Tues 31st October

It’s been 4 days since we moved house!!

Its been a strange day - dh is now back at work - the fiends are back at school and pre-school!
We moved during half term week, which resulted in two excited children racing around, and building Lego towers, under the feet of the removal men - who were quite gruff, but understanding - even when Ds2 tried to wrestle some ‘toys to be packed’ off him!


The move itself, went very smoothly, as far as these things do. It was the culmination of a long conveyancing saga. The peeps above and below us in the chain, have been fantastic - patient, understanding, and non-hassling..
We sold and bought in June,. Yet it took till October to actually move! The whole year (for me) has been very very stressful.

There has been an odd kind of limbo - I started to get ready for the house going on the market in January, by renovating the studio, plastering, helping to lay floors etc, whilst pretending to entertain the children, write my dissertation for my Masters degree, and try to hang onto some sanity, by keeping up with horse riding and Tae-Kwon -Do …..

As well as the usual fall-out from school and pre-school attendance (ds1 getting to referred to child development for assessment into dyspraxia) baking endless cakes, buying extra plimsolls, and replacing snapped violin strings - and the word ‘chauffeur’ - doesn’t even begin to come into it - as I ferry them about from activity to activity….

Because Ian works such long hours at work - I was in charge of renovations, getting house valued, choosing estate agents, arranging house viewings for both us, and any prospective new house we are considering… (ds2 took exception to a prospective valuing estate agent, and threw a piece of Lego at his head, calling him a poo-head) needless to say, we didn’t use them…

The house viewings on our part went fairly OK - It took two weeks to sell it. Had it taken any longer, I swear I would have climbed the walls - it was completely horrendous! With two small children, at the end of a day with them, I am pathetically grateful, if the house is still actually standing, let alone ‘tidy’ to any degree - and its such a small cottage - there is nowhere to ‘hide’ stuff, in a fit of minimalism..

I soon got into a routine..

I needed two hours notice, re a house viewing - on receiving notice, I would call in favours, and dispense the children to various friends, babysitters etc, then blitz the house - I tried to keep on top of it in the meantime, which entailed shrieking at children etc etc

House viewing on our part was much less stressful - we liked the second house we saw - and put an offer in - this brought me to the stress of estate agents (namely theirs) trying to take the piss, the surveys, and the whole negotiations thing, regarding their windows falling out etc - then we thought it was all going to fall through - turned out that our case handler at the conveyancers had left, so nothing was happening whilst our case was being reallocated - I had major kittens, and dh soothed me like he would a frightened horse “ We’ll still have a roof over our heads” he told me…

Aaaaanyway - suffice to say - it was a huge stress - I set such stock by moving house - our two up/two down cottage - although tres charming - was like an overcrowded prison cell at weekends, When we were all home - the boys who shared a bedroom, fought constantly, we were all falling over each other, and it really depressed me…

Sooo - 4 days ago, we moved to a house twice as large - neighbours seem lovely!! Laminate flooring makes the boys look like ‘bambi on ice!’ In four days, I have painted ds2’s bedroom, assembled three beds, painted ds1’s bedroom, as well as unpacking, looking after children, baking a cake for the cake sale at pre-school etc.

It’s also been Halloween, so dashed out to buy things, searched the garage for Halloween costumes, and sent them out with the neighbours ‘trick or treating’…

The fridge is pissing me off somewhat - the old owners left their fridge, washing machine and dishwasher - the latter two are great!! But the fridge is giving me problems - It has a digital display attached to the shelf - it keeps informing me it is ‘too warm’ … I fiddle with the temp control uselessly - it gets colder, my mushrooms are frozen solid though, despite it bleating it is ‘too warm’ - I can’t work it out….

Tonight, we watched the ‘Stepford wives’ on DVD (the old version) I am entranced, yet somewhat disturbed… when Ian goes to bed, I worked my way through the extra material supplied by the makers, then go to bed..

I am at the end of a streaming cold at the moment, and its gone to my chest. I notice that when I lie down, I am struggling to breathe. This had been increasing over the last few days, and am sure its not helped by sanding window sills, applying sealant, varnish, and paint to walls.. I am allegedly ‘mildly asthmatic’ but rarely have a proper attack - I can go for months, without a single wheeze, but sometimes get wheezy at the end of a cold…

I take my ‘wheezies’ to bed…….