Crunchie Eve!

We've never looked forward to crunchie day so much lol. Our solicitors have been shown the error of their ways and we're green for go tomorrow!

The mail redirection is in place and we've started the process of changing addresses which looks like it's going to take months to complete lol. We've ordered a new telephone number but unfortunately broadband won't be ready for another week so we'll not be able to post any pictures over the weekend, however, I should be able to post some (tons) of photos on Monday.

There are so many things we're looking forward to, living in our new dream cottage, here's just a few of them....

Eating at a proper dining table in a proper dining room.
Having Misty, Toddy and Eric wandering freely for the first time and having a lot less cat hair to contend with!
Having Lucy and especially Lolly racing round the garden tiring themselves out.
Enjoying the garden, photographing flowers and butterflies through the rest of the summer.
Setting up a multitude of wild bird feeders and hopefully being able watch an array of birds come and go.
Having enough room to invite people round for barbecues or for dinner.

We've also got a few projects already lined up....

Fitting a cat flap to one of the two garden sheds and equiping it out with goodies for the cats.
Cutting down a rather large tree and leaving the stump for a bird table.
Replacing the main pebbled parts of the garden with flags.
Building a raised fish pond and filling it with koi carp.
Doing something with the enormous greenhouse, not sure what yet though.

That lot should keep us going for a while lol. The countdown is on . . . . see you on the other side!

Paul.

I Should Be A Clairvoyant

What did I say yesterday about our solicitors? We got the breakdown of the costs though the post yesterday and yes, they have seized the opportunity for yet another cock-up. It's a good job Debbie is an account or we might not have seen the two mistakes they've made that would leave us over a grand out of pocket! So, once again, I've got the car today ready for a surprise visit to the solicitors at lunch time.

I've lost count of the number of times I've had to drive over there to kick butt, this time they've gone too far and as far as I'm concerned it's tantamount to fraud. Once I've got the mistakes rectified I'll also be questioning the charges for professional services when they clearly haven't been professional at all.

Paul.

Hallelujah!

We've done it, we've actually exchanged contracts! We're counting the seconds now until Friday!

Thank you for everyone's good wishes over the last few months, it's been one hell of a roller-coaster ride! We're so relieved it's all finally come together and we can't wait to post a bucket load of pictures of our new Snowbabies Cottage this weekend!

Paul.

Teetering On The Edge

Could this be it? Contracts are signed, our buyers cheque has cleared and an exchange is on for this afternoon! This should be the time to crack open the champagne but with our solicitors never wanting to turn a cock-up down if there's one going, we'll make do with delighted status for now, ecstatic can wait until Friday!

Paul.

Scarborough

The latest on the house move is that our buyers contracts turned up yesterday but now we have to wait while their cheque for the deposit clears before the solicitors will exchange. That's going to make it pretty tight with a moving date of next Friday so our vendor is going to get her solicitor to see if he can get them to exchange this week, neither of us believe they need to wait for the cheque to be cleared.

Anyway, enough of all this doom and gloom, here are some pictures from our day out at Scarborough last Friday....



Scarborough's North Bay, we were surprised to find that dogs are allowed on the beach there, but only the half of the beach where you have to wait for the tide to go out. Luckily we timed it perfectly as the tide was just on it's way out when we got there.



The pleasure cruiser passed by every now and then, it was a long way out, probably enjoying the sunshine which always seemed to be a mile off shore lol.



Lolly had a great time racing around the beach all day with his new ball, unfortunately we ended up leaving it behind so we'll have to get him a new one for next time.



We just about managed to coax Lolly and Lucy into the water, I think an inch of water is about Lucy's limit, Lolly was a little more daring, going in to almost two inches deep lol.

When we do finally get into our new house, we're going to get them a paddling pool so they can get used to being in the water and it'll keep them both cool on these long hot sunny days, then we can tell friends that we spend the afternoons drinking cocktails by the pool lol.

Paul.

Speechless!

Not hearing anything from our solicitor at the time agreed this morning I called them to see if our buyers contract had arrived through the post today and the answer was no! There is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

Having hand delivered everything to the estate agents and solicitors over the last few months, it beggars belief that these idiots let our buyers post their contract on Monday night rather than popping it through their letter box.

It transpires that the only reason our buyers didn't hand deliver the contracts over the weekend was because one of their names was spelled incorrectly on the forms. Our solicitors legal knowledge has taken up residence where the common sense should be obviously!

Paul.

