We are slowing digesting the contents of Avon Cottage. I took Friday and Monday off which helped. More stuff went to the dump; loads of stuff went to charity - Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, Oxfam, RSPCA, British Heart Foundation; a load of boxes and archive went up into the loft; the TV, DVD and video went on eBay - but not, unfortunately, the Vinosafe.
The back bedroom is finally clear ready for our guest on Friday. We were able to eat in the dining room on Sunday for the first time since the move.
Showing posts with label moving house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving house. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Vinosafe walk-in wine cellar, storage for 1,000 bottles
And the first item to go on eBay following the move is the wine cellar.
Tomorrow three pieces of furniture go to the local auction house. At the weekend boxes of books will go to Oxfam and a big box of cat blankets and bowls will go to the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. It felt strange but calming to be scrubbing the litter trays so they could go to a good home.
This is the vinosafe in varying stages of dismantling ready for the move:
Edit: deleted expired eBay link.
Tomorrow three pieces of furniture go to the local auction house. At the weekend boxes of books will go to Oxfam and a big box of cat blankets and bowls will go to the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. It felt strange but calming to be scrubbing the litter trays so they could go to a good home.
This is the vinosafe in varying stages of dismantling ready for the move:
Thursday, February 22, 2007
End of two eras
Yesterday was big day for us.
We are happy to say that we finally exchanged contracts on Avon Cottage yesterday and the sale will complete on Friday. We had a great 13 years there and feel like we are passing a piece of history over to a new set of caretakers in a better state than we got it. From talking to Karen and Andrew, our buyers, we are sure that they will take as much care of it as we did.
We are sad to say that Cleo passed away yesterday. The problem with her tooth at the end of January proved to be an aggressive form of cancer and the vet warned that she did not have long left. We watched her very carefully and yesterday we knew that the time had come to take her to the vet, while she was still purring. She was almost 17 years old and we are very grateful to have had her for so long.
Cleo at eight weeks / Cleo as an adult
Both Mark and I are relieved that the stress of the last few weeks is over, Cleo is not suffering and it now feels like a new start in Fairfield Street.
We are happy to say that we finally exchanged contracts on Avon Cottage yesterday and the sale will complete on Friday. We had a great 13 years there and feel like we are passing a piece of history over to a new set of caretakers in a better state than we got it. From talking to Karen and Andrew, our buyers, we are sure that they will take as much care of it as we did.
We are sad to say that Cleo passed away yesterday. The problem with her tooth at the end of January proved to be an aggressive form of cancer and the vet warned that she did not have long left. We watched her very carefully and yesterday we knew that the time had come to take her to the vet, while she was still purring. She was almost 17 years old and we are very grateful to have had her for so long.
Cleo at eight weeks / Cleo as an adult
Both Mark and I are relieved that the stress of the last few weeks is over, Cleo is not suffering and it now feels like a new start in Fairfield Street.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Avon Cottage Empty ...
... but Wandsworth house full!
"Well the move seemed to go smoothly" he said, looking at the chaos around him.
Breakfast room full of packing boxes
Dining room full of packing boxes
Living room full of packing boxes
It took the movers four and a half hours to pack up the cottage. The 17 metre van was full, we literally could not get another item in. And it is now all in our Wandsworth home!
We cannot move; we have two complete sets of *everything*. The bedrooms upstairs are just as bad. It will take a while to digest this lot. A few trips to the local auction house and municipal dump will help. And expect to see quite a few items appearing on eBay, we have already sold a washing machine and a day bed. There will be more to follow...
Oh, yes, and we had a lovely meal at The Food Room and fell exhausted out of the taxi and into bed.
"Well the move seemed to go smoothly" he said, looking at the chaos around him.
Breakfast room full of packing boxes
Dining room full of packing boxes
Living room full of packing boxes
It took the movers four and a half hours to pack up the cottage. The 17 metre van was full, we literally could not get another item in. And it is now all in our Wandsworth home!
We cannot move; we have two complete sets of *everything*. The bedrooms upstairs are just as bad. It will take a while to digest this lot. A few trips to the local auction house and municipal dump will help. And expect to see quite a few items appearing on eBay, we have already sold a washing machine and a day bed. There will be more to follow...
Oh, yes, and we had a lovely meal at The Food Room and fell exhausted out of the taxi and into bed.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Moving house tomorrow
And as you might expect the run up to tomorrow's house move has been hectic. Mary's Mum, May, flew down from Scotland on Thursday for a "farewell tour" of the cottage. We drove down Thursday night (with Cleo) and worked from home Friday so we would be ready early Saturday to continue the clearing out.
Primary target was the garage: boxing up the last dozen cases of wine, dismantling the VinoSafe, clearing out the accumulated unwanted possessions (or junk as Mary calls it) and doing tip runs to dump the rejects.
Saturday we went to Plummer's Restaurant with Bob&Lynne and Mike&Lynn. Mike deserves an serious award for good neighbourliness. When he and Lynn lived next door he fed the cats, took in the post, checked for intruders when the alarm went off and generally kept an eye on the place while we worked in various locations or countries Monday to Friday.
Even after they moved (about 10 miles away) Mike still used to do all that for little return apart from our heartfelt thanks and the occasional bottle of duty free malt. We have no way to thank him enough for what he has done over the years but we did offer him (and family of course) a free holiday in Italy.
