Fast forward four weeks...

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone but It's just about four weeks since we got the keys and already a huge amount has been done at the house. And not just the sorting and clearing and cleaning. We have been lucky enough to find a gem of a builder, Paul Hart, who knows a thing or two about renovations and knows a few useful people.
He arranged for the plasterer, Tim, (who's easily spooked, by the way) to come in and get to work on the bedrooms, bathroom and landing, which meant that we had to get on and get all the wallpaper, picture rail and skirting off. We were literally clearing up as he was starting work!
The bathroom has been cleared of all sanitary ware and Hugh has got off all the tiles. We salvaged the  70's toilet roll holder, complete with toilet roll, and I presented it to our good friends, Jo and Andrew who love all things 70's! Needless to say, they loved it!
Scaffolding has been erected around half the house so that the roofers can start work on taking off the roof tiles, replace the felt and batons and put the cleaned tiles back on.
BT have been and repaired the faulty line so we have both phone and internet and the plumber has been to service the boiler. The skip has been filled to bursting and has been collected and replaced with another 7 yard skip!
So it's all looking good and we feel like we've made a lot of progress.

...and now the fun begins...

Having finally got the keys to Crossways, pulling up on the drive and unlocking the back door for the first time was daunting, to say the least. The house had the air of neglect...almost as if the previous owners had done a moonlight flit..their coats still hung on the pegs, food in the cupboards, books on the shelf. I know that on the morning of the day of completion the sale very nearly didn't go through due to shortage of funds on their part, and I wonder if the house was about to be repossessed. Just a thought that crossed my mind.
Another thought that crossed my mind was 'what the hell have we done?' But it was a fleeting thought i'm please to say.
From there on in, it was busy, busy, busy, arranging for a skip to be delivered, ordering gas cylinders so that we could at least be warm while we cleared and sorted, phone calls to BT to connect the phone and phone calls to find out who supplies the electricity. It's an odd thing, buying an empty house, there's no one to ask all the things you need to know!
Sorting was interesting. Packing up boxes with other peoples books, clothes, shoes, childrens toys, ready for the charity shop. Sometimes coming across something interesting or useful, but mainly amazement at how people could leave such useless stuff for someone else to get rid of.
I cleaned the kitchen. It took two days to empty the cupboards and clean from top to bottom. The kitchen units themselves are quite good quality. The worktop is ok, not my choice, but ok for now. The oven took three goes with Mr Muscle to get remotely clean, and surprisingly, it seems to work. Our little round handmade table fits in quite nicely, so at least we've got somewhere clean to sit to have a cuppa and a sandwich. Something else that amazed us was the amount of cleaning products and dusters we found in cupboards - although the house was filthy! Another thing was the amount of hospital stuff lurking - most of the cleaning products were from a hospital, first aid kits, sheets, eye baths, no wonder the NHS is in such a mess. Does the hospital not realise their staff are 'borrowing' from them. The mind boggles.
Hugh ripped up every carpet in the house - it was definately a case of 'wiping your feet on the way out!' LOL. I'd rather live on bare boards, than with those disgusting carpets.
We made a start on the shack, (the large shed,) which was absolutely full of stuff. Again, lots of decorating stuff even though the house was in such a bad state. Tools, electric sanders x 2, jigsaws x 2, drills, all abandoned. More boxes of books (very mildewed), childrens scooters, (rusted) old clothes, a fluffy white cat, either chucked in the skip or packed in the van to bring home for recycling.
Having owned this house for almost 4 weeks now, it's looking so much better,

It finally happened...

...Monday at 3pm, we simultaneously exchanged and completed. But it was a close call. Monday morning the vendors solicitors announced that there was a hitch and for some time it was doubtful that the sale would take place at all. Nobody told us what had happened and we could only speculate, but no matter, it's all OK now and we finally completed. As it was all so iffy, we couldn't get on and pack and load up the van, so we sat about, waiting, waiting, waiting, not knowing if we would actually be going to Norfolk on Tuesday or not. When we finally got the phone call, it was a mad panic of packing and phone calls.
Tuesday morning and we were up early loading the van and didn't leave until about 11am. We stopped at Waitrose, Swaffham for a comfort break and a sandwich, before driving to Burnham Market to collect the keys from the estate agents.
We got to Crossways about 3pm. It was cold and damp and starting to get dark. The house was full of stuff that Mr and Mrs Vendor had left. It was like they'd done a moonlight flit, upped and gone, leaving their stuff behind. At this point I did wonder what the hell we'd done!
The next morning dawned bright and dry and after a comfortable nights rest at the cottage down the road, we went back to the house and it didn't seem quite so bad as it had the previous day. We had a bit of an explore with the dogs, unpacked the van and organised for a 7 yard skip to be delivered the next day. Once we got working, it was amazing at how quickly it started to look better. I love to make order out of chaos. Mr and Mrs Vendor seemed to love making chaos out of order!