Toyota Corolla T-Sport

Here's a picture of our new mean machine, not the most glamorous of back drops, we'll have a drive out somewhere nice at the weekend and get a proper photo.

Who needs va va voom when you've got the car in front lol.


Paul.

Ohhh Why Are We Waiting!

Well, we've had an action packed few days since our last update! With Debbie being off work on Thursday we were supposed to be carrying on with the packing but with the heat and no sign of an imminent contract exchange we just got some shopping in and tried to keep cool in the afternoon.

On Friday we decided to get away from everything and head off to Scarborough for the day, the weather was great, mostly cloudy and much cooler that it has been recently. The dogs loved the beach, Lolly chased his new ball all over the place while Lucy took any opportunity when we weren't looking to try and sneak off somewhere lol. We didn't stay long and got back in plenty of time for tea, only to find a letter from our solicitor asking for yet more information and wanting something signed that I know I signed two weeks ago! I tried ringing them but it was after 5pm and they'd legged it for the weekend.

There was also a phone message waiting for us, "your new car is ready, can you arrange to pick it up asap". For chuffs sake, we were told it would be mid August which would have been after we move house, we really did try to sound as exited as the salesman as we made arrangements to pick it up on Sunday.

On Saturday we went over to the new house as the lady had kindly agreed to let us wait with her for our new sofa to be delivered. She's a lovely lady and it's a shame our buyers aren't being as helpful. Over a coffee we waited for only 5 minutes before the mobile rang..."it's the furniture people, we're outside your house with a new sofa" Yep, but the wrong house, they'd gone to our house instead of the new one, despite us changing the delivery address two weeks ago! Still, they were at the right address in a few minutes. That's when the head scratching started, just how do you get two sofas through that small door?

After about half an hour of jiggling this way and that, they admitted defeat and left the sofa's on the lawn after our vendor suggested taking out the living room window. I called Dad and explained that things we're not going quite as planned and asked if he could come over and help us take the window out. Another coffee was served while we waited an hour for Dad to finish his dinner and drive over from the other side of Sheffield.

When Dad arrived, Debbie went off to B & Q to get some putty and a plywood board cut to size just in case it all went Pete Tong. I got a call a short while later, Debbie was in tears, having tried and failed to get the board into the car, it had scratched paint off the bumper and with us trading it in on Sunday it was just too much to take. Dad and I went down to rescue my Damsel in distress and got the board back in Dad's car.

It took us about an hour to get the window out which thankfully came out in one piece. The old sofa and chair came out with no problems, but our new sofa's weighed a tonne! After a lot of heaving and hoeing the sofa's were in and we set about putting the window back in again. All in all, we we're there over five hours but at least our new sofa's are in and the window, as far as we know, is still in place lol.

On Sunday we went over to pick up our new car, the salesman was grinning like a Cheshire cat, this being his first new car sale and the top of the range Corolla T-Sport at that. He's been great from the start so we tried to be enthusiastic about things but the last few months have ground us down into jibbering wrecks and we just wanted to get the car and go home. The new car is nice though, a sporty back number with electric everything and stainless steel sports pedals, with holes in, probably so you can put the pedal to the metal faster lol.

With a possibility of having to go to the solicitors again today and now only having one car, I've had to take Debbie to work this morning and then come back to Barnsley, it'll be other way around tomorrow as we've planned. The new car is lovely to drive, the ride is smooth but firm and the car feels even more nimble than the Yaris, it's just taking some getting used to six gears.

The latest on the house move today is that our buyers haven't dropped in the signed contracts over the weekend as promised but are planning to post them today. There isn't much we can do about it really, I've called the estate agents who are generally a little bit more helpful than the solicitors to see if they can do anything. Hey ho, we'll just have to keep on waiting.......

Paul.

Too Hot For Birding!

This morning Eric decided to climb on top of the boxes that we’ve been assembling in the living room ready for the move.



He kept meowing away, obviously not impressed with something, he must have been trying to catch a fly or something ..lol..

I got more packing done before the heat got too bad but even at 8.30am, I still had a towel round my neck for wiping the sweat away every 10 seconds. There’s not much more to do up there, all the bulky stuff is gone, just a few more boxes to do and we’re done.

This afternoon I’ve been down to RSPB Old Moor, only an idot would go wandering round a bird reserve just after midday with the sun beating down! Still, there was loads to see, butterflies were everywhere but the little buggers wouldn’t stay still long enough to take a photo.

