I’m moving house!
I’m going to rant and complain a bit in this blog post. But first I need to say that I know how lucky and privileged I am to be in the situation where I’ve bought a flat in London in the first place. I am so grateful. But also so tired, angry and frustrated. So here’s why.
For the past 5/6 months I’ve been living in complete limbo. The expected completion date on my new flat was 31st March 2018. Now it’s almost the end of August. Add on top of that all my health stuff this year. Moving into the flat to me symbolises a fresh start. I was ill in hospital fast asleep when the new year of 2018 rang in so part of me is still convinced it’s 2017.
When I move into the flat, that’s when the new year officially starts.
Mentally, it probably hasn’t done me any good. I keep putting everything off by saying “I’ll do it once we’ve moved into the new flat”. But it just kept being delayed and delayed. And so my getting my life together has also been delayed. And by that I mean my physical fitness and getting therapy.
Also work-wise, I don’t feel like I can get my teeth stuck into any big projects. I don’t have a routine anymore. I need my structure to be productive!
What’s the delay?
The delay hasn’t even been that the building wasn’t finished. The building was done. We’ve been waiting on the council to do paperwork and sign off everything. Local councils really do have such limited resources and funding.
So for the past 5 months, everyday I’ve been ringing up my estate agent like “any news?” and the answer is always the same: “any day now, fingers crossed.” Imagine living like this for 5 months. I could move next week – any week. Planning and committing to things was difficult – what if we were moving house? And it was just emotionally draining, getting my hopes up every Monday like it’s going to be this week! and those hopes crushed by Friday when I’d heard nothing.
But last week on the Friday I got THE EMAIL. It said the council had signed off on the development and we’d get our completion notices early next week. Well guess what, it’s Friday again and no completion notice. As soon as that completion notices comes in I know I’ll definitely be moved in within two weeks.
Coping mechanisms
So one of my coping mechanisms with all this waiting and waiting has been over-thinking the interior design. Planning the furniture and colour schemes down to the very last detail. This is not how Dan has dealt with the waiting. One day I found myself obsessing over bedside tables. Dan couldn’t give a shit. He’s very pragmatic, won’t deal in hypotheticals. And he’s actually most excited about getting our office computers up and running and cable management. Cable management. Folks, find yourself a man who loves cable management.
Recently, I’ve been figuring out if I want white or black bedroom furniture (white, thanks for the heads up about dust Twitter!) But Dan and I also like the idea of red and purple in the bedroom. I know it sounds strange and I’m not fully convinced of it myself either. I needed to know if those colours would work with white furniture. So naturally, this is what I spent my time doing…
What can I say. I’m an artist! But I’m still not convinced.
What I’m excited for
But the main thing that’s been getting me through has been dreaming about once we move. I cannot wait to eat meatballs in IKEA and look at all the showrooms and spend way to much money in the marketplace. Like Dan, I am super excited about the home office. I can’t wait to have separate living/working space. We’re going to have so much space! I imagine there’ll be evenings when we’re just chilling in separate rooms. The whole fridge will be filled with my food rather than just one shelf. And I’ll have all the cupboards instead of just one!
Soon soon soon…
Have you ever had a super stressful move? Let me know in the comments. And also please let me know what you think of the purple/red/white.
I’m moving into my first (rented, not bought) own flat next week, and I’ve been doing the exact same, endless Ikea scrolling and getting excited about a Whole Fridge. 10 days to go!
Can’t wait for you to move and be settled finally! However idk if I’m keen on the red/white/purple situation, just because those are two very dark colours with the lightest of all colours. it might look nice though, (I don’t want to tell you what to do) i just can’t imagine it.
Fab post! I feel your pain! Accepted an offer on my house at Easter, still waiting for a completion date due to the buyer delay tactics, having to put house back on the market on for the buyer to get his act together at the end of July. Solicitors just don’t have any urgency, lo is due to start school in less than 2 weeks and we have no idea where!!! Made the decision to start packing anyway. Both my partner and I have Crohn’s, which is the cherry on the top really. Hope you get moved quickly. Keep up the wonderful work you are doing x
The paint drawings! You’re adorable. Is Google Sketchup any use for that kind of designing? Or The Sims, if you have it. Good cable management is a good thing, good man.
