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.