Thanks to James finding a new job, we'll be moving house in the next few months... well, if all goes well, we'll be moving house very soon, but these things can drag on a bit. We're keeping fingers crossed that this house sells relatively quickly, and we're doing all we can to get the house ship shape and ready for sale. Last week was completely mad for me - plenty of visitors, including three estate agents giving us valuations, a roofer to fix a small problem with the new roof, a doctor's appointment, a plumber, and my stepmother. I think that's all of them - and in among all that I managed to paint a wall, mow the front lawn, tidy the lounge and dining room, clean the kitchen - and all with a very demanding Nathan to look after!
By the end of the week, my back was giving up from carrying Nathan around the house nearly all day, so on Friday it was wonderful to have our friend Dan over to help out with weeding our front drive. He actually volunteered for this task, and spent a good three hours on his hands and knees with a trowel. Lou and Jon will be popping over tomorrow for lend a hand - though the weather is getting in the way of most of the urgent tasks - painting the garage doors, cleaning windows. triming hedges, that sort of thing. The bottom of the garden will be turfed and have a circular patio installed within the next month. Also, we have a new bathroom to be installed in about two weeks time - it was a case of either leaving the bathroom for the next buyers and accepting lower offers, or just doing it ourselves. As it turns out, doing it ourselves isn't going to cost the earth, and will only take about a week. Thankfully, James will be taking that week off work to help out so we can take shifts down the gym to have a shower!
And, once we've managed to make some progress on selling this place we then have the nightmare of finding a new place to live... we're hoping for a new build, or a house in a good state of repair so we don't have to get workmen in as soon as we move. Fingers crossed we won't have too much of a chain to contend with, or else we may still be here at Christmas time. Ideally, we need to move by September - we'll keep you posted on developments!