Moving On Up

Saturday was Move Day. The removal men showed up at 8:30 on the dot, with a van and 3 men. Nearly everything was already packed up, so all we needed to do was check that they took the right stuff, left what wasn’t ours, and load up the van. We were still busy with boxes and tape gun in hand as they were carrying stuff out, but eventually we were ready to roll, and drove over to our new house. Nicola had already got the key and garage-door widget on Friday, so we drove over and awaited the removal van.

We were just wondering whether we should go and stand at the corner of the road to direct them in (as it’s not immediately apparent from the road where our house is) when we saw the van go whizzing past. Eventually they managed to circle round and come back (presumably being directed by a Satnav) and we were able to direct them into our driveway. With a bit of skilful reversing they managed to back the van all the way up, and then unloaded everything into the house.

Just as they were finishing up, another lorry pulled up outside…the men with the sofa and other furniture that we’d bought a few weeks back. They waited whilst we sorted out paying the removal men (2 hours to load and unload – a pretty good job, we thought), then they brought their van up the driveway and brought our furniture indoors.

We took one look around the living room, and decided that it was time for a quick break before we tackled the opening of all the boxes. We headed out to a café we’d been to a couple of times which was just around the corner, the Strathmore Bakery & Café, for a restorative coffee and chocolate. Then we started on unpacking everything, with occasional breaks to head back to the old flat to pick up a few items which had been left behind (intentionally or otherwise), and to shop for a few bits and pieces that we hadn’t thought of immediately.

At lunchtime, the white goods arrived from Bond & Bond. This is where we hit the first glitch of the day – the fridge-freezer is 1” too tall for the space in the built-in kitchen. It’s currently standing in the corner of the dining area, awaiting a swap for a new, smaller fridge/freezer which will be delivered next weekend.

Sorry fridge, you're just too big

The final delivery of the day came at 1 o’clock – the bedroom furniture. This is where we hit the second glitch of the day – there isn’t space for our new bed and two bedside tables along the wall of the main bedroom. This is due to the fact that there is a door in each corner – one to the en-suite and one to the walk-in wardrobe. We’ve had to be a bit creative about arranging the bedroom furniture but I think we’re there now.

Let the unpacking begin!

We broke the back of the unpacking in the afternoon and early evening, then had dinner and settled down to watch TV on our new, wonderful entertainment unit…

I hadn’t brought the TV aerial cable. It was still in the old flat. Never mind, we watched a Blu-Ray instead.