Help calm me. House buying and selling stress

Shandy, put your phone on silent at night. Mine is in this mode between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am. Will then only pick ukp those messages when you get up in the morning.

My children all know that in any real emergency during those hours, they must use my Landline.

My landline is disconnected and in a drawer, I get very cheesed off with scam calls. I don`t pick up my mobile when it is not a number I recognise. All my friends and family are under contacts and I usually google any unknown number

Thank heavens, the sun is just peeping out there, I put a big cotton wash out and it needs the sun. I did spend an hour pottering as in emptying one of my small keter storage bins. I have moved it and re-filled with ground cover, protective mesh, fleece etc. I am glad I did it, I have, at last, found the joiners for making a tall cage for my 2 brassica plants, I am determined not to overplant this year, hence one sprout plant and one purple sprouting but they will need cover from the cabbage whites. I was only out an hour, absolutely freezing

I have a garden diary of sorts. I am going to put cage location in when I store it away. I can never remember where I put stuff

Franbern if your phone is on silent at night if the same number rings more than once it will ring audibly…..at least that’s what my Samsung tells me!

Midgey did not know that. Will look into it. Thanks

I've always kept my phone on at night in case the kids need me, had never thought of using the landline in an emergency, good thinking Batman!

Fed up with all these cold calls at the moment but I feel so sorry for these men and women having to do the job, who would if they had a choice. What a horrible day they must have with people putting the phone down on them.

Franbern

Shandy, put your phone on silent at night. Mine is in this mode between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am. Will then only pick ukp those messages when you get up in the morning.

My children all know that in any real emergency during those hours, they must use my Landline.

Yes, I do the same.

I have now checked out those special phone settings, to allow some numbers to come through my night time settings. It is simple to set up. On your contacts click on the little star on that person (up on the right) - this gives you a favourites list. Go into settings, and those favourites to be able to ring at any time. Thee is also another setting which allows any number that calls twice within 15 minutes to be allowed through (this is obviously what Midget is referring to).
This is for Android phones. Something similar for those of you foolish enough to have iphones!!!

Clever stuff. I didn't do it last night, must do it tonight.

I try and do something positive every day ie to add to ambience, comfort etc and I suppose sometimes, that means cleaning a room. Otherwise the day will slip away.

I may get outside and just fill a bucket with small stones from my garden. This plot is built over a quarry with 12` footings under my house. I had masses of builders rubble, the huge hole was a good place for them to dump large stones, render, sand etc. Every plant has had a well dug hole and its own feeding compost and mulch, they are all happy and will be spreading good roots.

Winter and rain has again brought up thousands of small stones. Bearing in mind that they are visible on the surface. Its quite nice, this stone picking. I am earthed, kneeling on my mat on the ground, being mindless and meditative. It is my outdoor room after all and is maintenance. I suppose the rising of the stones means that my soil is becoming more aerated after such a terrible compacting by heavy machines. That has to be positive

Morning all, sunny again here.

Woke up in the night worried that I should have put our middle names on our flight bookings - luckily found the section about it quickly and you don't have to. Name changes cost a whopping £35 each per flight. I do hope to get my confidence back, I feel so unsure about things nowadays.

Chiropodist rang yesterday and is coming today! Lucky me.

I'm glad the worms are working their way through your soil karmalady. When I walk the dog on the tarmac of the new estate I find lots of worms on the path if its been raining, and do rescue them all. I heard a clip on the radio as to why the Ukraine has such rich soil.

I am counting my lucky stars I sold. I was on Mumsnet and someone has just paid a huge amount for 500L of oil. My minimum order used to be 600L and I had to order every month at the station October to March, as well as wood.

Good luck to everyone waiting for news, spring has definitely sprung, according to the birds here!

Think there is something called 'Worm Moon' that occurs in March, when the soil becomes warm enough for works to rise.

Had a very busy day yesterday, first of all a very interesting monthly discussion group, then spent much of the afternoon in finalising everything with regards to the two flats that completed last week. Issuing them with their Share Certificates, and final paper work for these with their Solicitors. I have also done a good 'crib sheet' for anyone in future having to deal with all of this. I was shown ONCE, by the person who did it previously, and then left to get on with it. Was a steep learning curve for me.

Printer in office had to have both b&w and colour toners replaced. A job I really hate doing, always certain I will do something wrong. Have been doing a lot of photocopying there what with AGM and these sales, etc.

Whereas, I have all the normal horror and disgust as to what is happening in Ukraine, I am still amazed that this is the ONLY item on the news. The rest of the world seems to have disappeared, including those countries where there are air strikes on peoples homes, and war refugees. Feel like it is a paraphrase of 'Animal Farm', - ^War on civilians by Russia = bad, War on civilians, by Israel, Saudi Arabia, US/UK - good.

