House for sale

Our house is on the market.  We are out there.   House for sale.   Not our home anymore, but a house, cleaned up, sorted out and ready to sell.

  During the first two days there has been plenty of interest apparently, but no one wanting to view the property.    The biggest worry from people was the fact that there was a shared freehold, and people had heard all sorts of scare stories about problems with leases.    

The freehold title on this property is absolutely tight, with very clear land and building titles.   The bank originally organised the freehold and leasehold titles when we bought the house in 1992, and then it was was updated by solicitors when we took over some of the back garden.    I think we need to have another talk to the estate agent selling the property.    Just to make sure that he is clear about the freehold on this property.   Best to be sure. 

The sign in the front garden to let everyone know the maisonette is definitely for sale.   Every time we look out of the front windows we see the sign.   A stark reminder.

 The estate agent took the photographs of the house, and did quite a good job.    We had a laugh though, when we saw the water bottles and Walter's beer box on the other side of the bathroom window, making quite a show in the photograph of the bathroom.  They were in the side room which we use as a storage area. 

We also forgot to remove the numerous magnets from the fridge, which looked very unattractive in the photograph.   They are gone now, and all we have is a shiny white surface that reflects the light when the sun shines through the window. 

We need to wear our sunglasses in the kitchen now, it is all gleaming white and shiny.

Sadly all our pot plants have been removed, and it was a question of letting them die slowly in the garden or give them a sudden death in the compost heap.   I have chosen the former.     A difficult decision, that one.

The photos of the garden show a brilliant blue sky.   It certainly was a sunny day, but perhaps not quite as bright as the photographs show.   But other than that nothing else has been enhanced, the photographs show the house and garden as they are, warts and all.   Even the mole hills are there.

This weekend we are having a well deserved rest, in a spotlessly clean and uncluttered house.

The big cleanup

After two busy weeks we are ready to put the house on the market.   We have had the shower screen repaired, a tile replaced, and new silicone put in around the bath, and along the back of the sink.   And the eaves above the front door will soon be painted.   We have scrubbed the house from top to bottom.

A few mishaps, as to be expected when one takes their eye off the ball.    

I have had a large piece of skin removed from the side of my leg,   The result of walking into the pointy part of a silicone tube, which was in a box ready to give to one of our neighbours.   

I damaged the back of my new down filled coat.    The result of hanging it on a rack too close to the radiator.   The surface material on the middle bottom of the coat melted slightly and now there is a hole with down feathers coming out of it.    Hopefully the person at the local dry cleaners can do a repair.

I put my Samsung watch on its charger a few days ago and it did not charge, and in fact started to lose charge.   I tried putting the charger on different leads, but to no avail.   Naturally I thought the battery in the watch or the charger itself was the problem.    Luckily I did not contact Samsung or send the watch and charger away to be repaired, because it was the power board that had stopped working.   I am now wearing my watch, which is behaving as it should!

I reversed into a nearly new, small red metallic BMW, at the local shopping centre, the repairs for which will cost our insurance company hundreds of pounds.    The damage consisted of a tiny little dent in the side of the car door.   Interestingly the driver said that the tow bar of our car had caused a dent in her car, and that was before she had even stepped outside of the car to look at any damage.  I was in too much of a hurry to start measuring the height of the dent in comparison to our tow bar.   How did it happen?   I was reversing out of a car park very slowly, and being very careful about not scraping the cars beside me.    The sensor started beeping so I stopped, looked in the rear vision mirror, and saw the top of a car, with a women looking at me.  I then drove back into the car park.    Interestingly, the driver did not use her horn to warn me, or even stop her car when she saw me reversing out.   I have chosen to believe her story.    

Finally, Walter put a few bottles of beer in the freezer drawer, and forgot about them.    Consequently they exploded which resulted in a major cleanup, on Walter's part.   At least that drawer has been emptied and cleaned out, ready to move!

The paper work, required by the solicitor, when one sells a house in England is horrendous, with pages and pages of tick boxes and explanations about fixtures and fittings, changes to titles of house and land, plus details about the leasehold, and other general information.   We also had to have an energy report done, at a cost of £45.    Bureaucracy!   

We have sent piles of items to the charity shop, including the video camera that used the cassette, in the photograph below.    Technology has certainly moved on since we bought the camera in 2003, now mobile telephones take videos. 

