Finding a solicitor

We have moved house before.  We have used solicitors before.  However, the conveyancing process in Scotland is different to that in England, so you need different solicitors for the different countries.  We have been playing ping pong around the country while Kenny's been working on his career, which he's been doing since we decided I'd give up mine and focus on family in 2005.  We have been living in this little rainy town (pictured, right, with big girl walking up an alley - check out all that moss!) in Scotland for two years, and before that we were in sunny Suffolk for four years.  Before that we were in Livingston (Scotland).  

The house in Livingston was the first one we owned.  We both moved lots of times, but didn't own our homes.  That was before marriage, and before children.  The past is indeed a different country and I've not updated my passport to go there.

When we moved up here from Suffolk our house was on the market, and we had buyers in place, so we rented the only house we could find to rent in this nice little town, thinking we'd buy later.  This was two years ago, and bad things were happening to the housing market.  Our buyers demanded ridiculous things and we let them go, and then we couldn't get any interest as our house was perfect for first time buyers, and there weren't any because it was 2010/11 and they couldn't get mortgages.  Our estate agents (Flick and son) were great.  Our solicitors were great.  Nothing was happening.  For ages.  Our house didn't sell for over a year, and by that time Kenny was thinking of applying for a new job, so we kept on renting.  

When it came to starting the conveyancing process to buy the house we like in big seaside town we couldn't find the last solicitor we used in Scotland (Unwins in Livingston - they were excellent), so we asked for recommendations.  I posted on Facebook asking any of my friends if they could recommend a fairly local solicitor?  I was hoping for a local one so that paperwork would be easier.  Nothing.  Some people knew of solicitors, but hadn't used them.  Some people could recommend we didn't use certain solicitors, but no-one felt they could actually recommend someone.  A friend advised me that a good conveyancing solicitor was an oxymoron...  To be honest, we've only so far had good experiences with our solicitors when selling houses, so perhaps he's right.

So Kenny's parents recommended their solicitor, near where we're going to live.  It made sense, they'll know the area, and Kenny will be able to go in while he's up there with work.  So he went to see them, and easy-peasy, we have a solicitor.  She has been wonderful, so far.  She even gave me a call one time when everything was going a bit Pete Tong with the mortgage company (of which more, next time), just to let me know it happens a lot, and I shouldn't worry about it.  She was probably billing me for the time, but it still made me feel much better... and next time I will start to tell you the saga of  getting a mortgage.

Today is the fourth day of January.  I know I said it wasn't raining yesterday, and it wasn't, then... but it managed to rain before the day was out.  

Kenny and I had a look at the Met Office website, where you can see weather stats on a map (see left),  just to make sure that I wasn't a rain obsessed daft bat.  The website is marvellous.  Lots of lovely statistics, beautifully illustrated, to look at, and it proved that it's not just my opinion, our little rainy town is under a dark blue (rainy) blot on the map, whereas new big town is in a brown (maybe not arid, but working on it) patch.  Obviously, it's not going to hold a candle to Suffolk, but it's better than living in a puddle.

We are away from home visiting relatives at the moment, and I don't know for sure what the weather is doing in rainy town, but I have a sneaking suspicion it isn't as good as it is here.  It is a beautiful day.  The sun is shining, and it's pretty warm.  I was outside not half an hour ago, taking photos with the little girl.  All is well with the world.

Finding a house

So, my husband, Kenny, has a new job, and we're moving house.  I started looking at the housing market in the area as soon as he applied for the job.  Just because I love looking at houses!  I'm the kind of person you'll find peeping in your window if you've not closed your curtains yet.  I sometimes regret it (sorry, fat naked guy), but I just can't help it... so having a nosey at houses that are for sale is much more socially acceptable.

I used some local searches to find houses, but found that the most useful one was my favourite - Rightmove.  It's fab, so easy to use, and it keeps you updated, although the android app is rubbish, but that's OK, you can just get it on the internet.  Rightmove has got even better since last time I used it - now you can draw a search area, and make all kinds of specifications about the kind of property you are looking for, which is fantastic.  Then you just sit back and get emailed when new properties which match your criteria come up.  Which is troublesome if you've got a smartphone because you're constantly looking at pictures of houses!


I wanted to find a house which was big enough, and affordable for us.  I also wanted to make sure it was within cycling distance for Kenny's work, and walking/scooting/buggy pushing/cycling distance for the kids' school.  This narrowed down the options considerably, which is always a blessing.  It was important to me that we could all get to work/school without petrol because everyone feels happier if they get to use up a bit of energy before having to sit down for ages.  It's good for the environment too, but I can't wave that flag as I will happily jump in the car if it's raining!  