That loss of confidence shandy, it is natural, comes to those of us now single, having been in an equal partnership. We have to do our own half and also the difficult other half and no-one really to bounce ideas off in normal conversation over an evening meal. I got that feeling very badly when I was suddenly the only driver, never having had the chance to drive the new car. Eg this stopping on a hill and suddenly the brake pedal felt hard, only afterwards did I learn that it was a safety mechanism. The time I suddenly needed fog lights, where the heck was the switch! The financial decisions, the selling and buying, on and on and no wonder confidence is fragile at times in your situation shandy, you hit a nasty bump that sent you right out of orbit but you are still alive and you are learning on your feet and it is getting better. What doesn`t kill us, makes us stronger. Very true

Non stop work earlier, lifted and moved 12 heavy bags of compost out of my garage, now outdoors and covered under tarp. 2 1/2 buckets of stones out, two compacted areas dug and loosened, composted bark distributed. I must say I was delighted to see the huge number of worms thriving in my soil. Three years ago, there was not even one worm, not anywhere.

It seems that the structure of the soil is recovering fast and will be in a good position to support wildlife soon. Key now is not to stand on the soil, only on the rubber stepping stones. The sedums that I popped in last autumn, they are sprouting and will eventually spread enough to be divided to support bees

No wonder spring is an uplifting time

Morning all, sunny again!

It's interesting to hear about your duties Franbern, well done you. I couldn't accept the responsibility as my confidence is so low, fantastic you've done a crib sheet for the next person when you hand the job on. I empathise about the printer toner - I've still not quite worked out how to change mine properly, and they suddenly whizz to the side, I'm always worried about my fingers.

That's a lot of heavy bags karmalady! I'm not growing earlies in bags this year, the garden is still a mess because of the roof and rubbish being left on the grass for so long. Wishing you good crops this year.

A neighbour is holding a coffee morning at the weekend for for DEC for Ukraine. I watched the news for the last time last night, I just cannot bear to see the suffering of the refugees racing from one place to another to get a UK visa. It's shameful they are being treated in this way.

Moving day a week today ! I’m feeling terrified tbh. I think all the talk of war and potential nuclear escalation has got to me . I feel I should be running away to a far island on the west coast of Scotland rather than further south near my daughters ! But nowhere would be safe .... and we have our current lives to live . Just feeling so overwhelmed with it all ...... ! Is it normal to feel so unsettled this close to moving and like maybe you’ve made the worst mistake ever ?!

marymary Yes it is quote normal to have those feelings of panic at the end of this long journey of selling/buying. Particularly, when moving a good distance. Obviously, all the bad things that can happen start to come to the fore. However, I am sure that you did all your research and this move is very planned. Once it has actually happened, you will start to feel more settled and begin to see all the upsides of it.

Hope the move goes reasonably well, and the weather is kind. Best advice I can give is to stop watching/reading the news. Like a couple of years ago, when we were all being terrified regarding Covid, much of it is there to terrify us. Two years ago we were ALL going to die from this new virus sweeping the world, now the journalists are trying to outdo each other with scare stories about war escalation.

Countries have been at war, with air strikes on their homes, schools and hospitals throughout all of our lives. The fact that one is also currently in a European country has probably made it seem much more real for many of us.

Try to concentrate on your new home, and how wonderful it is going to be closer to your daughter. Think about the new friends, etc you are going to make. You have plenty to concentrate on at present, getting packed up, sorting out utilities, etc. etc. Worry about them, things you can control.

Thankyou Franbern. Wise words from a wise woman ! I want to be excited and happy but it feels wrong. You are right about constant war and although it is hard to put any perspective on it at present the sad truth is that war will never go away from our world

Great news marymary62! I also hope you have good weather, it really helps. I dealt with my moving nerves by making lots of lists, and ticked off as I went. I was annoyed to move in here and have a dispute over the electricity usage - the seller hadn't taken a photo, so I had no proof. I recommend downloading Timestamp to your phone for your meter photos, it can be used as legal evidence. Good luck!

Thanks Shandy57 that’s great advice ! We thought we’d got rid of loads but still there are endless boxes ... even with them packing the kitchen! It’s oil fired central heating until we install air source heat pump - no gas anywhere near - but that’s all planned for . Luckily both my daughters are off work when we move so are going to help us ???.

Yes, I am disappointed in my vendor, the electricity fluffing nearly cost me £200.

Fantastic your daughters are going to help and can guide the men with the boxes. It is worth doing an inventory of boxes in case any go missing, I numbered my book boxes 1/12 etc.

I also printed off the bungalow floor plan for the crew boss, all the boxes had a coloured tape indicating which 'colour' room they should go into. But I ended up with the boxes everywhere, the men were coming in and out so quickly and with such a narrow hallway I just couldn't keep track of them all in the end. When they left I found the thought of humping them all around very daunting and sat on the sofa for a week!

I've seen a girl on Mumsnet paid £980 for 500L of oil, if you can find out if there is a local oil club hopefully you can save a few pence per litre. Our club was only £12 per year to join and we always got a good deal. I envy you your heat pump! I don't think I can afford one but will investigate before the floors are done.

