I feel like a day off

Everything to do with the move has been a little bit full on, especially since Kenny's started his new job.  I feel like all I've done this week is arrange things to do with the move, talk about the move, and write about the move... and if I wasn't doing that I was packing boxes.

Last night Kenny and I sat with a glass of wine and Go Compare (he was here for the night again - but too tired to be very cheery), and other frustrating websites.

We were trying to find the insurance we need for when we move.  However, we still haven't got confirmation about when that will be (although we have officially concluded the missives now), so we can't set it up yet.  

It was frustrating because all the comparison websites come up with a list of great prices, and then we'd have to fill in more details specific to each quote, and the prices would start going up, so you can't really compare at all.  There's a stream at the bottom of the hill we're going to live on, which would require a miracle to break its banks and get all the way up the hill to flood our house but because it's within 200 metres it raises the insurance cost.  Bleurgh.

It's all so incredibly boring.  I wonder if anyone managed to find one that does what it says on the tin?  

I have been packing lots as well, which has depleted my supply of boxes (I've still got enough to be going on with though - thanks everyone), but doesn't seem to have reduced the amount of stuff in the house.  What's that about?  All I seem to have achieved is making a mess.  So, this afternoon I am avoiding doing anything useful at all, for a while at least.  I need a day off!

Coming right slap bang up to date!

So far everything's been back story, but this time we're finally coming up to what's happening right now!  We've caught up.

I've had a conversation with our solicitor this morning (it's a beautiful pastel shaded morning here in rainy town), asking her to conclude the missives.  It's terribly exciting.  The sellers have got back and the solicitors have been talking the kind of talk that keeps them employed, and the end result is we're agreeing to buy the house!

There is bad news too though... the house isn't quite finished yet, and we can't agree a date of entry until it's finished.  I'm trying to find out when that's likely to be, but I don't know yet.  Hopefully not too long after when we were hoping to move in.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Kenny has already started his new job, and so is staying up near seaside town in the week.  We really miss him, but we're glad he's enjoying his work.  He made a special effort last night to get home to see the children, and to let me go to my writing class, for which I was truly grateful.  The children were delighted to see him, and so was I.  He's managed to arrange meetings at his old workplace, so we'll see him tonight too, before he heads back up the road tomorrow.  We are kind of used to him being away, but it's so much better when he's here.  He's a great Dad - great at doing all the fun stuff, and encouraging fascination in the kids.  Recent scientific experiments have included learning about freezing points by making icecream (winner), and learning about energy and engineering with water rockets (they go VERY high).  Here he is with the little girl (not sure he'll thank me for this picture!).

One of the great things about this move is that Kenny will be working nearby pretty much all the time, so we'll get to see him lots.  Also, this is the first time we're moving and actually expecting to stay in one place - until the kids finish school, hopefully.  So it's a really big deal.  We've got to get it right, and if we do, it's going to be great for our little family.  So no pressure there then!

What are you especially good at doing with your children?  Do you manage to do it?  Or does boring stuff get in the way?

Moving adventures for kids

It's a beautiful morning today, and we have just got back from walking/scooting/ biking to school.  The birds are enjoying the break from the rain as much as we are, and are flying about all over the place, and we got to enjoy a colourful sunrise on our way to school.  I am having trouble with formatting today, so it's taking me a while to make this look OK.  I hope it works!  Do you have these problems with blogger sometimes?  It's the first time it's happened to me!  Walking to school is such a great thing to do, even though I feel like I can't be bothered, it leaves us all feeling happier for the rest of the day!  The children were fantastic this morning, helping each other get ready, and get to school on time.  We are very lucky to have three clever, funny, and kind children (there's the big girl, to the right).  They are being fantastic about moving house, but they are worried about it.  It's costing us all sleep!

The last time we moved was two years ago, when they were 5, 3, and a few months, and for the girls it was no problem, but it was hard for the boy.  He had built up strong friendships down in Suffolk (with boys he still counts as friends), and had a hard time making new friends here.  They were a great bunch of boys at his school, but they already had friends, and it took a while for him to feel happy.  

This time we are moving to a place we all know, a bit at least.  Kenny's parents live nearby, and the children are really looking forward to seeing more of them.  I am too!  We have never close enough to relatives to have occasional babysitters, and I haven't been able to do much by myself since becoming a Mum.  I wouldn't expect them to do very much, but just having a possible backup will be marvellous!  We'll also be living in a town with lots of things to do - like a swimming pool, a beach, parks, and great sports facilities, plus a train, so we can easily escape for the day to the big smoke!

On top of all that, we'll only be a couple of hours away from where we live now, so the kids will be able to visit their friends, and have them come to visit too.

