The survey
As the property we were buying was built in 1930's we knew it was going to be vital to have an inspection carried out. I would recommend doing some research on local companies and understanding whether you need a full or internal survey doing. After some research and chatting with local companies I decided to go for a full survey as there was about £100 difference and as the property was older I felt this would be beneficial to know if there were any glaring problems. We were also able to ask about extending the property and whether this was viable. We got a very comprehensive report back which was about 70 pages long. Now at this point I was so overwhelmed as there are so many technical aspects and I hadn't a clue about a lot of the language that they were using. Like rendering? I didn't know, thank god for google. The report detailed everything about the property which needed maintenance, how much that was likely to cost and how imperative it was to fix. On first look I thought that the house was buggered but after Luke showed it to his friend who is a builder he said actually it's pretty average and there are no structural issues which is the main thing. Now we look at the report like a 5 year to do list. Even though we are almost a year in and we haven't done anything.. In short, this is the biggest purchase of your life. Pay the extra money and get piece of mind that you are buying a good investment.
The legal bit
We decided that I would take the lead on the legal bit of the moving house process because my job is more flexible and could be on call during the day. I didn't mind this because I got to have a 'house' folder and I do love to go stationery shopping in TK Maxx. We decided to go with a solicitor through Purple Bricks as it was a set fee for the legal work and again it worked out much cheaper. The fantastic thing about the solicitors was that they had an online portal where they uploaded all the documents which needed completing, sent you copies of all the important letters and we had an call booked in every week to update on progress. I remember telling the solicitor that I wanted to make this the quickest sale and buy. And bless him , I was on his arse every single week trying to move things along. When he said he was waiting on things from our buyers I would send them an email asking for their legal reps to make it happen. I knew our buyers were super keen to get into the flat so this worked to both our advantages. It was definitely beneficial going with a conveyance only legal team as they were really knowledgeable and able to explain everything to me. Again though if you need to move quickly with a sale I would say to set up a regular call/email with the lead for your case as this will push them to return documents or ask you for things quicker. I'm sure that Mo who dealt with our case celebrated the day I moved so he wouldn't have to call me every Tuesday again.
The move
We arranged the house move for the 12th of May by which point I was 30 weeks pregnant. Because it was so last minute Luke could only get the morning off work which was a bloody nightmare. So my mum came over to help us move. I booked a man with a van to help move us, we didn't have much furniture just a bed, sofa, fridge as bulky items. The rest of our stuff was to be packed in boxes and bags. I found THE BEST invention ever which was cloth storage bags from dunelm which I put all of our clothes into as they could be stacked and also reused when we put clothes into storage. I found it so therapeutic to pack all of our stuff. It was another excuse to chuck a load of stuff that I had been hanging onto. I kept saying to Luke when he got attached to stuff he hadn't used in years 'Why are we paying to move a CD Player? Would you pay for a taxi to take that CD player anywhere'? We made more trips to the dump than I thought was possible. Yet we still had bloody loads of crap to be moved. I did do some research into moving companies but I'm sorry £400 to move by shit 1.2 miles down the road is just not going to happen. I then put the job on AnyVan.com and got some bids. Eventually a guy said he would do it for £100 which I thought was great. I made sure to list every single item on the advert that needed to be moved.
By the Friday, moving day. I thought I was going to explode from sheer anxiety and nerves. What if Nationwide decided not to pay the money? What if we sold our property, but ours fell through. Where would we bring our stuff? At 10 am we got the call to say that the buyers money had come through and the solicitors were awaiting confirmation that the funds for the new house had been received. We got the all important go ahead and Luke went with the movers to pick up our new keys at 12. As the movers had to do two runs, I stayed behind doing some last minute cleaning. Luke got a call from work saying he wasn't needed and not to worry about coming in which was the best news as I was worried about doing it without him. The best thing about moving while pregnant is no one lets you pick anything up and you get to be project manager. Eventually Luke came to pick me up, hand over our keys and we drove to our new home super giddy and on a real rush of adrenaline.
And then just like that, we were home. The home that we would bring our baby girl home to, the home that we would have a 2 am cry in when Eva won't sleep, the home that we will decorate and make our own. Maybe we will stay here forever, or maybe we will be off in a few years. But whatever happens, this place was where our family started so it will always be special to us.
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