a view through my own eyes

We would not have been able to move without the assistance and services of several local companies, since we have been very happy with their services I feel the least I can do is give some free advertising:

Financial Advice Facts & Figures Financial Planners Ltd.
Conveyancing and other legal requirements Collings & Co.
Estate agents (for the purchase) Langslow Property Services.
Removals and packing Colin Batt & Partners.

All of the above companies have been superb in the services that they provide and professionalism in the face of what was a stressfull period for us. I also feel obligued to mention that all of the above were small family run businesses.

If anyone from the above companies sees this page: THANKYOU.

Thursday lunchtime mrspao and I went to Wingham to see a nice friendly estate agent where we had been around a month ago for some details on a property.

We peered at the houses available in the window and then wandered inside.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, about the house in Littlebourne that you are dealing with.”

“I am every so sorry but that property completed its sale the morning.”

“Yes I know. I would like the keys please.”

The look on the estate agents face was an utter picture!

This morning I drove mrspao to work at seven thirty, when I returned fifteen minutes later the removals boys were waiting, which I thought was rather good since they were not supposed to arrive until eight to eight thirty.

Boxes, boxes and more boxes have entered the house along with an uber roll of bubble wrap, loads of wrapping paper and reels of packing tape.

The contents of the house is as I type is being packed into boxes, its rather odd watching the contents disappear and a growning mound of boxes be created at one end of the lounge.

One of the guys has an iPod and was singing to himself, sadly his singing is is never going to make the hit parade and is driving his colleagues and I nuts. Handily the amplifier is still connected so we can now share the music and not have to listen to his singing.

Its now early afternoon, the house is echoey and still.

Sadly in their enthusiasm they have packed the book I was reading and left on the bedside table, which is a shame as I was around 30 pages from the end of a who dunnit. Tomorrow evening I will attempt to find it.

It is mad round here.

We really should have starting sorting stuff out weeks ago, but we did not.

The loft is now empty (tks guys – you know who you are) and so two bedrooms have a rather large quantity of books etc. Slowly we are working round the house (no rush – honest) getting things in a state to be packed.

Thus far there have been four trips to the dump getting rid of old crap and there are now thirty eight recycling bags ready for this weeks collection – usually we produce three or four.

The house is now quite dusty due to things being moved round and loads of stuff from the loft and I cannot stop sneezing. Shortly I will hoover round.

This morning I found Jasper sat by the back door (again), he doesn’t seem to understand that he has a home elsewhere these days. So he ate, found a catnip mouse, got stoned and is now asleep. He is being collected this afternoon.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to putting my feet up whilst the removals people come round and pack our house.

The tale of the impending roadworks continues.

Mrspao phoned Canterbury City Council, they apparently do not deal with roadworks, that is the responisibility of Kent County Council, anyway there are no roadworks scheduled on our road next week. Even though their website says that there are.

Kent County Council, Highways Division also have no record of any roadworks due it the area and decided that they are going to investigate why.

Around six thirty this evening I get a call from the Highways Division Canterbury Area man, apparently there is going to be some roadworks at the end of Claremont Place/York Road whilst BT lay in some ducts for new phone lines (switching from overhead to underground) and has been advised that the work will be finished in two days. BT should have let have given us a couple of weeks notice. I tell him that they gave us no notice, he will shout at them apparently.

He also confirmed that I have no legal way of blocking half the road outside our house with traffic cones etc and so reserving space for removals vans. So a five minute chat with a couple of neighbours this evening should result in some of the best double parking in the area later this week.

The above is the catchphrase of a sitcom character called Victor Meldrew from the programme One Foot in the Grave.

This show is a favourite of mine and mrspao comments from time to time that I appear to be having a Victor moment.

This evening within one hundred yards of home we spotted a new road sign:

Road Closed for seven days from 19th Feb 2007

You can probably work out what I uttered.

On monday I will be seeking out the foreman/site manager/head honcho/top dog/etc and finding out how bad things are going to be and letting him know that we will be needing a removals van to be able to get up the road.

At the end of the day they cannot close the road entirely as emergency vehicles have to be able to have access, so I do not suppose that it is going to be a big deal. But after some of the crap we have had, we really do not need this.

At the twelfth hour and forty minutes post meridian today, our solicitor engaged in the matters of purchase and sale of properties phoned to confirm that contracts had been exchanged for the sale and purchase of two properties.

After the period of one week and two days, being Thursday twenty second of February we will be changing residence in this fair isle.

Excerpt from a telephone conversation to my favourit estate agent.

All I have wanted to do today is sleep, I feel shite, I do not need the phone continually ringing.

The current story is that the purchasers are being twitchy as its the first time they have bought a house and want to be sure, certain, happy, have confirmation etc etc. Their mortgage etc are all in place, it is just bits off the survey that they are checking. The survey was done in November.

Sigh.

This morning according to the estate agent they would be going to Chislet to talk with the people that did that damp work about the damp work that was done twenty years ago.

This afternoon according to the estate agent they did go to see the damp people and have had a talk.

This afternoon according to the damp people I am informed that Mr X. phoned them this morning and had a chat about it.