Ohh I have moved about 8 times within 2 years (and even more around those years) so I don’t know what was the most stressful. Moving out when I was 18 and having my own (rented) place was pretty cool as I was still buying and building furniture step by step and didn’t need to move much of my own (apart from my bed and a wardrobe).
When I moved city 2,5 years after, I had to store all the furniture I had bought somewhere INCLUDING THE KITCHEN, washing machine, et cetera. And on the day I needed to move, 3 of my friends had bailed on me so I was there with 2 friends in total moving all furniture of a 50 m^2 flat into one small basement. So that was fun…
Sorry this is a long response. I can complete sympathise, the not knowing must be so frustrating. I also dealt with waiting for our house by visualing furniture and my fiance doesn’t work that way at all. He couldn’t imagine my ideas until he was stood in the room and I wanted to have planned everything.
In January we put my house in Birmingham on the market to buy in Northampton where we had already been living for a year. Every industry professional we have spoken to has said it’s one of the most stressful sales they have heard of, we finally moved in at the end of June and are still doing the house up, but it’s ours, it’s home, we have a garage and a utility room and all these things I never cared about before!
Firstly my estate agents arranged the open house a week too early, we had 10 investors lined up, 3 were cash buyers who were already willing to pay over asking price but lost them.
Then sudden damp appeared with a big price tag.
We received an offer finally in February so still pretty quickly and had already seen a house we wanted and were accepted.
Our initial solicitors were fraudulent, they didn’t pass on questions or information to us and both our seller and buyer almost pulled out in protest. Then they gave us advice which would have lead to us losing the house and going bankrupt, thankfully (having been told not to tell anyone the situation) we mentioned it to our financial advisor.
We changed solicitor the day our sellers told us it was exchange or lose it (mid may) and 36hours later our new solicitors managed to exchange. This resulted in £6000 extra in legal fees.
On completion day our buyers solicitors sent the deposit to the old solicitor and this wasn’t picked up till 4pm (having been told we would complete at 1pm) everyone rushed around frantically, we didnt mind getting the keys late but the people we were buying from had to pay their new rental house fees by 6pm and were going to be homeless. At 5:55 it all went through!
We had a little overlap before we had to move out of our rental house, we spent days cleaning only to be told by the letting agent that it was ‘disgustingly filthy’ and we were not getting our deposit back.
I don’t want to move again ever!!
My partner and I moved into our first place together 2 months ago, all excited for this next step in our relationship! After about two weeks it started to feel extremely cold and damp, this continued to get worse to the point where we found silverfish insects and centipedes in the bedroom! Luckily managed to get out of the contract and move to a new DRY flat. On top of that my Crohn’s has flared really badly and I can’t move much and don’t have the energy to lift etc so my poor man is doing it all himself.
I’m sort of in a similar boat. We’ve just moved states and we’re in limbo in terms of jobs, new licenses and plates, residency, and there’s been problems with rent checks getting lost in the mail, etc. I’ve been super anxious about it especially the last couple of days. I hate feeling like I have no control.
You are really lucky!
I lived in the dormitories for last four years and two more are starting this September. Tbh, I’m living there right now. Thank you, financial crisis for fucking up living situation in Russia.
About colour scheme: I’d start with just purple carpet and light-red curtains. The rest can be changed later 😉
I’m not very much into that combination of red and purple; perhaps I would choose less striking colours, but it’s you the ones who’re going to live there, so choose what you like the most! 😛
I’m also strugling with doubtfulness this end-of-summer because I’ve been searching for a job and I have different options and meetings pending, waiting for the companies to call me and tell me their decision, etc. So… maybe in two weeks I’m working on kind of the (almost) job of my dreams or in the same shitty place as the last years… I hope we luckily get what we’ve been waiting for a long time.