Here's a picture of the boy on his bike.  At the moment we usually scoot to school so the little girl can scoot or cycle to school, and then get pushed in the buggy home.  I can't keep up with the big kids on bikes!  I'm always at the back with the bags as it is.  Poor Kenny has had to drive to work for the last two years, and that means he's had to find other ways of doing exercise (like running lots), which means he's away from home more.  We do not like that :-(

Also narrowing down the choices were the schools in the area.  My background is in sociological research, and I'm a big fan of reports and statistics.  In Scotland schools are not ranked by the Government, so there's a newspaper that does it instead.  It's not perfect.  Nothing is perfect, but it's a pretty good indicator, especially if you are academically inclined, which we are, so I went for a secondary school that was high up on that table.  Then there were primaries to choose from, and so I had a look at their most recent inspection reports on the Education Scotland (formerly HMIE) website.  In the case of the big town we're moving to, of the two potential primaries in the same town as the good secondary, one had a great report, and the other needed to improve quite a bit.  Again, our choices were narrowed.  Hoorah!

So, when we got the confirmation that Kenny was getting the job, I had a look on Rightmove to see what was available.  There was a house I liked the look of - a good size, close to the school, great views, and Kenny went to look at it.  He liked it too.  It was nearly great.  But only nearly, and we couldn't afford the work it would need to make it great.  We agreed we could make a compromise, and as nothing else was coming up on my search, I had a look at things that weren't quite right, and that's when I came across the new estate that was just being finished.  The postcode for it on Rightmove didn't work properly on Google maps - because it isn't on Google maps yet, and the location was coming up as outside my drawn boundary, but it wasn't!  Another contender!  I had a lot of looks at pictures of the property, and the layout of the estate.  I tried not to get excited...

The only time we could go to look at the house was when we were all going up to the area to visit the grandparents.  So we all went.  We went for a sneaky look the night before, and the kids were running about in the park next door to the house (that's right, there's a park next door to the house, and it's got safety gates!).  The next door neighbours were having a party, and people smiled at us as they went past.  The next day we went to have another look, this time with the saleswoman.  The children were bickering about which would be their room, and I was wondering if we'd need to buy a dryer.

This is a new build, pretty standard house.  It's not the kind of house you fall in love with.  But, it will be pretty easy to look after, it's in a great location, and it looks like we could make some friends there.  We took the kids out for lunch to decide if we'd go ahead with buying it.

Reader, we decided to go for it!  Over lunch, bedrooms were chosen.  Big girl is going to get the biggest of the kids rooms.  The boy has no idea why he shouldn't get the bedroom with the ensuite.  As we are paying for the house, we have an idea ;-)

So we went back to the saleswoman, and did lots of paperwork, and put the deposit on it.  Seeing as we were all there we chose the curtains and carpets we wanted too.  It took ages.  It felt great.  The kids got bored silly.  We could reserve the house until Christmas Eve, and would need to get busy sorting out mortgage and solicitor, with the aim of moving at the end of January.

Today is the third day of January, and I took the bin out this morning.  It's not raining!  Yet.  It's still totally grey, but it's not raining.  It's not just me that obsesses about the rain, the boy had a good old moan about it just yesterday.  I'm pretty sure it doesn't rain as much in the new big town!  Fingers crossed.  We are still aiming to move at the end of the month.

Next time I will tell you about getting the solicitor.

A little bit of back story

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone health, happiness, and prosperity for 2013.  For us it means a big (in terms of importance) move, and this blog is going to be all about moving, and settling in to our new home.  It's going to give me a chance to think about the progress we're making (as it's so easy to get bogged down in the negative), and hopefully it might be useful to other people too!

So a quick introduction.  We are a family of five, living in Scotland.  I'm Cara - a full time Mum with a background in sociological research, and breastfeeding stuff.  I like making stuff, walking, and having fun with my family and friends.  I'm married to Kenny, who has an important job, doing really useful science stuff.  He's got a PhD, and is really clever, and really good fun too.

We have three children.  You don't need to know their names, so I'll call them the boy (he's 7, funny, caring, and incredibly bouncy), the big girl (she's 5, gorgeous, entertaining, and quirky), and the little girl (she's 2, terrible, tremendous and amazing).  Everyone else is to the right, and I'm below.

We live in a lovely little town at the moment, with great friends, and a great school, and great transport links, and some days it doesn't rain!

The rain really really really bugs me.  Today is the second day of this year, and the second consecutive day of rain this year (I stopped counting last year, it was too depressing).

We are not moving because of the rain however, but because Kenny has been promoted.  He starts his new job next Monday.  We are really proud of him, but we miss him like crazy when he's away, and for the next few weeks he's going to be away most of the time, so we're making the most of being on holiday together this week.

The move is going to be good because we're going to be staying put in one place for the first time in a long time, and because we're going to be living near relatives for the first time since we had children, which is going to be fantastic, and interesting.  Also, we are moving to a big town with good schools, and a train link, and lots of fun things to do, and actual shops where you can buy actual things!!!  It is very exciting, but first we have to move!

I think that's enough for the first installment.  Next time I'll tell you about searching for, and finding a house, and all the parameters involved.