Pither.com / Simonhttps://www.pither.com/simon/blog/2013-07-29T14:00:38+00:00Development, systems administration, parenting and businessWe moved!2008-08-12T00:00:00+00:002013-07-29T14:00:38+00:00Simon Pitherhttps://www.pither.com/simon/blog/2008/08/12/we-moved<article>
<h1>We moved!</h1>
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Posted
by <span>Simon Pither</span>
on <time datetime="2008-08-12T00:00:00+00:00">Tue 12th Aug 2008</time>
(updated <time datetime="2013-07-29T14:00:38+00:00">Mon 29th Jul 2013</time>)
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<p>And we don't intend to do it again for a very long while!</p>
<p>Two interesting things we've learnt...</p>
<ul>
<li>when a van rental company suggests a van "big enough for a three bed house", get a bigger one if you intend to move from a two bed house.</li>
<li>if you visit a new house the afternoon before completion and the builder still has teams (must have been 10-20 people) working on it, the chances of it being <em>finished</em> the following day are slim.</li>
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<p>We got confirmation from our solicitor that we had legally completed at about 11:30am. The builders (Bellway) weren't ready to give us our keys until about 4pm!</p>
<p>Needless to say, this meant we were still moving late into the evening (thank you very much to all our helpers!). Thankfully Bellway hadn't sold Liz's house (which we part exchanged) yet, so they were happy for us to hold on to the keys until the following day. Which also allowed us to finish cleaning there.</p>
<p>Onto our new house...</p>
<p>So far our snag list is 115 items long! About 40% of them are paint related and the builders concluded that there were enough bad bits that it would be easiest just to entirely repaint the inside of the house!</p>
<p>The repaint started around the middle of last week with them patching and filling tens of dents, holes and missing bits throughout the house. Since then they've painted all the ceilings (some twice to get a good covering), all the walls and most of the woodwork! They finished this morning.</p>
<p>Some other bits, like the gap for the washing machine being blocked by spare bits of wood, missing turf, no garden shed and a lack of external cabling for a BT line (it took them over a week to fix that!!) have also been sorted out. But we still have a list of well over 50 snags awaiting attention! Hopefully now the painters are done, they will get on with some of the others!</p>
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New home, finally2008-07-24T17:42:00+00:002009-10-15T15:52:40+00:00Simon Pitherhttps://www.pither.com/simon/blog/2008/07/24/new-home-finally<article>
<h1>New home, finally</h1>
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Posted
by <span>Simon Pither</span>
on <time datetime="2008-07-24T17:42:00+00:00">Thu 24th Jul 2008</time>
(updated <time datetime="2009-10-15T15:52:40+00:00">Thu 15th Oct 2009</time>)
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<p>It was over a year ago that we put down the first holding deposit for a new home. At that point is was nothing more than a fenced off muddy bit at the back of the development.</p>
<p>Since then we've watched it grow steadily, if rather slowly...</p>
<p>July 2007:</p>
<p><img alt="Foundations" src="/files/p53-july07.jpg" /></p>
<p>September 2007:</p>
<p><img alt="Ground floor" src="/files/p53-sept07.jpg" /></p>
<p>October 2007:</p>
<p><img alt="Some walls" src="/files/p53-oct07.jpg" /></p>
<p>February 2008:</p>
<p><img alt="Garage" src="/files/p53-feb08.jpg" /></p>
<p>March 2008:</p>
<p><img alt="Roof" src="/files/p53-mar08.jpg" /></p>
<p>April 2008:</p>
<p><img alt="Snow" src="/files/p53-apr08.jpg" /></p>
<p>June 2008:</p>
<p><img alt="Stairs and walls" src="/files/p53-june08.jpg" /></p>
<p>July 2008 (less than 4 weeks to completion):</p>
<p><img alt="1 bay down, 1 to go" src="/files/p53-july08.jpg" /></p>
<p>It was about this time that the builders (Bellway) contacted us and said that they wanted to fix a completion date for 31st July.</p>
<p>We were very excited and pleased to finally know when we would be moving. Then we thought about it a bit. A few days later we phoned them back and asked them if they were sure! Apparently they were, despite the apparent lack of windows and such. So we've been busy booking vans, packing and telling people our new address. :-)</p>
<p>When we saw it last weekend (1.5 weeks before the completion date set by the builder) it was still missing:-
* some bits of the double height bay
* kitchen wall units and appliances
* paint
* flooring (except partial tiling in the kitchen)
* patio
* turf
* garden gate, fence and shed
* a gas connection
* a vent on the boiler
* an outside tap
* some guttering
* probably other things that we couldn't tell as we couldn't get in to really see!</p>
<p>The builders assure us they will be ready, yet when arranging our pre-occupancy briefing today they asked if we could do it on the day we complete (they are normally done 7-10 days before!). Then they went on to enquire whether we were planning on staying the night on the day of completion!!</p>
<p>We're not worried, no, not at all!</p>
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