The title of this blog was the name coined by Caitlin (I think) in response to my February shenanigans. The timeline went a bit like this:
mid January (1) - my car windscreen wipers failed and the car mechanic declared my much loved 2010 Renault Scenic pretty ill with a £1500 bill to get it through the next MOT. So I start to sell it - there is a time to say farewell to everything. I advertised it with all its shortcomings, but the key one, broken windscreen wipers (they alone were over £700 to fix) put off all the buyers considering we were on day ~30 of rain. I discovered a world of really weird and unresponsive buyers - I think over 15 contacted me in a week. General messaging was them asking if it was free (yes), offering a price which I agreed, asking when they could collect and then ghosting me. The worse culprits were the two sets of people who agreed a price with me and said they'd collect the next morning. Did they turn up? Did they read any of my messages? Argh to human beings.
mid January (2) - tried to organise full fibre internet for new house. All seemed to be organised, then it fell through after an engineering assessment of our local telegraph pole which needed sorting, so we suddenly had to find a partial fibre solution to tide us over. And they couldn't connect us until mid February.
Fri 30 January - completed on house.
Sat 31 January: got keys. Tried to enter property in the pouring rain. Long story short, our sellers had changed the locks and had forgotten to mention it to anyone including the estate agents who held a set of their keys. All the new keys were on the kitchen table inside the property. We had to call out a locksmith to break into the house we owned but had no evidence for. Fortunately he believed that we were legit.
Sun 01 February: sold car! £350 to a happy purchaser who drove it home with a rope attached to the windscreen wipers (I didn't ask).
Wed 04 February: our removals company packed up both our houses. I forgot that I shouldn't have meetings that day and am being packed up around. It was fascinating to watch JC's wardrobes being sent out through the windows.
Fri 06 February: return to Ottery to do first coat of paint in JC's lounge and clean his house (we'd had a wall replastered with lime in December). I sat in the empty lounge with my Mac using JC's still connected internet to do change of addresses, utility transitions etc.
Sat 07 February: drive to Weston super Mare to test drive and buy a car for me in the pouring rain. Return to Ottery to do another coat of paint and more internet admin, which seemed endless.
Sun 08 February: unpacking in earnest. This is our kitchen. I am very in love with our walk in larder ;-)
Mon 09-Thu 12 February: back to working. We both have to drive in (thank goodness I bought a car) as neither of us can work from home.
Fri 13 February: internet at home - hurrah! Somewhere along the line JC unpacked his play station.
The rest of the month involved fixing a LOT of snags with the house. I can hear my Dad singing the Flanders and Swan song the Gas Man Cometh. We had to call in the boiler guy (twice), electrician, tree surgeon, plasterer and the lovely next door neighbour who tried to fix our TV aerial connection.
I also snuck in a change of scenery with a weekend in Cardiff wedding dress shopping Round I. And catching up with both girls, Mark and Roger. Oh, and the rugby.
I came home to find JC had sanded down the kitchen. So decorating the kitchen was how we spent the last weekend of survival February. The kitchen breakfast room, with 4 doors, wood panelling and what seemed like 20+ corners to cut into, took a lot of effort but was great to finish! Just the curtains/blind to do now.
March may be less full on. Fingers crossed ;0(
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