These days the only thing I can think is, “How long does it take to move house?”
Forever, seemingly. This isn’t how I thought moving house would be.
I thought moving house meant loading all my worldly goods into a van and driving to an exciting new destination. Popping on the kettle and admiring my new kitchen.
The sort of thing we could make into a five-minute montage video and post on Facebook.
Sigh.
How Long Does it Take to Move House?
We put our house on the market in the middle of October 2018.
We accepted an offer around three weeks later, and so began the process of surveys, solicitors and the tiny matter of finding a new home for us. And getting the mortgage to go with it.
We put in an offer on our new house the first week of December, and got our mortgage offer in early January.
After that, it was a matter of dealing with endless, endless queries from our buyers. They needed guarantees and plans and certificates for everything. We paid for a full electrical survey. We paid for a gas safety check. We paid for a certificate from the local planning office to confirm a window had been installed properly. There were CORGI certificates and FENSA certificates and goodness knows what else.
At one stage, they had someone in the house MEASURING THE STEPS up to the loft.
All told, it took five months from putting our house on the market, to moving out. It might have taken a little less time without Christmas. I was also happy to delay by a few weeks as it made the gap between selling our old house and moving into the new house a little smaller.
Our House Selling Timeline
We actually sold our house three weeks ago. It was a weirdly emotional moment.
We’re completing on our new house in ten days.
We should be able to move in four or five days after that.
In the meantime we are basically camping out in a little cottage, with 99% of our belongings in a storage depot somewhere in Lancashire.
It’s fine.
It will be fine.
Our new house is looking GREAT. I’m super excited about having a new house with a bit more space, and a brand new kitchen and – most thrillingly of all – TWO bathrooms.
Look! Isn’t it pretty?
(Not gonna lie, though, bit worried by that FOR SALE sign outside it).
I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to not sharing a bathroom with a teenager any more.
But it’s an odd feeling being in a rented house. The money from selling our old house? Is in my bank account.
I feel very odd having a frankly terrifying amount of money hanging around, waiting to be spent on a new house. I keep thinking I might accidentally spend it.
I miss our dog. I am also very shallow so I miss my sofa. Almost as much as the dog.
I miss living somewhere that has a phone signal.
Being in a rented house means there are six of everything – mugs, glasses and so on. So you’re forever washing up.
And worrying about mud on the carpets or coffee stains on the sheets.
I know that in the scheme of things, five or six weeks is nothing. But when it feels like something you’ve been thinking about for almost a year is so tantalisingly close, but not… argh. It’s frustrating.
A smarter woman than me would be using this time to prep for the new house. Setting up broadband appointments and booking people to measure for curtains, and getting buildings insurance.
Planning to Move into a New Build Home
As it happens, this move has coincided with a period of being a bit more absorbed with work than usual.
I made a couple of changes to our team before Christmas, and it’s really exciting to have a fab team that you can rely on to help you do good things.
So I’ve been busy with developers and designers and our team of freelancers, working on a new website. I’m feeling like I really *want* to work, and that’s distracting me a little from my impatience about the house. The net result being that I have done virtually NO organising for the new house. It’s almost as though it’s been so long it doesn’t feel like it’s really going to happen.
I recognise this as being exactly the same character trait that meant I didn’t believe I was actually going to have a baby until I was about 39 weeks pregnant and being booked in for a c-section.
You can imagine how that turned out.
So I’m calling myself to account.
Over the next week, I must organise utilities, phone, insurance and buy flooring for the new house.
Because if I don’t, I’ll be in the extra annoying position of owning a house I can’t move into!
Oh it must be really frustrating waiting for it all to go through, I guess having a lot on at work is a good distraction but still, I hope all goes smoothly and you’re in soon. I totally relate to the fact that you didn’t accept you were having a baby until the last moment too. I worked until I was 9 months pregnant, my boss used to hate catching the same train as me because she was always convinced I’d go into labour.
Nat.x
Great post! It’s strange how emotional a house move can be. You never really think about it until it happens. I hope all goes well with the rest of the move! Luke
Really loved this and I love the photos! can’t wait to read the next one!
The new house looks fab and it really is going to be very exciting isn’t it! I’m a rubbish waiter too so I do get your impatience! I bet you miss Teddy but really these days will whizz by
Really hope your house move goes well. Such a stressful time but I can honestly say it’s much better to get the flooring/carpets etc in before you move. I didn’t on both occasions I moved and to be honest it has been pure hell trying to get all the jobs done once we moved in. I’m hoping to move in the next couple of years; part of me is excited to do that and have a new start but part of me is dreading getting my house ‘me’ ready whilst living there!
Good luck with the rest of your move, the new house looks stunning! Having more than one bathroom is a godsend…except more cleaning!