I have moved 19 times as an adult and 6 as a child, both here and abroad and so as you can imagine have some tales to tell. Our worse one was when we were moving quite a distance, had found the right house for ourselves and all was going well until the buyers for our house pulled out the week before Christmas!! I have always tried to be sensible , especially where money is concerned, but so much wanted the house we were hoping to move into that I even asked my husband if we could bridge to still keep it. Of course our solicitor said that there would be absolutely no movement over the holiday period and we could be stuck with a bridging cost for a long time, and I sadly accepted the inevitable and we lost the house , which we were told was immediately sold elsewhere. After christmas and various other things, we sold the house easily to cash buyers, and could have managed to do the bridging, which added to the sadness.
Anyway we went back to the area and I just had to avoid the street of the house I liked and we looked around and found another property, which needed a lot of work doing to it, but we were prepared for that and actually I would rather do the work and sort it out to my taste than have something already decorated but not in my choice. So things were going on with the estate agents etc . Then one day I was feeling awful with probably flu and was in bed feeling very sorry for myself when there was a phone call from the estate agent. It was the same estate agent as the new property we were looking at but a different branch, who asked if we were interested in buying the original house we wanted as that sale had fallen through.
As we had had a survey done on both houses I then explained about the possible new house and asked that they allowed us just that one day where they held both houses for us. That we would come up and visit both properties, having got both surveys done and our own house sold we could then go in and make the choice one or the other.
l had to ring my husband at work, something I rarely did, and get him to take a half days holiday, come and collect me, whilst I groggily got myself dressed and ready with all the paperwork, and we drove up to visit them both. In my minds eye I thought of going back to the first house and how good our two matching green chesterfields would look in the lounge etc.
We collected both sets of keys and went to the original house first. I looked round and wondered how I thought I would get both chesterfields into the lounge. I think by not seeing it for some time and being so disappointed I had somehow begun to see it as larger than it was. We then went to see the second house and then decided that the second house was actually much better for us. It was a very hard trip to make and I felt so ill at the time, but have always been grateful for that phone call as I then was happy in my new home, and not thinking back and wishing I was somewhere else.
On another occasion we had sold our house to a young couple who were first time buyers, and we were buying a house where an elderly couple with some beautiful furniture were moving down to be near her sisters and had organised for Pickfords special antique removers to do their move. He had had a heart attack and wanted her to be near her sister, and family around them, and their nephew was dealing with the agents etc so as not to add pressure for the actual move. Two days before the actual move day we got a call from our solicitor saying that the council who were providing the mortgage for the young couple had said that they could not send the money as some job had not been finished. That the young people were out for a day and could not be contacted (no mobile phones then). That if this did not go ahead on the day then the special Pickfords removal would not be available again for weeks and the old couple would be very stressed out by the situation. My husband was a very calm and lovely man (yes I know I am a bit biased) and so we were the couple in the middle. He rang the council to find out what was happening and they refused to explain anything to him as he was not their client. He explained the situation and that we were the ones in the middle and the only people available to sort it out. They would not talk about it at all and so he actually went down to the town hall himself and threatened to kick the special windows in if someone didnt speak to him!! (I was amazed when he told me that. Not at all like him at all) Eventually they stated that a window had not been replaced, but it had. He had told them to check after a particular date when the man was coming to do the job, and it turned out that the stupid council man went a week early and did not check again. Still the accountants wouldnt do anything. So then we went back to our solicitors desperate to know what we could do as neither other party was available and we were in the middle of an awful situation and could not see how we could do anything, and the whole thing disintegrating before our eyes. Well done that lovely solicitor. He said leave it with him and he would get back to us in half an hour. Then he rang and said his firm had moneys to invest and would provide us with a bridging loan for that day, for which they would not charge us, but of course if further problems happened the next day that could not stand. The relief of Mafeking!! All was sorted, the council man told off, everything put through and the other two parties in serene ignorance never knew what a horrible day we had had!! I can tell you that the whiskey bottle came out that night!! not something I would like to repeat.
One last thing I do remember, after containers became the way to move things abroad, where all your house could be put in a big sealed container and so there would be nothing missing when you arrived at the destination. We were near a port and it was not our things but sadly , a very large crane was moving a big container across from a ship and suddenly the chains snapped and the total container fell into the sea!! What a terrible thing for those people. No matter what compensation you receive it is not just cherished goods in there but your memories, photos and past lives that are gone too. Well they always say death, divorce, and moving are the most stressful things in life, Very true. Every time you move you think, never again, but here I am , still surviving, probably somewhat battered but never mind. So long as you cling together, support each other and remember that people matter more than things, however hard it is , you will survive it all. I always suggest to people that you also take pictures of your new home and garden on the first day. Then in the years to come you have them to show how it was when you first arrived. Wishing you all good resolutions to problems and may you have support of friends and families and try to face things with calmness if you can.