Btw, I love your videos and posts very much! I started folowing you because I wanted to improve my English (it’s not my mother tonge!) and I keep folowing you after some years now because I really like the content you publish online. <3
My love remember buying and selling a house is number 2 on the stress list!! Being ill and having major surgery is way up high on the list too so………………………you’ve done brilliantly
, don’t be hard on yourself and have loads of treats once you move in. Xxxxx
wow! it really does sound like a bit of ordeal. I always like the idea of moving house and in reality hate it. But at least it sounds like things are in motion. B x
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I vote red and purple, but I also love lots of color.
I haven’t had a stressful move, but I will sometime next year. My boyfriend and I are long distance (752 miles, but who’s counting?) while I finish college. I graduate in December. The problem is, neither of us makes enough money for our own place right now (he lives with his dad; I live with my mom). His dad’s health is poor, which is one of many reasons I’m going to him.
If I could temporarily stay with my boyfriend and his dad, the problem would be solved. However, his dad is very religious and very old fashioned. Since we aren’t married, we would not be allowed to sleep in the same bed, if he would even allow me to stay there.
So now I’m trying to figure out how to find a good job in an area that’s over 700 miles away from where I live. And how to move to said area when my current job (I do have the ability to transfer there) probably won’t offer enough income to be approved for a place, even with the boyfriend. I have no family in that area, and he only has his dad. We have a few friends, but they are in no position to temporarily house us.
We’ve always figured things out, so I have no doubt we will figure this out, too. The not knowing drives me nuts. The not having any kind of plan stresses me out. But that will have to be another worry for another day.
Adulting sucks sometimes.
My man also love cable management and it’s wonderful! Best of luck moving I hope you get the final ok soon!
I’m so so glad this is finally wrapping up for you! I’m currently sharing my first house with roommates after three years of on-campus dorm rooms, and it’s absolutely wonderful. I’m fully independent, setting my own hours, eating so much healthier, and I LOVE having a whole house to thrive within with lovely people. My partner just temporarily moved in due to his own housing issues, and even that’s going much more smoothly than I thought! Renting a van and moving his things down was the most taxing part – I’m so grateful I don’t have to worry about that for the foreseeable future. <3
Red/purple combinations remind me strongly of the Red Hat Society (look up photos). I feel like it could be a little too chaotic for a sleeping space, but that’s just me.
I really feel you. I just got into uni (late entry) and have been looking for a place to live for the last 2 months. I’ve been living alone for the last year while working and was needing to live alone again for medical reasons. I’m very lucky that my parents are able to help me with the rent as it’s not covered by my student loan.
I finally found somewhere in the last month and have spent the last 2 weeks plus next week moving out of my old flat in Reading and into my new flat in Loughborough.
I’ve got overlapping tennancys of about 2 weeks so I’ve been going up and down the country every few days to view properties, move big stuff in with my dads help and then do some small moves myself.
It’s been stressful having to manage 2 properties as I’ve still got to sort the end of tenancy cleaning, packing and check out, and I’m moving from furnished to unfurnished so I’ve got to find all the appliances and furniture. Also, I’ve been living out of a suitcase kind of in limbo so I can move most things earlier.
Once it’s all done it will be all worth it, but I’ve not been able to think about anything else while doing it all. I have a month before uni once I’ve fully moved in when I can get back to normal and plan everything for uni and be healthier (which is my main non work goal).
Also, I like the white. I think just purple furnishings on its own would look really nice, but use different shades of purple. My other flat had a mainly grey living dining area, but then had blue/turquoise accents. Light blue rug, teal and blue cushions and darker blue blinds and chairs. It worked really well and I could see it looking really nice with the white and purple. Of course red would work too, I just have a preference for the purple but it’s obviously what you like.
