Monday 9 May 2011

52:19 Our house, in the middle of our street

Again, not actually a house, a flat... although a flat converted from what must have been a huge house at some point! Anyway, I wanted to write a blog about the flat and the move itself. If you haven't read my last blog read it now by clicking here.

On Thursday 5 May 2011, James and I met Lee (our letting agent) at what was very soon to be our new home. He went through the paperwork and we signed. He handed over two sets of keys and boom; we had our own home.


James and I had viewed the property exactly a week prior to signing the lease. We had seen about 5 flats before this one and we were really keen on a few of them. But when we entered this one, we just had a feeling. I felt myself smiling... we knew this was the place for us. We asked for the application form straight away and completed it at the office just before closing time.

Then came the horrible wait for credit checks, which were fine of course, and employment checks, which weren’t so fine. Mine checked out alright but I didn’t earn the letting threshold amount so we relied on James’ job. Unfortunately you fail a check when you are paid weekly, on an agency contract (despite the fact he will move to full time employment in about a month). Luckily, however, our letting agent put it to the landlady, who allowed us to rent anyway. Huzzah!

The day we signed we brought a car full of boxes over, but as we hadn’t had a chance to buy the vital teabags and milk for the morning we decided to have our first night on the Friday. Friday... that was a tiring day! I spent the whole day packing and sorting boxes and James spent the whole day lifting and shifting them. With three more car loads to go before our stuff was moved to Ipswich we were really quite knackered by the end of the day.

That evening our friends Chris and Rachel came over to see our flat (Chris having seen it the day before as well), and we enjoyed some Indian takeaway and some well-deserved alcoholic beverages. We all decided that the following morning we would go to an event in a local village where lots of local residents all held a garden sale on the same day.

We managed to pick up some £1 DVDs (including Inception... for a pound... crazy), a bin for our loo (50p), a cat treats jar for the kitchen (50p), a copper bottomed pan (50p) and a 3-4 seater futon for only £20! We spent a lovely 3 hours walking about in the sunshine, picking up bargains, but were very tired by the end of the day. We had a quick visit from my parents, who bought a plant for us, and then relaxed with a film.

On the Sunday we enlisted the help of our friend Gabriel to shift the futon from the village to our flat (it fit in his car, almost) where it slotted easily through our window. Perfect! What a few days, eh?

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