Spot the difference.

Anyway at the end of the day it comes down to the fact that the place had damp treatment twenty years ago and that work is guaranteed for thirty years. It is not to say that in thirtyone years time there will not be damp.

It is also worth mentioning that the wall that has not had damp treatment did not have it because it was not damp twenty years ago, nor to my knowledge is it damp now. Going by the price of the damp work that we did need doing (on the bathroom) three years ago, it would probably cost a couple of hundred quid to do. If it needed doing we would do it. That is not to say that next year it won’t be damp. Hence the title of this post.

Allegedly tomorrow they will be seeing their solicitor who “is a very sensible woman” and should be paying their deposit and signing the contract. We can then sort out a date with the removals company.

So I informed the estate agent that its been three months since they put an offer in for the house and are they not leaving it a bit late in being twitchy? We have already had to postpone moving once because of this and this mucks around the people whose house we are buying. Every surveyors report on any house old or new comes up with a list of things that are not right – we have had two full surveys completed recently – you need to be pragmatic – get the major stuff sorted (roof, structure, damp) or renegotiate the price and then consider the rest of the items on the list. Our recent survey indicated that the gate will need repainting this summer – I think that I can manage that!

Then came the sting, “We have gone all out to be sorted so we could move this week and that includes having one purchase fall through, we cannot reasonably do any more. We cannot keep mucking around the people whose house we are buying, it is not fair on them and it is not fair on us. I am starting to wonder whether we want to sell the house to Mr X.”.

There was an intake of breath, followed by, “I was kind of hoping you would say that, I will express your concerns to Mr X.”.

I don’t like having to do that sort of thing, but at the end of the what else can we do?

Also note that the above is from a conversation with a lying toad, I hope that he understood the two points:
1. we will pull out of this sale if we are continually mucked around – contracts should have been exchanged last week and everyone moving this week, it is his job to ensure that things proceed smoothly.
2. should we pull out he has lost his sale fee as we will go to another estate agent.

Hopefully this time tomorrow we will still be moving to Littlebourne, otherwise we will need to find another buyer for this place and another place for us as I expect that our vendors may tell us where to go for mucking them around.

Finally, Canterbury City Council did as they said and produced documentation confirming that the land was dealt with in a satisfactory manner prior to planning permission being granted.

mrspao and I have the lurgy, temperatures up and down, headaches, shivering n shaking and sneezing. Feels like something fluey.

So over the weekend we did something we would not usually do: we watched TV – together, or rather we watched DVDs together – which we do actually do.

Life on Mars is a BBC cop show.

Its about a 21st Century detective (Sam) who gets involved in a car accident, he wakes up in 1973.

Has he travelled in time, is he in a coma, is he just dreaming? We don’t know and nor does he.

1973 in this series is not glamourised at all, no mickey taking of the fashions or style of the time, its the early 70s as I can just about recall them. Power cuts, unions, community spirit and having to make do with what you have as there just isn’t much about.

Sam awakes to find he is a Detective Inspector and has just transferred police station, he brings 21st Century methods to those of the 1970s – no technology, no instant forensics, fingerprints take two weeks to check – its a world ruled by gut feelings.

His boss Gene is one of his time, hard talking, hard hitting, hard drinking and an eye for the ladies and so politically incorrect by todays standards that he makes you cry with laughter – but a damn good copper.

Gene Hunt:”Steven Warren is a bum bandit. Do you understand? A puff! A fairy! A queer! A queen! Fudge Packer! Uphill Gardener! Fruit picking sodomite!
Sam Tyler:”He’s gay?”
Gene Hunt:”As a bloody Christmas Tree!”

Where the Matrix had everything filmed in a slightly green tint, Life on Mars has a slight brown tint which tones things down and emphasises the grittyness of the time. Comparisoms of The Sweeny will undoubtably abound – is Gene a rip-off of Regan – in some ways yes. But this show isn’t just cops and robbers, it is about culture clash and a man who is lost.

Highly reccomended.

Series 2 starts tomorrrow in the UK, mrspao and I will sit down and watch TV, together.




One is a slimy bottom hugging scum sucker, the other is a fish.

Which one of these is the truth?

“Mr X. is refusing to sign the contract because he needs evidence of the damp work done.”

“Mr X. has signed the paperwork and paid the deposit his mortgage company wants evidence of the damp work and wants to do a damp survey if need be.”

“Mr X. has signed the paperwork and will be taking it and the deposit to his solicitors on Monday as he is happy that the damp plans show that the side of the house has been tanked.”

No, we do not know either. Actually we do not know if any of the above are the truth.

As it happens we have seen the damp plans and they clearly state that the side of the house has not been tanked nor do they indicate that tanking is required.

So we will be writing to the estate agents head office to make a complaint, there is no point in writing to the branch manager complaining as it is the branch manager who is lying.

I hasten to add that not all estate agents are the same as that would be unfair, certainly though through the sale of this house and the failed purchase of the first house we were going for we have a sour taste of big name estate agents. The house we are buying is through a small independant who so far I cannot fault in any way.