Happy days marymary62!

Numbering the boxes is a great idea too! We’ve marked them where they are to go but I expect they’ll
end up all over the place !! I think the air source heat pump will pay for itself with that kind of oil price !

Morning all

Lovely sunny day today

Best of luck Mary with your move. Yes you do get conflicting emotions. I was very happy to be moving to the place I love best, right near the sea and beautiful park with swans. But the actual moving was the nightmare I was dreading, took 13hrs without a break for lunch! Only moved 15mins away.

Yes good idea with your colour codes Shandy but as you say the removal men move so fast you just can't keep tabs on things. I found my CD's I've been hunting for on Weds, yepee! All boxes inside are now unpacked or I know what's in them.

Had someone coming round to do our shed base on Tuesday, he cancelled last minute to take his dog to the vets, we had worked hard to everything ready, so was disappointed. He said he would come the next day but didn't show and didn't even phone. So my son and I are doing it ourselves. Blooming hard work, but we've started, cut the boarders out and dug out about half that we need to, once the digging is done it will be fairly easy. I will be so please when the shed is up and then we can empty the inherited shed, find all the things we are missing, one being the electric drill we need to put the shed up, so may have to empty enough to find that.

Patio doors are being fitted on the 24th and then that night will be the first night I will be able to lock up the garden doors, can't do it now, just beyond me and my son never bothers! but even he finds it really hard to do. Same as my door locks where I moved from, where you push the handle up and then lock, but I do not have the strength to do these ones.

Have a problem with cats pooing on my front garden, it has light grey pebbles, which looks nice and matching the colour of the house. It was only after the 2 first weeks that my son notice it was covered in poos! I must have picked up about 20 at least. Looked on line and there was 'Lion's poo' amongst other stuff, I bought 3 black cats with luminous eyes, stuck them in last night, around the area were most of the poos were, on the far left side, which is why I never saw them. So I wait and hope it does the trick, the cats look quite humorous, so quite happy with them to stay there.

My other problem is that before, I always slept with my windows open at night, even in the winter, but here I can't as the smaller windows open really wide and are big for a small window, so not only am I afraid to sleep with them open, but also it's noisy as it's at the front of the house, which I hate and did vow I wouldn't buy a house without at least a big tree to look out at, but here I am!

The sellers of the last of the current flats being sold, phoned me last night, asking for some advice. He said they were hoping for completion on that by end of March. Considering it only went on the market mid-January - it shows it can all be done quickly.

Very miserable, wet and grey weather this morning. I am waiting for the lovely man from my flooring people to come to measure up for my kitchen. Then, there is a nearby coffee morning I intend to go to, and this afternoon a zoom U3A lecture.

Yesterday I photocopied and distributed the latest Newsletter for our flats. Like to do one of these about three or four times each year, to keep everyone updated with what is happening.

Was reminded recently that even before the first refugee from Ukraine, there were something like eight million refugees in the world - most fleeing war in their homelands. Do wonder why they are less important.

It is good to hear on this site of people who are reaching the end of that long road of selling/buying, successfully. Dreadful system in England and Wales, but still a lot of us manage to negotiate through it. Best wishes and good luck to all who are traversing this road at present.

Yes, meter readings at both ends are very important, and best carried out via pictures on your phones so you have prove. As has been said no matter how carefully YOU may label your boxes, the removal people just want to get everything uploaded as quickly as possible and take little notice of any form of codes on them. When I moved back in 2003, I can remember so craving some toast and it took me a week to find the box in which they had packed my toaster. Ensure that really important items are kept separately. In my car I took kettle, tea/coffee, also a bag full of electricity extension leads.

Yogi - could you get a locking device to keep the windows only partially open? I had these on my last home - they just fitted on the existing window stays . As for noise how about a noise machine that might play soothing sounds like rustling leaves ......

nice to see such good progress marymary, moving day will soon be here.

Yogi the only cat deterrent that really worked was a sonic one, I tried lion poo and no joy. I had to put little pointy sticks and wire mesh into a flower bed, that was good for a while but the sonic device was worth getting, hope all goes well re the shed base, you could do without that work so soon after moving.

A grey wet day here but am not wasting it. I unearthed my shallow pressure cooker, I have 2 pressure cookers, 2.5 litres and 5 litres. They have the manufacture dates underneath, 2008 and will be good for my heirs . The 5l works perfectly, I remember renewing the gasket and valves, some years ago. I did swede and carrot in the 2.5l today and had to mess with one of the valves to get it to pressure, so I have ordered a gasket and the 2 valves for that one plus a spare set for the 5l cooker. I haven`t used the 2.5l in a long time but decided that to for small amounts, as there is far less mass to heat. They are duromatic cookers, bought them when I was still working, expensive

Where does all the bedroom dust come from? Only me and yet again, ample dust on the skirtings and tops