From Monday next week, we will have a telephone line and Horahh!...Internet...Horahh!! So I will blog regularly so you can see how we get on with our little project.

Bye for now - bed beckons!

At last...

...we are all set to complete next week. Maybe Monday! It's all or nothing! We are frantically trying to get organised. So much to do. Not having moved for 22 years, we are winging it a bit.
Need LPG gas cylinders, get broadband/phone organised,  a (big) skip, the list is endless and until we know the exact date, we can't actually make a start. But we have got a place to stay - friends in our village have a holiday home in Docking, and are happy to hand over the keys for a couple of weeks. Thanks N and M!

It's Official...

We are going to exchange and complete simultainiously next Wednesday! Horahh!
And then we will be the proud owners of a property in Norfolk. I think we may think along the lines of  'whatever have we done' when we go to the house for the first time as it's new owners, keys in hand, next Thursday! It'll be freezing cold, probably raining and blowing a gale and the big blue sky of Norfolk will be just a memory when we stand outside Crossways with our stuff.
And of course the house will be full of their rubbish, as will the shed, the garage and the garden.
So the first job will be to clean the loos, then get to work on clearing the house, loft included, rip up the carpets and ceremoniously chuck everything in the skip. And then take stock of what needs to be done.
Whilst the Champagne is on ice, we feel it's a bit premature to open it just yet.

No news is good news...

...this has always been my philosophy...until now. Now I'm not so sure. No news is definitely frustrating that's for sure.

Typical

It appears that we won't be completing last Monday. The estate agents have cocked up and nothing has been done. We are still in the same position as we were six weeks ago.
I could rant about this forever, but I'm moving on because I have to.
We went to Norfolk today having arranged with Mr and Mrs Vendor to meet us at the house so we could measure up supposedly for curtains, but really we need exact measurements so we can plan the bathroom.  It's really strange going round someone else's house making plans but having to whisper because you think they will be offended.
I feel bad for Mrs Vendor (that's not their real name you know), I think she really would have loved the house to have been nice and well looked after and...homey. I think they just didn't have the time, the inclination or the money. He kept apologising for the rubbish and stuff everywhere but she knew that we knew that it is what it is, and that there was no point apologising for it.
Anyway, even though the house was freezing, filthy, full of stuff, has plants growing in the gutters but not in the garden, it's going to be ours sooner or later. I did know a moment of panic when I first went in and thought God, what are we doing? But once again the lounge amazed me and I could almost see the Christmas tree in the bay window.
Watch this space...

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Have been sitting around in a state of agitation, waiting for news. It was suggested that we exchange on the 21st October, but that's only a bit over a week away and looks very unlikely now. So far I've been working on the principle of 'no news is good news' but today I'm thinking that if you just sit back and wait, nothing will ever happen.
The vendors obviously feel the same because the estate agent rang today prompted by the vendors, asking if we know what's happening. So it's obvious. You have to get on the phone and pester the hell out of the solicitors. If there's only us and the vendors in this chain and it's taking forever, how long would it take if there were three or four parties in the chain?
Hugh said I shouldn't email Mrs vendor, but I did anyway.  She was really nice, I liked her a lot when I met her a while ago, and she emailed back, obviously relieved that we still want Crossways, but frustrated like us, at the lack of communication. I might suggest she get on the phone and pester the hell out of her solicitor...

Introducing Vinny V

I have a cunning plan!
As we will be living in Weston until we sell the house, once we officially own Crossways, we will be going up on a Monday and staying until Thursday or Friday to project manage work, decorate, sort the garden etc and coming back to Weston for the weekend for a rest! My cunning plan was to buy a van and take stuff up to Norfolk every week until we have finally moved in. Good eh? And so we've bought a van.

This is Vinny V, a Renault Trafic, 10 years old, an ex-plumbers workhorse. Well used but with loads of years of use left in her, absolutely filthy inside but basically sound with hardly any knocks or scratches. BUT...hundreds of stickers. Talk about sticker overkill. This photo was taken after some were removed but you get the gist. It took about three days to remove them. 