I am sure that everyone would like to see a photograph of the area below the stairs which lead up to the maisonette above us.    This is an area that has a slightly damp feel to it, and a perfect hiding place for red back spiders had it been in Australia.    The area also has a platform made of rubble with a brick wall at the front.   A great place for storing everything from paint to wood to car cleaning stuff, and all the bits and pieces that Walter thought he may use again.    All gone, except for some tins of paint, brushes and rollers, a step ladder and snow shovel    There were no spiders lurking this area.

The only spider we have seen was a small one climbing up the wall beside the bed in the spare room.  Where I had been sleeping a few days ago.

As a distraction, I travelled into London with Kathy and Karen to see the light show at different points along the South Bank, and in Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square.    It was a bitterly cold evening, but we rugged up well, and the walk from London Bridge to Charing Cross was very good for our fitness levels.  Altogether a very enjoyable evening.

We first had dinner at a restaurant called Bills.    A great way to start the evening.

The view across the River Thames is always pretty spectacular.

The tunnel of light.

The giant foot, which was actually superimposed onto the side of a tall building rather than a model of a foot.    Quite impressive, all the same.

The lit up sculpture of a fox, in Leicester Square.

A butterfly sculpture in Leicester Square.

The house is nearly perfect, but not quite to our satisfaction.   But as the saying goes, 'hey ho it will have to do', for now.

A move back to Adelaide, Australia.

Yes, we have made a very big decision.   We are moving back to Adelaide, Australia.    And why, many people will ask, are we making such a big change in our lives, now that we are in our seventies.

Well there are many reasons.   

For us, it all started with the referendum vote, in June, 2016, when 52% of the voting population in the UK, decided that Britain should leave the European Union.   Both of us are 'immigrants', and Walter has a Dutch passport.   No one has said anything personally, but we feel unwelcome.    And we could see that it was going to be an economic downhill slope for the country.   Since then the antics displayed by the ministers in the cabinet, do not bode well for any future success. 

We do not wish to grow old in this country, together with the rest of the ageing population.   The prospect fills us with gloom, as to any prospects of future support and help.    We do not mind paying for our care, but there does appear to be a limited amount of services, where we live.    In Australia I will have to pay for medical care, luckily Walter has a Gold Card, due to having served in Vietnam, and we will have to pay for aged care, but with less people we hope that it will be better there.

Finally, we will no longer have any family members in Britain, as Emma, Steve, Jackson and Isabel are also moving to Adelaide, Australia this year.     A very exciting time for them.    We will have Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy in the Netherlands, and we will miss having them so close, but we can visit them from Australia.     

Although we made the decision a year ago, we had too much planned last year to begin organising the move.   The planned start to the action was to be 2018, and as soon as the holiday period finished we put into place a plan.

The first item was to get the house ready for sale.    

A couple of jobs we had already started, such as getting a new side fence beside the house.   The old one was falling down.  Looks very smart.   

 We had the height of the silver birch reduced as it was becoming too high and there were crossed branches.    Apparently this type of pruning should be done every three years.

The very ugly arbour, which we call the 'bush shelter' will be knocked down.   We are amazed that it is still standing and has not blown away during a storm.

 An aside.   The moles have been very busy cleaning out their tunnels.   No doubt the worms are extra luscious at the moment.

We have cleaned out our cupboards and drawers, in readiness for the big move.    How can one collect so much electronic bits and pieces and old spectacles.

We are currently getting our bedroom ceiling plastered as there are fine hairline cracks in the centre of it.   The insulation above the ceiling board is pressing down on the ceiling boards, we think.    We are also getting the shower screen fixed, as it had come away from the wall, and cracked the wall tile.   There will also be some touch up of paintwork here and there.    Plus the carpet will be shampooed on Saturday.  We would like the house to look good of course, but mostly we do not want anything for prospective buyers to start bargaining about.

The photographs will be taken on Monday, and the house will go up for sale.

We spent last year feeling very sad about leaving the home we have lived in for nearly twenty six years but are feeling positive about it now.   Certainly being able to buy a larger house, with two bathrooms, feels positively luxurious.

We will miss being close to the most beautiful woods, which is a pleasure to walk in, no matter the time of year.

But most of all we will really miss all our wonderful friends and neighbours.    Thank goodness for Facebook, which is fantastic for keeping in touch with people.   We will be returning to visit as often as possible, plus we are keeping our caravan in the south of France.   However we will miss the close contact we have with people here.