Tag: Gifts

Moving In – Part 1 of ?

I expect this series to be longer than the trilogy I did about my move.

So I’ve bought my house, now what? I got the keys and everything is mine, and I don’t really know what to do with myself.
The first time I got in, I wandered around then lay in the centre of my unfurnished living room for a good 30 minutes just… existing.

The house’s previous owners showed me how to work everything, which I’ve immediately forgotten, except from the one thing that rarely happens that they taught me how to fix. Funny how I seem to only remember the difficult things.
I’ve got a gas card and an electricity key.
I’ve got two sets of house keys and 1 key for the downstairs door to the block.
A small key to the cupboard outside my flat that has been used as storage, but I will probably use it to dry clothes or something.

And that’s it.

Okay, so that’s not entirely it. One of the customers from my work brought in a spare kettle and a toaster. I have never used a toaster, and it’s crumby as all hell, there’s already a shit ton of crumbs over my worktop now, so I’ll have to find a workaround for that.

And yeah. First day of “moving in” and I have a kettle and a toaster, (that I don’t even really know if they work) fun.

Day two and I’m using time to my advantage.
It’s probably not long before my parents figure out that I’ve bought a flat, so I need to use the element of surprise to attack.
Hah.

So I have this big reusable bag from The Works, thank you The Works, that isn’t see-through at all AND it zips up. So on this second day, this pishing wet second day, I packed as many boxes as I could carry and zipped the fucker up.
No peaking on the inside, no wet on the inside.
My mum now thinks I’ve given my co-worker one of my Xboxes.

Carrying that sucker was another thing.
It’s not a far walk, but I’m used to carrying everything on my back or doing the “I’M NOT MAKING MORE THAN ONE TRIP FROM THE CAR TO THE HOUSE, SO IM GOING TO CARRY EVERYTHING AT ONCE!” grocery haul.

Dumped all the boxes out and left my bag to dry on the installed jacket rack by the door and went to work… 1 hour and 30 minutes too early. Shit. I could’ve unpacked them.

Baring in mind that all my boxes are full of tat. Books, pens, pencils, DS games, coins, cables… Yeah, I don’t have a lot of useful things to take with me.
The only “big things” I’ll be moving from my room will be my TV and my PC. I’ll be moving my old PC tower as well as I’d like to get back into building PCs, and I can at least make a relatively shitty one from spare parts I get.

A couple of boxes down, a few more to go… Then clothes and big things.

24/10

My first ever Facebook Marketplace buy was a tiny little Super Mario Mushroom lamp…

Yep…

I don’t regret it at all.

Biiig time jump.
Well maybe not big, but it’s 03/11, 3rd of November for the people who put the date incorrectly…

I currently have a fully functional bed via Facebook Marketplace, and one of my co-workers (AH) knew them and greenlit the purchase. Amazing.


Went into Wilkos for the duvet, duvet sheets, pillow sheets and the pillows. No disappointment there. Except the fact they never have the tester pots of paint I want, but have the full canister, but when they have the tester pots and I buy them, and they’re the right one, I come back and there’s none of the big pots. Fuck sake. I now have one wall fully painted purple, 3 walls with a half coat, a tiny tub of “Lemon Pop” to test and see if it’s the rubber duck yellow I want.

A lot more of my things are now at the flat, I transported my first bag of clothes today that only really consisted of 6-ish items. My rucksack is great at carrying objects, but gets full after 6 clothing items, because they’re all kinda puffy, you know?

I’m getting a smart meter put in on the 15th of November for free, and I’m getting a bookcase/display shelve unit thing delivered on the 9th that I’d reserved earlier. Still not got a microwave or an oven or a sofa or a washing machine… but we’ll get there. I just keep getting distracted by shiny objects such as TRIO BINS!!! FOR SPLITTING YOUR RECYCLING. And MATCHING MAGAZINE HOLDERS! And STORM CLOUD PREDICTOR!!!
Yeah, I need to fucking settle down. ADHD man, the “SQUIRREL!” thing is slightly incorrect. It’s more of a magpie vs shiny things and priorities.

Update on the kettle and toaster, well no, just the kettle, I don’t actually have use for a toaster. The kettle works, albeit it’s fucking slow to boil 1 cup worth of water.

I now have an uninstalled 50-inch TV from one of my co-workers (DK). Their old TV mind you, I have no idea what they’re upgrading to but the fact they gave me that for free is mind-boggling. Hoisting that up my 2 flights of stairs was fun, as was hauling the double bed mattress.

Assembling my bed was probably one of the best, and funniest moments so far, and it’s probably one I’ll remember for a bit too long. One of my co-workers (BR) came over and sat down and helped me build it. 5 minutes in, and she’d already smacked herself in the head by essentially headbutting a piece I’d been holding up with my foot/knee for the entire time. I learned so many new swear words that day and that I should really keep an eye on such a clumsy person like that, making MY bed. She does claim to be “the best” however, at almost everything, I just remind her that she’s Bob the Builder as Bob is short for her full name and she has a toolbox.
I did however have to say “hello” to my downstairs neighbours again, just to remind them that I’m not an English bitch that swears so much she’d make a sailor blush. Not THIS sailor, however! I blush at EVERYTHING!

