Well, that’s it. We’re in. Hello Norfolk! We sat outside our house (flat) in London for one last time and had a family photo before we left. It felt a bit surreal to be shutting our blue door for the very last time but kind of good too. We’d spent our last evening with friends and kids in the pub, having a last farewell to Leytonstone which was really, really fun but during the night the neighbourhood drug dealer had been out in force with all his disgusting pals. Mixed feelings about our move being reinforced ever more.
A family snap outside our first family home on the day we moved out!
Moving day was very strange but I wasn’t half as emotional as I thought I would be. I think this was largely helped by the amazing removal company in Norfolk we employed because the chaps were such a laugh. There really wasn’t a moment to get sad and melancholly because they just kind of didn’t allow it in a very lovely way. We used, on recommendation, East Anglian Light Haulage and I am SO pleased we did! The removal cost came to a brilliant £800 and for that the owner and his brother wrapped our big pieces of furniture, made two round trips from Norfolk to London, were incredibly careful with all of our things, worked so hard and above everything else, were super, super kind! I wouldn’t want to move with anyone else!
Wanna take a little peak around our new gaff?
I had envisaged masses of tears and looking back over my shoulder but I didn’t really do it that way. I had a wobble, a moment, and then the removal men made me laugh and off we went. It was an odd feeling, a very unusual day but it wasn’t awfully sad.
And then seeing our new house! How big it is, how much potential it has… It was just really, very exciting!
Next the adrenalin wore off. I guess this is normal. By the late afternoon we kind of looked around at all the mess, the masses of boxes and bags and nothing feels like home, nothing is where it should be. Florence got very upset which made me sad too and I haven’t really been able to shake it since.
We are lucky that we got to come out, close the door and go to my Mum’s where everything is familiar and feels like home to us and we got to get away from it all. My Mum, the children and I went back to the new house yesterday to start sorting things out but I found it all very overwhelming and couldn’t really do much.
All I could see were holes and dents in the walls, chinks out of the woodwork, cables which have been inextricably snipped, broken windows, decrating that needs doing, floors that need cleaning and or fixing and just work, work, work. It kind of took over my emotions. The previous owners seem to have taken all the smoke alarms down and even taken some lightbulbs and even though we agreed for painting to be done where it needs doing they really didn’t do this as I had hoped. Some walls are done upstairs but a whacking great hole in one of the bedroom doors and all the masses of areas which DO still need doing not to mention a very leaky tap just bypass that entirely.
It’s little things really like window sills which are bashed about, floor grouting which is utterly filthy and needs steam cleaning, bathroom tiles completely smashed and even the broken window in the playhouse just made me think GOOD grief! It wasn’t how I’d remembered or how it should have been. There’s so much to do but we’ll get there and when we do everything will feel better.
I want a new kitchen and new bathroom as soon as possible and then I can concentrate on the other million things which need attention… As well as focusing on making it how I really want it to be with a loft conversion.
Moving house. It was never going to be easy!
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