I'm hoping all of those good things will make it easier this time.  But it's still going to be hard, of course.  The boy has built up friendships here now, and he is doing very well at school.  He's going to make new friends at the new school, and do well there too, but it will take time.  I'm not worried about the little girl (pictured with her favourite brother below - she's the one with eyes like a pod person).  She can't even remember her friends' names half the time.  The person I'm really worried about is the big girl.

The big girl has made some marvellous friends in rainy town (she's pictured with some of them below), and she's settled in well to Primary 1, after a fantastic transition process from nursery.  She's a great wet lettuce on the inside, but here she seems so confident.  I'm really proud of how well she's doing, and I know it's going to be incredibly hard for her to start again.  We're trying to sweeten the deal for her a bit.  She shares a room with the little girl at the moment, and is driven mad by her chattering away while she's trying to get to sleep, and her constantly messing the place up.  No one can share with the boy because he gets up at an ungodly hour, and then starts bouncing, so she's had to put up with her, but when we move, she's going to get the second bedroom.  It is much bigger than the other kids' bedrooms.  She is rather pleased about this, but mainly she's worried.

The boy, the big girl, and I are all worried - we're having nightmares, and other sleep problems, and we're all being particularly tetchy. The sooner we get the job done the better.

On Monday we went to visit the school the kids will be going to in seaside town.  I was incredibly nervous about it and the kids were pretty out of sorts so I guess they were too.  It took me ages to decide where to park, so we had to hurry in to the school, and oh my goodness, it was lovely.

It was colourful, it had stuff the kids had made all over the place.  There were lots of cushions on the settle in the reception, in the bizarre school colours (blue, orange and grey!), and then the headie and deputy came out to meet us, and spoke to the children first.  They were wearing nice, comfortable, smart-casual clothes, as were the teachers for the most part.  The headie showed us 'round and the children were respectful, interested, and encouraged to have their say.  There is a school uniform (in the school colours!), but it looked to be pretty loose.  I hate school uniform, but it seems to be inevitable in Scotland, so I was glad to see a school that seemed pretty relaxed about it.  Generally I loved the school.  The boy and the big girl were taken to their respective classes-to-be, and the boy's teacher had a chat with him (she's about 12, so hopefully will have lots of fun ideas).  The boys in his future class were very interested in him, and he said he'd seen someone he thought he'd like to be friends with (longer hair, so no surprises there rock fans), so I'm excited about how he's going to do.  But the girl noticed that the kids in her class were ahead of her in their reading books, and there's a lot of people in the class (it's too big for a single class, but they've decided to keep it as one class, but have two teachers in it, which looks like a great plan to me, but is a bit daunting to her).  I'm worried about her, but I do think she's a wonderful girl, and she'll make friends if she'll let people in, it's just that when she's worried she shuts down.  I hope she can get all the support she'll need.

So, do you have any ideas?  How can we make moving easier for the big girl?  For everybody? How can we get a better night's sleep?

Next time I should hopefully have an update on how things are going with the missives, and if not, I might just get over-excited about decorating again!

I hope this is all going to work out because I want this house!

This is it.  The house we are trying to buy.  I don't know what the black and white poles are, they've gone now.  But this is the house, with our cars parked outside.  It's taken on a mucky day, so you can't see much of the hills in the background, but you can see the grass of the park next door (that's now fenced in), and you can see the front of the house.

Upstairs there will be a bedroom for each child, a bathroom, and a bedroom for Kenny and I, with an ensuite.  The downstairs has an open plan layout.  We have got used to living in a bigger house, so the garage is going to have a lot of stuff in it!

We've been very lucky.  Because we're buying one of the last houses in the development we are getting curtains and carpets thrown in (well, put in carefully).  On Saturday we went and made the final decisions on carpets and curtains.  I am getting over-excited about colour schemes!  The rented house we have been staying in for the last two years is mainly beige, so this house will not have any beige.  Well, it will, because there's already some in there, but I'm going for lots of colour because I have been drowning in a sea of beige blah, and I'm coming right out of it now!

So here are the swatches for the downstairs rooms.  I've tried to tie all the colours in.  I hope it makes my red Expedit bookcase and my big green sofa feel right at home.  What do you think?  I'm worried there'll be too much beige in that first curtain, but I'm hoping the colour-pops will sort it out.

That brown carpet will go on up the stairs and into the master bedroom, which will have brown and green colours and mainly wooden furniture.

The children's bedrooms will all have quite light and bright curtains, and a pale blue carpet (it works really nicely with the girls' pinks and lilacs, as well as the boy's blues and greens).  

All the walls are white, throughout.  For now.  I'm thinking of putting some decals or wall stickers up, but nothing more committed than that until we've lived there for a while.  Probably.