I feel red and purple can work if you have lighter shades of those colours helping to balance out the white (otherwise it’s a mad contrast) or maybe adding in some orange and navy to the mix to get a sunset kinda vibe!!!
this has been a year of waiting for me too. I finished my master last year (summer 2017) and would hope by now I would have a job and be living with my boyfirend.Unfortunately time after time there is some issue and very close to start I either dont get the job or work only for a few months. now I have a new proposal but only to startin november (no guarantees, though) and waiting is killing me. I am dealing with is by focusing on my house and moving in with my boyfriend. unlike many people I have a house of my own and me and my boyfriend are renovating it to make it our place. hope that things will be mostly figured out and I can go back to some stability until the end of 2018.
My fiancé and I have just moved into our first house. We were lucky that we had a lovely bond with our solicitor who was amazing with us and couldn’t have been more helpful. The stressful bit was being given a completion date of early July (it was newly built) and moving in the last week in August even though each time we visited the house between July and our move in date it didn’t look like they had much if anything left to do so I feel for you Hannah. Moving day is amazing so treasure it as much as you can but be prepared for stress after you get your keys.
Oh I so feel your house buying pain ….
We moved last December and my goodness was it the most frustrating process.
In my life I’ve probably moved house upwards of 30 times, I’ve lost count it’s so many. Moving house doesn’t fuss me but being a first time buyer…oh wow…..
The vendors of the house said they wanted a quick sale. To be completed in 28 days. Fine by us. We had the mortgage…deposits … Money all ready.
Unfortunately however it seems that despite them saying that they wanted this… They had employed the services of quite simply the slowest solicitors in the world.
They also made themselves completely uncontactable by anyone.
It was ridiculous. Our solicitor was sorting everything out our side immediately but theirs did absolutely nada.
To the point in total frustration I ended up chasing up documents that THEY needed because it was clear they’d never do it.
So I felt by the end they should pay me some of their solicitor fees.
Anyway it finally got done and we moved in December. Such was the timing that I had several humira injections (I have UC as well) to move and had a frenzied journey up from London to Essex trying to make sure they stayed cold! Then once we had moved I was trying to change hospital to a
more local one (and specialist) one )but ended up with my then hospital messing up my humira again so spent every other day on the phone chasing it up to get it delivered before I could fully switch the hospitals.
It’s well worth it in the end and we have a lovely family home here in Essex and I go to a fabulous hospital in Cambridge.
But I could have done without all the administrative stress to achieve this.
Good luck with your move lovely!!!
Red and purple… To be honest I’m not sure that your (ever so wonderful!!) Paint edited picture shows the colour in their best lights… I went mad on Pinterest when we were picking colours and went with a deep red and turquoise. If you haven’t already done it get yourself over to Pinterest and type in red and purple bedrooms… I’ve just done it and there are some beautiful deep red / deep purple combos…. Yum!
Moving is hard work. My last move, I put a holding deposit down February to move June/July 1998. I’ve not moved since.
We finally moved very end of October when I was 2 weeks from having my second child and a 3year old in tow. The week before I was scrubbing floors so the carpets could go down. The house wasn’t completely finished, but I told the builder if I didn’t move then it wasn’t happening for months!
Thankfully my second boy was 10 days late, so we had mostly unpacked. Never found the cot bumper though!
My husband thought I was a woman possessed, cramming things into my car to take, rather then waiting for the moving men. It took a while to get over, maybe that is why we are still here.
Hang in there! I’m currently living with my boyfriend in a very small apartment waiting for our flat to be built. It will be a few more months though, March or April they said. I’m so excited I just can’t wait to move. We have already started planning everything in our heads, room distribution, furniture, empty spaces etc. I just wish we could move already 🙂
Hi Hannah!
I work in interior design so here is some thoughts on the colours. As they have an emotional basis you want to think of what feeling a Room should have. Purple and red are may romantic or sensual but not very relaxing in huge quantities. I’d encourage you to go with a softer approach and use a gentle version of purple with some red accents. It’s a bit like less is more I guess. I hope that helps!