The best shot of the afternoon and worth wilting in the heat was this Tree Sparrow.



Old Moor has lots of nesting Tree Sparrows and there were loads hanging round the nest boxes that lined the path.

Debbie will be back soon so I’ve got to dash and get some tea on the go as well as find out what our solicitors are up to today.

Paul

Roasted Alive!

I‘m off work now for the rest of the week to get all the packing done so we’re ready to move in a couple of weeks time. I could do without a chuffin heat wave while I’m trying to get all this done, this morning it was already like an oven in the attic bedroom and there was no way I could carry on after about 11am.

I have got quite a bit done though and should have the room cleared tomorrow before the sun forces me back down stairs again. With it being too hot to do any work I had the great idea of taking the car to the car wash which I’ve been meaning to do for weeks. It wasn’t until I had to shut the windows and the sun roof that I realised this was a bloody stupid idea! If I’d taken a frozen chicken in with me, it would have been cooked by the time I escaped from the furnace!

It’s currently 34.4 Celsius in the back garden and that’s in the shade, if I put the thermometer in the sun I’m sure it would melt! The cats and dogs are crashed out all over the place, I’ve hardly seen Misty all day, give it another hour and he’ll still be darting into the kitchen as soon as I stand up thinking it’s tea time.

Debbie’s still at work today and tomorrow, luckily she’s got air conditioning at work but her car hasn’t and neither does it have a sun roof so it’s going to be unbearable on the journey back home today. I’ve got the freezer loaded with ice ready for a few Bacardi and Cokes when she gets home!

Paul

Sheesh Kebab!

What a horrible day we had yesterday! Having signed our contracts on Thursday, we were hoping to exchange yesterday so we could move next Friday but alas, as with the rest of this ill fated house moving process, it just wasn’t to be.

We were speaking to our solicitor and estate agents all day long with excuse after excuse coming back from our buyers as to why they couldn’t sign their contracts, their ill, they can’t get time off work, they can’t come back from Scotland until late July.

With us both nearly in tears and after threatening to pull out all together we were forced to accept a completion date at the end of July. Our buyers have been totally unfair with everyone else, they knew we wanted to move asap having booked holidays for this and the fact that our vendors daughter has had a premature baby and is desperate to move so they can be with her.

We were not in a good mood when we got home last night, our new sofa is being delivered next Saturday and it would have to be delivered here, so because our existing one is on our contract as being part of the sale, we were planning to leave it behind, but in the back yard!

Fortunately our vendor is a star and she’s offered to have our new sofa delivered there, although I must admit I was looking forward to our buyers discovering their sodden leather suite in the back yard lol.

Our buyers contract is now being posted to them so they can be signed and we can hopefully exchange next week which will at least set this new date in stone. It’s going to be a long week of chasing up the solicitor and estate agent making sure progress is being made.

Paul.

Nail Biting Time

We went in to see our solicitor yesterday to sign the contracts so now both our vendor and ourselves are green for go . . . . . except that our buyers appear to have gone AWOL! Our solicitor, who is also theirs, well the same company anyway, last heard from them on Monday and they were supposed to be calling back to arrange a time to come in and sign but they've not been heard from since and neither they or their estate agents can get hold of them.

With everything set up now for a move next Friday, it's going to be an absolute nightmare if they can't get their contract signed today. Our new sofa is due to be delivered a week tomorrow to the new house, if we haven't moved, it will have to be delivered here and our exiting leather sweet that we've promised to leave them will have to go to the tip to make room.

Our buyers are due to be visiting us tomorrow to measure up for curtains, we're just hoping and praying that they're back in town today and can get in to see the solicitor.

Paul.

Time To Sign

Our plans to sit back and enjoy Live 8 on Saturday were somewhat dashed by receiving a letter from our solicitor with another 18 questions that needed a reply despite being told on Friday that they didn't need anything else! I went in on Monday to sort it out and also find out why they didn't know about this on Friday given that our buyers are using the same solicitor!

Anyway, we're going in to see our solicitor tomorrow to sign contracts! We're getting a little nervous about it now, we're pretty sure we'll be able to move on the day we want next week but until we've exchanged contracts we won't know for sure, we just hope our buyers get their contract signed this week too.

The packing is going well, there's still loads to do but I'll be off work next week to get the rest of that done plus get all the rubbish down to the tip. Debbie has got Thursday and Friday off work and by that time, we'll be surrounded by cardboard boxes and not much else!

Paul.