We had a 'phone call last night from the estate agent to say that he has received a written offer for our house. That's just seven days after we first spoke to him and three days after it appeared on their website. That's pretty slick and makes us think that we should have asked for more money. And now we are faced with the task of moving our stuff yet one more time.
Jamie says he will get a mate who works at a removalist company to do all the hard work and that's fine but it's all the personal things that take the time. And, the shed is full of boxes we can't bring ourselves to part with: mantelpiece clocks belonging to my mother and Marilyn's too, books from my Aunt Mabel, camping gear from our adventurous youth, accoutrements from our caravanning days. It needs someone who is ruthless to load up a trailer and head for the tip. The Council is making it as easy as possible by offering free dumping but it's that initial decision that's hard.
We've already been scouring the internet to see what other houses might be on offer and we've decided that a fairly standard 2-bedroom modern unit is the answer. There's been a lot of building taking place in the village of Longford and we've found a couple of brand-new places there. It's about 15 minutes from where Jamie and Nera live but it's still a village and maybe we want to be more at the heart of things.
We found one very nice unit closer to town and rang up to arrange an inspection but the current occupant is fearful of catching something horrible from us so sent videos of the interior hoping that will satisfy us. We'll drive past to have a look but there's no doubt we will need to get inside at some stage. We have two months before settlement so it's not urgent yet and new places are being listed every day.
I have drawn up a short-list of a dozen possibles and so the search begins. There's no shortage of potential places but Marilyn's not a great fan of house inspections and I need to weed out the most unlikely before we start knocking on doors. I've worked out a checklist, giving scores for different aspects: scores out of 5 for Street Appeal, Kitchen, Position, etc, with bonus points if it has built-in wardrobes, dishwasher, etc, but I can only draw my conclusions from what I see on the internet and that's not always reliable.
As a starting point, though, I have, on the top of my list, 2 places on 45 out of 50, one on 43 and one on 40. It will be interesting to see how accurate my assessment is when we get our feet on the mat.
Jamie says he will get a mate who works at a removalist company to do all the hard work and that's fine but it's all the personal things that take the time. And, the shed is full of boxes we can't bring ourselves to part with: mantelpiece clocks belonging to my mother and Marilyn's too, books from my Aunt Mabel, camping gear from our adventurous youth, accoutrements from our caravanning days. It needs someone who is ruthless to load up a trailer and head for the tip. The Council is making it as easy as possible by offering free dumping but it's that initial decision that's hard.
We've already been scouring the internet to see what other houses might be on offer and we've decided that a fairly standard 2-bedroom modern unit is the answer. There's been a lot of building taking place in the village of Longford and we've found a couple of brand-new places there. It's about 15 minutes from where Jamie and Nera live but it's still a village and maybe we want to be more at the heart of things.
We found one very nice unit closer to town and rang up to arrange an inspection but the current occupant is fearful of catching something horrible from us so sent videos of the interior hoping that will satisfy us. We'll drive past to have a look but there's no doubt we will need to get inside at some stage. We have two months before settlement so it's not urgent yet and new places are being listed every day.
I have drawn up a short-list of a dozen possibles and so the search begins. There's no shortage of potential places but Marilyn's not a great fan of house inspections and I need to weed out the most unlikely before we start knocking on doors. I've worked out a checklist, giving scores for different aspects: scores out of 5 for Street Appeal, Kitchen, Position, etc, with bonus points if it has built-in wardrobes, dishwasher, etc, but I can only draw my conclusions from what I see on the internet and that's not always reliable.
As a starting point, though, I have, on the top of my list, 2 places on 45 out of 50, one on 43 and one on 40. It will be interesting to see how accurate my assessment is when we get our feet on the mat.
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