Sunday was a family gathering: Mum&Dad and Ian&Sarah came down, partly house-cooling and partly because Sarah had never seen the cottage. After they left it was more tidying and sorting till it was time for our supper, traditional Sunday roast pork. Monday Mary stayed down at the cottage with May and Cleo while I drove back up to London for two days work. Back down tonight and the furniture van arrives at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning.
We shall have deserved our Valentine's meal out by the time tomorrow night arrives.
Primary target was the garage: boxing up the last dozen cases of wine, dismantling the VinoSafe, clearing out the accumulated unwanted possessions (or junk as Mary calls it) and doing tip runs to dump the rejects.
Saturday we went to Plummer's Restaurant with Bob&Lynne and Mike&Lynn. Mike deserves an serious award for good neighbourliness. When he and Lynn lived next door he fed the cats, took in the post, checked for intruders when the alarm went off and generally kept an eye on the place while we worked in various locations or countries Monday to Friday.
Even after they moved (about 10 miles away) Mike still used to do all that for little return apart from our heartfelt thanks and the occasional bottle of duty free malt. We have no way to thank him enough for what he has done over the years but we did offer him (and family of course) a free holiday in Italy.
Sunday was a family gathering: Mum&Dad and Ian&Sarah came down, partly house-cooling and partly because Sarah had never seen the cottage. After they left it was more tidying and sorting till it was time for our supper, traditional Sunday roast pork. Monday Mary stayed down at the cottage with May and Cleo while I drove back up to London for two days work. Back down tonight and the furniture van arrives at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning.
We shall have deserved our Valentine's meal out by the time tomorrow night arrives.
Monday, February 05, 2007
House Clearance
Did you know you can get sixteen and a half cases of wine in a BMW 330Ci Sport? That's 198 bottles with no room for passengers! Mind you it doesn't do much for the handling and acceleration. I was breaking gently well in advance of junctions and roundabouts (US: circles).
When we met our buyers two weekends ago ["Avon Cottage Under Offer"] the talk was of completion by Easter, last weekend this turned into "third week of Feb" and by last Tuesday it was Friday 16th. O-o-oh ****, that's less than three weeks away. We still had to clear the house, dump the rubbish, move the wine, ship the furniture, spring clean the place and complete the actual sale.
So we brought the skip hire forward and this weekend, while Mary was in Scotland, I was down the cottage in my blue overalls filling the skip. I thought 3.5 cubic metres (4.5 cubic yards) would see us through the next two weekends. But no. By 11:30 the thing was full.
The rest of the day was spent clearing Jabba the Shed, disassembling the shelving in the loft and casing up the wine from the Vinosafe. The VSP 214 holds a thousand bottles and that means quite a few round trips.
Sunday was preparing the Wandsworth house for the furniture onslaught. Moving furniture from room to room so we can free up the back bedroom as a temporary furniture depository. The 16.5 cases are all safely in the cellar but boy are my back muscles aching today.
When we met our buyers two weekends ago ["Avon Cottage Under Offer"] the talk was of completion by Easter, last weekend this turned into "third week of Feb" and by last Tuesday it was Friday 16th. O-o-oh ****, that's less than three weeks away. We still had to clear the house, dump the rubbish, move the wine, ship the furniture, spring clean the place and complete the actual sale.
So we brought the skip hire forward and this weekend, while Mary was in Scotland, I was down the cottage in my blue overalls filling the skip. I thought 3.5 cubic metres (4.5 cubic yards) would see us through the next two weekends. But no. By 11:30 the thing was full.
The rest of the day was spent clearing Jabba the Shed, disassembling the shelving in the loft and casing up the wine from the Vinosafe. The VSP 214 holds a thousand bottles and that means quite a few round trips.
Sunday was preparing the Wandsworth house for the furniture onslaught. Moving furniture from room to room so we can free up the back bedroom as a temporary furniture depository. The 16.5 cases are all safely in the cellar but boy are my back muscles aching today.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Avon Cottage Under Offer
We have accepted an offer on the Cottage so, subject to survey and contract, we will be selling and moving on after 13 happy years there.
We went down to the cottage on Saturday to meet the purchasers and it was a most satisfactory meeting. Moving house is not just a financial transaction, it is an important emotional transaction as well, especially with a house of such history and character as the cottage.
Andrew and Karen were charming and understand the need to care for old things; they are Morris Minor owners as well. Is is good to feel that it is going to sympathetic new care-takers for that is how we consider ourselves.
Now we need to set the wheels in motion for all that moving will entail. High on the agenda is what to do with all our furniture. The house is Wandsworth is fully equipped and now we have a three bedroomed house to merge into it! Some stuff we will include in the purchase price like short wardrobes that fit in the low-ceilinged bedrooms, some we will try and find good homes for and the local auction house will be taking much of our overflow.
We went down to the cottage on Saturday to meet the purchasers and it was a most satisfactory meeting. Moving house is not just a financial transaction, it is an important emotional transaction as well, especially with a house of such history and character as the cottage.
Andrew and Karen were charming and understand the need to care for old things; they are Morris Minor owners as well. Is is good to feel that it is going to sympathetic new care-takers for that is how we consider ourselves.
Now we need to set the wheels in motion for all that moving will entail. High on the agenda is what to do with all our furniture. The house is Wandsworth is fully equipped and now we have a three bedroomed house to merge into it! Some stuff we will include in the purchase price like short wardrobes that fit in the low-ceilinged bedrooms, some we will try and find good homes for and the local auction house will be taking much of our overflow.
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