We have a result

Thursday October 2, 2008

“Well, we done it,” I said.

“Oh, happy day!” Graham grinned from ear to ear.

“When do we start packing?”

“Tomorrow.  Let’s go and get really nice stuff for lunch and dinner today.  And a couple of bottles of something sparkling.”

“Not sparkling.  They have a special offer on Oyster Bay Sauvingnon Blanc.  Let’s go for that.”

Which is what we did.  Graham was determined we should not have to labour in the kitchen today so we got Sainsbury’s boef bourginon with potato wedges and some fresh runner beans (I’ll happily wash and slice runner beans, no matter how much they cost).  For dessert, a luxury tiramasu.

Then we looked at the sandwich offerings.  The prospect did not please.

“Tell ya what,” I said.  “Let’s get this lot home and stored in the fridge, then go over to Burnham-on-Sea for lunch.  Might be the very last time.”

He glanced at his watch, then at the weather, which was sunny and autumnal.  “I’d really like that.”

“Good.  Then that is what we’ll do.”

Burnham was rather specially end-of-season nice today.

Now, plans for the move.  We start in on dead-earnest packing tomorrow, with only a rapid diversion to the removal store to pick up a pack of wrapping paper.  All the rest of the boxes, tape and bubble wrap is stowed about the house and garage waiting for the off.

I need to spend the morning on the phone, calling utilities and such to terminate this place and start up the next.  Our household insurance has a ‘while you are moving home’ clause which was actioned the instant we exhanged contracts;  under English and Welsh law you have a buildings and land liability for the new house immediately on exchange.  Otherwise it’s all pretty straightforward and the only trouble I anticipate is with British Telecom, who have to plug in the phone line and set up broadband.  After our experience here I’m not expecting that one to be simple.  Or quick.

The laptop is all primed to leap into action and, the night before Graham packs up my desktop, I’ll charge the LaCie external hard drive with a fresh copy of all my stuff, do a Vista back up, and then plug it and the Microsoft wireless mouse into the laptop for the duration.  I’ll keep the interruption in journal postings to a minimum, best I can, and do a bulk catch-up the moment we’re back online.

The removal men are booked to turn up with their enormous truck on the morning of the 15th, to load up all our furniture and stuff for overnight storage in their secure storage area.  Graham, Dolly and I will clean this house one last time, watch a DVD or two on the laptop, and snuggle up on camp beds overnight.  We’ll pack up the car early on the morning of the 16th, with Dolly in her travel box, and drive down to Wales, to pick up the keys from the agent in Neath, then to the house to wait on the arrival of the removal men shortly after mid-day.

Assuming all goes to plan they’ll unload our stuff, wave good-bye, and we’ll be home and dry in our seventies-modern bungalow in the Vale of Neath, just outside the village of Cilfrew and within walking distance of the Aberdulais [ab-er-dill-ice] Waterfalls.  The whole area is heavily wooded, with many paths and walks all the way up to the Brecon Beacons.  The sea is just a little way away down the valley, with good beaches and a couple of decent old-fashioned seaside towns.  It looks as though our new Burnham-on-Sea will be Porthcawl.

Photographs?  I tried to make something of the agent’s pictures but Graham has put his absolute veto on the results.  Other people’s furniture does not photograph well, nor does the house in the agent’s photo.  The garden is somewhat overgrown, so that doesn’t make for pictures, either.  Best I can do at this stage is a photo of the place from the air, stolen from Google maps:

 

Aerial picture of our new house

 

 

I wish I could show you the pictures of the place as it is in our minds, particularly Graham’s, but we’ll have to be patient a little longer.  Describing it, think of a split-level bungalow with kitchen, dining-room (which is to be my study) and living room at the front, with a detached garage to the right.  The path between garage and house is roofed over, forming a kind of tunnel, leading to the front door.  Another path goes up the left-hand side of the house, not well shown in the photo, leading to the kitchen door.  Inside the house there’s a decent sized hallway with six steps to the rear, leading to the back half of the house, consisting of three good-sized bedrooms and a decent bathroom (with an additional half-bath on the ground floor).  The rear garden is somewhat over-mature with shrubs and trees and will need some clearance, which Graham is anticipating with glee.  The L-shaped section with a tree in the middle (bottom of the photo) is where we plan to make a catio as our first landscaping exercise.  The front garden is mostly grass, kept clipped to make the neighbours happy.  We’ll be doing more than that.

The house is in good order, and well decorated though, sadly, not in our style.  Graham has plans to make over each room in turn during the coming winter before he goes job-hunting in the Spring.  I’ll take photos all along the way, of course, inside and out, and put them in the journal as a record.  He says he’s looking at the Conran (Habitat) books with a 21st century filter and frame of mind. That doesn’t help too much with the visualization.  But then, he describes the exterior of the house as ‘seventies Brutalist’, with is even less helpful.  We shall all of us, including me, have to be patient and wait for results.  Knowing Graham, they’ll not be long a-coming.  The important thing is that Graham loves the house, which means I do, too.  It’s a perfect example of seventies Euro-bungalow, just needing Graham’s magic touch to restore it to a new glory.