Gosh it seems awfully grown up to be making decorating decisions for a whole house in one go!  Have you ever had to do that?  How did it go?

We took Kenny's parents up to the house with us on Saturday too.  We were all feeling excited about the move.  Ever since we decided to start a family we have been hoping to live in this area, and we are all feeling really good about moving into this street.  Kenny's Dad bumped into someone he knew, who's going to be one of our neighbours.  He came 'round and was telling Kenny and his Dad all about who lives where.  Sounds like we're going to have some interesting neighbours.  I hope they like us!

We went to visit the school the kids will be going to yesterday, but I'll tell you all about that next time, as it's time I went and picked up said kids from school.  It has been raining all day (we're back in rainy town), but we have a wee window of not-rain (I can't put it better than that I'm afraid) at the moment!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note, the above text has been amended, to note that it was not raining at the end of school.  I had previously said it was.  My apologies to the dry citizens of rainy town. ;-)

Getting a mortgage - part 3 (slaying the system)

Good grief!  I'm up before the children!  Can't stop thinking about stuff to do with the move, and it won't be long until they're up, so I'll put these few minutes to good use, and finish the saga of the mortgage...

'Twas New Year's Eve, and even though the Nationwide had promised to call us the day before to give us our final offer of a mortgage, they strangely hadn't... 

We had asked for a mortgage, and told them we needed to get a move on on the 9th of December.  We had been given a lot of pie crust promises that it would be arranged soon...

So Kenny donned his protective mantel (also known as a dresssing gown), took up his sword (phone), and sat himself down in his throne of power (kitchen chair), to do battle with the system.  Here's a picture of him when he grew silly moustaches for Movember.  He's a bit of a hero in this house.

He called the Nationwide.  They claimed we hadn't sent them the right paperwork.  Hmm.  They claimed they needed more information, but he argued that they had had plenty of time to ask for that.  They told him that something was wrong with the system and they would get it sorted out and call back.  He said 'no'.

He refused to get off the 'phone until they sorted it out.

They spluttered, they promised to call back, they claimed they would need a manager and there weren't any available.  He remained polite, if somewhat incredulous.  He refused to get off the 'phone.  Somehow they managed to sort out the IT system, somehow they managed to find a manager, somehow they managed to get our application on the sytem.  They managed to put all our financial details in wrong, and told him they couldn't offer us the mortgage we needed because his earnings had gone down.

He didn't swear, and he didn't shout.  He talked them through what the right details were and refused to get off the 'phone.  They managed to get our details on the system right, and they told him they were sending him a formal offer letter for the whole amount.  He asked for an emailed copy to be sent to him and a copy to be faxed to the solicitor.  They complied, which was just about when the batteries ran out on the 'phone!

Victory!

We put the 'phone on to charge and checked the email.  They'd only sent us a loan offer for the wrong amount!  Luckily we had another phone, and once more, Kenny took up his sword and sat upon his throne of power.  Once more he corrected the financial details they had on the system wrong.  Once more he refused to get off the 'phone.  Once more, the Nationwide apologised.  They sent out an offer for the right amount, and copied it as needed.  Kenny had slain the system!  Here's another guy slaying the Jaberwocky.  He's got good hair, huh?

Victory (part 2)!

We did talk a little bit about the complaint we had submitted, and the appalling admin at Nationwide.  We questioned why we should have to pay an admin fee to set up this mortgage, considering the trouble we'd been through.  They explained that if we looked we would see it wasn't an admin fee - the admin is free (for some reason).  It's a booking fee.  So that's completely different then!

Anyway, we have a proper mortgage offer, so we can get on with buying the house!  The solicitor was back at work in the new year, and she swung straight into action.  First thing on the 3rd we had an email from her with the draft letter to the sellers.  We gave the go ahead, and popped in to see her with the ID and everything, and we are go!

We're hoping to get the keys on the 24th.  Fingers crossed!

How have you got on with getting a mortgage?  Are all the companies like the Nationwide was with us?  Something tells me we are not alone!

Next time I'll tell you about our latest visit to the house.  We have some very excited people here!

Getting a mortgage - part 2

It was Christmas Eve babe... OK, so the photo's actually from Christingle the previous week, but it was Christmassy, and it had babes in it...

Well, we hadn't heard anything from Nationwide, so I gave them a call.  First of all they told me they hadn't got the supporting documents.  Hmm.  Then they said they had got them after all, but that we had given them the wrong information.  Hmm.  Then they said we hadn't given them the wrong information, but it had been put on the system wrong.  Everything would be fine, they assured me, and we would get the mortgage we wanted, but they couldn't do it yet because they couldn't get the details onto the system properly.  It would be done by the close of business they said... and then they went back to eating mince pies.

