit #22
Well, what a bloody week! I think it will go down in history, it was the week we bought and sold a house. All in 6 days. Want to hear all about it?
Monday seems like ages ago now as I feel this was one of the longest weeks of my life. Monday was as work day as usual and in the evening I made a roast for us. Chicken with lashings of gravy and veg.
I have become addicted to these peach sweets found in the free from aisle in Tesco, though every time I eat them I wish I was drinking a peach schnapps.
Tuesday was chore day this week but I only managed to clean the kitchen. I had work that I needed to do then lost all forms of energy to get the steam mop out. Atticus drags in so many leaves at this time of year that its just not worth it. We called the estate agents and asked if we could view the (gin terrace) property, they arranged a visit for the Wednesday. We were excited to see the house again but worried as to why the sale had fallen through for a second time this year...
Wednesday, super shit picture but I put on something lovely for our 1pm house viewing Joseph jumper, M&S skirt, Aspinal bag). The house was now empty as the owners had moved in to their new property. It was nice seeing it without furniture in. I still really loved it. The estate agents were so happy we were still looking as they always felt the house was 'for us' - sales spiel or not, we felt the same. We called the estate agents in the car on the way back home and put our offer in. After a sweaty 30 minutes we got a call back and our offer was accepted! We then hotfooted it to the estate agents to get our house up ASAP because the sellers wouldn't take the house off the market until we had a buyer. Paperwork signed, Rightmove listing ready, we agreed to the Sunday for an open house...yeah 4 days away!
By Thursday our house was up on Rightmove and we already had viewings booked in for the Sunday. I began frantically cleaning on the Thursday morning (I got to enjoy 8am sunlight in the kitchen) and that afternoon we had a very interested lady who wanted to come and view the house on Friday as she couldn't make the open house. I said yes to 5.30pm and then got my ass in to gear. We had booked for decorators to come in on Thurs and Fri morning to brighten up the stairwell (lots of scratched up the sides over the years). They weren't going to be finished till midday Friday and then I could properly tidy up.
The for sale sign went up and I had a lady come and just stand in the garden for 15 minutes...
AHHH Friday and my favourite issue of Country Living arrived on a day where I really didn't have a moment to sit down and read it (it is still unread as I am writing this) The estate agents informed us we now had 13 booked in for Sunday and 3 on Monday.
By Friday evening we had an asking price offer. The lady was lovely, and she loved the house. We were nervous that after all the "we will sell our house no problem'' that actually that may not be true but we were going in to the weekend with an asking price offer and that was cool with us!
A hidden bottle of gin was uncovered in my cleaning which I treated myself to on Friday night. I went over to a friends for dinner, Michael went out with his dad and then we started on Stranger Things 2. Managed 2 episodes before I declared bedtime.
Saturday! Because I had cleaned everywhere for the Friday viewing there was only a little bit of hoovering and tidying to do for the open house the next day so we took Saturday as a chill day. We popped to the supermarket early, took the dog on a big walked then lit the fire and watched the rest of Stranger Things. Oh it was wonderful to have it back in my life. We saved the last episode as a treat for after the open house. My anxiety was getting quite high
Sunday - 8.30am and my tummy is doing flips! We decided to do the viewings ourself because we really wanted to meet everyone, I wanted to let our house go to someone who wasn't doing a buy to let, investing etc. I wanted someone to love this house as much as I had. Our first viewing was at 10.30 and she didn't show up. The next couple viewing were slightly late, at this point I was having internal struggles just wanting the day to be over and everyone go home. The day got mental at one point as there were a few 15 min slots which mean Michael was showing round people, then I would run downstairs and show the next hoping that we didn't overly cross paths.
We had a wide variety of people; couples, single men, families, investors. We scored each viewer out of 5 this was based on multiple things such as their position to move, their general vibe etc and by the end of the day we had 5 viewings who had scored 5. Meaning we would be happy to sell to them. We requested best and final bids to be in by 12pm on Monday and we would let them know that day.
I didn't manage to eat much all day. We had a last viewing at 3.30 then a break until 6.30 for a lady who viewed earlier in the day who was bringing her partner. We had some soup (it was rank muligatawny from Tesco) and watched the final Stranger Things. We got the house ready again for 6.30 and she didn't show up. So pissing rude. We gave her till 6.50 then we headed to McDonalds. Neither of us slept well that night, even though we were both drained!
The offers started to come in on Monday and by the afternoon we were in a really strong position. We ended up selling to the first lady who came and viewed on the Monday and very happy with the final price. It is well over what we expected and will help us majorly with the move. We called to ask whether our house was going to be taken off Rightmove etc and they said no...and not only that, they had a fucking viewing there on the Saturday. They were still showing people even though they had accepted our offer? We moved heaven and earth to get a buyer (in 3 days by the way) and they weren't willing to take the house off. I was furious.
Thankfully at the time of writing this on Tuesday she has taken it down. Both our houses are STC and it is now a case of banks/solicitors/surveyors taking over. Our solicitors have said 6 weeks. That would make our exchange date of Monday 11th December. Do you think it is possible?
Without sounding like a spoilt brat I was kind of dreading Christmas this year but one thing I was looking forward to was decorating the house. Forgetting the shit things that have happened this year and focus on the next. I am worried that with a house move I won't get to have that ritual of making the house look nice, getting a tree up and feeling cosy. Whilst I would love to be in for Christmas I think this year I may just have to kind of skip it and enjoy things from the periphery? Who knows. It may all work out! I know anything can happen between now and then. Our house could fall through, our buyer could pull out...when do I buy new furniture? We are leaving nearly all our stuff as per our agreement with the buyer so all new things will be bought for the new house. Surely I need to order a bed at least?!
Anxiety levels - I mean, I keep telling myself that a normal person would feel stressed with a house move. My main worries are that the new house wont feel like a safe space, and that I won't settle. Or that I may feel a little lonely as I wont have the constant hum of terrace living? I have had some lovely responses on instagram about settling once in, so thank you if you messaged me. Anxiety levels are high. I would say my day to day is currently a 7. I am also very aware that I have another Stamford trip coming up soon so thats playing in the back of my mind. Mum has stopped chemotherapy as it didn't work and has just had a week of intensive radiotherapy, all fingers crossed that it does something to that bloody tumour so she can get ready for surgery which should also hopefully be happening before Christmas. I dunno, I have a lot in my head right now.
If you fancy watching us - The Millers - I am vlogging the whole house process. There will be a new vlog up tomorrow with a sneak peek inside the new house! Make sure you subscribe because I often forget to mention when new content is up!
Find me on instagram here and tag #simplyweekend to share your adventures!