Anyway, she's been de-stickered, the cab's been cleaned - I think the plumber liked sausage rolls - CoCo got a free meal from all the pastry crumbs on the floor, the seats have been cleaned and new covers ordered, and the back has been hoovered and cleaned. Two new tyres, a service this week and she should be good as new.
She's already been put to good use - took a load of stuff including a sofa to the dump for our good friend Jo who is clearing a house left to Labrador Rescue. We managed to sell a good solid desk to a nice man for a fiver at the dump but had to do the deal in a car park down the road. It felt a bit odd and I did suspect that they might rob us and leave us for dead, but no, the nice man handed over the fiver for Lab rescue and went on his way with his new desk, happy as Larry!

Cesspit v mains sewerage?

If you've been house hunting, you may have noticed that the estate agents details tell you everything and nothing.  You get to be very adept at reading between the lines. But we missed this one by a mile!  

This house is not on mains sewerage but has three cesspits. Not one, but three. Something the estate agents failed to point out and I consider to be quite important. 

Having met the vendors, and having seen the negligence inflicted on this poor house over the last ten years, you can bet your bottom dollar, the cesspit has not been emptied recently, if at all. 

Whilst I quite like the idea of not paying sewerage charges to the water provider, I don't relish the thought of the cesspit overflowing in the middle of the night either, or permanently smelling of boiled cabbage like the one in a house we stayed in in France once. 

So mains sewerage is the way to go. 

I emailed Anglian Water to find out if there is main sewerage in the road and got an automated response that said I would be contacted in 10 working days. We don't have 10 working days. 

Whilst on the phone to my Mum this morning, she asked if the nearly new (that's another story) bungalow next door is on the mains which made me think 'Eureka!' These days, with the internet, you have the world at your fingertips and so I checked the planning application for said bungalow and sure enough, it's on the mains...and more importantly, there's a spur off actually on the drive of our house! Or should be...mmmmmm. We'll see. Watch this space.

An anxious day

Buying and selling houses is the most stressful thing you can put yourself through. And the cost is inhibitive. Basically, you don't want to be doing it too often. But more stressful still, is the fact that I've fallen in love with this house. And so the day that the surveyor was going in was a BAD day for me.
Right up to this point, I'd been saying to myself that if his report was damming, we'd walk away from the house. But part of me, in my stupid head, had already moved into the house, started rebuilding and repairing it, reclaimed the garden blah blah blah.
The day the surveyor was going, I mooched around imagining the worst; the roof on the verge of collapse, woodworm, death watch beetle (whatever that is?) dry rot, subsidence. Being a professional, the surveyor, Tim someone, phoned from the house, wanting to know if we had any particular concerns. He quickly reassured us that the house is a big, solid, forgiving house and once the gutters have been cleared out, it'll be fine. But are we aware it needs a lot, yes, a lot of decorating. And that was it! An almost clean bill of health. So onwards and upwards. A celebration is in order. Well, maybe just a small one for now.

The most unlikely house...

We decided years ago, that one day we would move to Norfolk, to live, if not by the sea, near the sea. It's been a dream for a long time, and when Hugh was offered early retirement a year ago, it suddenly seemed possible.

And so the search for the house that would become our home began. 

I had an image in my minds eye, of what this house would look like...detached, in the middle of a large mature garden, with maybe acres of land, in a quiet leafy lane, typically a Norfolk style of house - flint and brick, roses climbing to the sky, older, but not too old...

We looked at a fair few properties...some with land, some without land, some older, newer, smaller, larger, more expensive than we could really afford...none of them THE one.

And then suddenly, out of the blue, we found it and it was nothing like my preconceived ideas. For a start it is ugly and near a main road and not typically Norfolk - in fact, it's built from London bricks. But what appealed to me, is that it's damaged. It needs to be rescued, resuscitated, reinvented. It needs us.

After 10 years of neglect it has a field of moss growing on the roof, most of which has traversed its way into the gutters, it has scars of past abuse on its exterior walls and the garden is overgrown and neglected. 

But inside, it felt like a home, a big solid forgiving house, battle scarred and battered but recoverable.

And so we committed ourselves to it, heart and soul, and this is our journey with this house, our vision of family Christmas's and summer visitors will see us through the process of rejuvenating this house, to become our family home. I hope you will visit often and follow our progress regularly.

Crossways September 2013

The back of the house

The sunken garden!

View of the garden from upstairs window