That last bit is purely speculative, of course.  I would not wish to cast any aspertions in that direction.

So I called back before end of business, and guess what? The system was down and they couldn't process our application.  They assured me it would all be sorted out on the 27th, and not to worry.

Kenny called on the 27th, and guess what?  There was something wrong on the system and the application had been sent up to IT, and would definitely be sorted out within 3 hours.  They would call us when it was sorted out.

We were heading down to Yorkshire to visit my family and had stopped off at Tebay for lunch.  Have you been?  I think Tebay is fabulous - the cafe's are great, the scenery is wonderful, and they have a super farm shop northbound, and a nice wee play area southbound.  We were queuing for lunch when my phone rang.  Nationwide calling to tell us the mortgage was sorted? No, of course not.  They were calling to say they were very sorry, but guess what?  Something was wrong with the system and they could not progress our application.  They would send it to IT, and also they would start a complaint on our behalf.  They were very sorry.  They would definitely have this all sorted out within 48 hours... We worked out that that was a Sunday, and the office was closed, so it seemed unlikely, but we'd see.  Do you think it'll be sorted out for next time?

Getting a mortgage - part 1

You don't know how out of touch you are until it is thrust in your face.  We knew lots of friends who had trouble getting mortgages, because of one of the myriad new rules that have been erected since the financial crash.  We knew it was more difficult than it had been when we last bought a house (this one, pictured right), but we thought that because Kenny had a permanent contract, and we'd always been good previously, and because the day had a 'y' in it, we'd be OK.

Kenny had gone online and checked what mortgage we'd be able to get with his salary before we had started looking for a house, so we felt sure we weren't being silly, and everything would be fine.  So when we put the reservation deposit on the house we're hoping to buy, and agreed to get straight on with arranging a mortgage, we thought that it would take a few days at most.  Surely?

Like I say, you don't know how out of touch you are until it is thrust in your face.  

We thought about going to a financial advisor, but didn't want to take more time over it than was necessary.  Last time we bought a house (it was in Suffolk - can you tell?  It was actually sunny there), our financial advisor recommended a mortgage with Nationwide, and they had been fine, so we thought we might just go back to them, so long as they could give us a mortgage we liked the sound of.  Better the devil you know and all that.  So, Kenny picked up the phone and called them.  He had a lovely conversation with a woman with a ridiculous name that made her sound like either a fairy or a lapdancer.  She sent us an agreement in principle for the mortgage we needed.  All we needed to do to get the proper mortgage offer would be to send in copies of a P60, and some wage slips.  She said she would send us an envelope and checklist so we could get it all sorted.  She also arranged for someone to go and look at the house for a valuation.  That happened just a few days later.  Fabulous.  All ticking along nicely.

So we waited for the package.

And waited.  

Christmas cards, and packages were arriving, but nothing from Nationwide.  

After a week we called them up.  What has happened?  We were assured the pack had gone out to us straight away.  We should see it any moment, no doubt it had got held up in the Christmas post.

We were coming up to the end of term now, with Christmas just around the corner, and our solicitor was advising us that if we didn't get the mortgage arranged soon we would not be able to get things into motion before the end of our reservation period on the property.  This was Christmas Eve, which is a ridiculous date to expect anything which doesn't involve fat men in red suits happening.

When it still hadn't turned up a couple of days later Kenny got on the 'phone again, to find out how we could speed things up.  Nationwide agreed that I could take the documents in to a reasonably local branch (only a 44 mile 'round trip), where they would fax it over to the department that needed them.  I couldn't drive over for a couple of days, but then I went, with the little girl, and we spent a diverting hour or so in the branch, looking at pictures on leaflets, while a flustered but lovely woman called Pauline made sure everything was in order, and faxed it across... and checked they'd got it.  They had.  I took the little girl out for a walk (and took a picture, above) and decided to call them that afternoon, to see how things were progressing.  

So, after the drive home, while the little girl was sleeping, I called up Nationwide.  Yes, they said, they had received the documents, and they would need to process them.  That would take up to three days, and then they would give us a formal offer of mortgage, unless it turned out we needed to give them more information.  Either way they would call and let us know on Christmas Eve...  Looked like it would be quite the busy day!

This meant, of course that we certainly would not be any further ahead with the process on Christmas Eve, so while the little girl still slept I called the sellers to see if we could extend the reservation period.  I was feeling pretty frazzled by this point, but the sellers said not to worry, and she would send out the paperwork.  We extended our reservation to mid-January.  No doubt Christmas Eve would see everything come together perfectly and we would have peace on earth and goodwill to all mortgage brokers.