I’ve slept in the house… maybe like 4 times now. It’s starting to feel like mine.
I don’t know if a lot of people get this kind of imposter syndrome, but I started really noticing it while I was with my last girlfriend.
I can’t sleep in someone else’s house, in someone else’s bed. I just can’t. I mean, I can when I pass out obviously, but I can’t go to sleep comfortably, and I’m constantly on edge during that too, the slightest noise will wake me.
It was the first experience in my flat when I slept in my new bed for the first time, (also because the mattress isn’t as sturdy as the one at my parent’s and I just sank, and it was weird.) and it was the same when I slept in my ex-girlfriend’s bed with her and when I slept in my co-worker’s bed when I was looking after her flat and cats while she was on holiday. It’s just odd.
But I seem to have got over it, and honestly, I’m preferring this a lot more. Except the stupidly over-soft mattress. I’ll change that when I can be bothered.

But yeah, it’s honestly looking great. I’ve just got my council tax letter, and it’s all looking like I’ll have all the bills in check soon.

The people who said I wouldn’t be able to handle this were so wrong… It’s actually weird how wrong they were.

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Buying a “House” (Flat) – Part 3 of 3

And so it begins…

Or so I’d thought it would’ve.

The proposed settlement date was on the 14th of October 2022. And we’ve missed that mark.
Not because of me, and not because of the seller, the solicitor or anything to do with the whole purchase itself.
God-damn postal strike.

And hey, I know we gotta strike. I understand the striking. I’ve only ever worked in a food-place, so while I’ve not been under the immense pressure of service-style jobs, and key workers experience as a whole.
I’m maybe one or two tiers above that. I’ve more than dipped my toes in that steaming bathtub, but I haven’t got down to the point where you have to brace yourself as you’re about to lower your sack/coochie into the boiling water, but I can imagine it.

But UGH. Now, someone who, as a type of key-worker, has to wait until these “Saturday and Sunday Aren’t Working Days” people to deal with my stuff… which will be Monday. For anyone that knows me, I do have quite a few bones to pick with weekend people, but moreso for the fact that the entire business is shut down for 2 days of the week.
Maybe it’s just because I’m used to jobs being a 7-day service, but it’s super niggly. I’ve worked in a Fish & Chip shop, Caravan Park cleaning vans and again at the same caravan park pouring pints. Now, working at Greggs it’s the same thing (not complaining about Greggs). People have got their days off, and it’s been whichever, and someone else was working that day instead to continue service. It’s probably the autism talking, but that makes 100% sense to me, regardless of the business being run. I’m struggling to try to think what business wouldn’t work on a Saturday or Sunday.

But yeah, this is just a big complaint about fucking “business days”, like fuck your business days, every day is a business day if I’m working. This week, I had Tuesday and Sunday off. Next week it’s Thursday and probably Sunday again. The week after, god knows, probably 2 “weekdays” off.
I’m just irritated and whining that I can’t get my house sooner.

I’m easily irritated when I’m excited for something.

So.

Closing Statement here. £6,666.06.
I immediately thought of my friend and how she would, “Fuck no. Fuck buying that house. That’s a fucking sign.”, and drop it.
Brandishing my “devil’s number” and my declaration of “I definitely do not own a house and have never bought property before, please believe me”, I hand it in to my solicitor.
Promptly following getting home I receive an email of where to put the rest of my dosh and boom. I’ve gone from 13k in the bank to 2k. And believe me, spending money has never been scarier.

I’ve spent a lot of money before, but never this much. I’ve given a lot of money before (more than I’ve ever spent on myself at any one time, because helping others in need is so much more important.) and even then… it’s still scary. I’m going to have to be paying money for the rest of my time to pay off the house, house insurance, life insurance, council tax, gas bills, electricity, Wi-Fi… food.
This is such a massive jump and I just took the leap of faith like I’m on the Red Bull diving championships.

My settlement closes on this Friday (21/10/2022), and I couldn’t be any more excited or freaked out.
I’m keeping this post until I get the keys or something else happens. I want to split off the after-purchase blog for the next part. Makes it a lot neater in my brain.

And so this is it!

Friday the 21st of October 2022, I am officially a house owner and a did a lil stweam to show you guys not only the flat, but my mind-state.
I’m fucked.

The settlement was on the Friday, and then I was just told, “Yeah, they have your keys, you arrange with them when you want to take the keys from them and yeah…”
That was kinda “Oh fuck…” My mortgage advisors have been chasing me for my key-date for ages, and it’s just… now?
Cool…

But yeah, I got in and lay in the middle of the living room floor for a bit. Got up and streamed and painted a huge patch of yellow on a pink wall. I’m going back to do it again because it didn’t really do much, and I really want to incorporate yellow and purple in my office space.
But yeah.
Yeah…

This is fucking huge and I have no idea what I’m doing.
Fun.
But I’m happy. So much happier.

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Buying a “House” (Flat) – Part 2 of 3

Come a couple of days after my first post, I received my mortgage offer and mortgage info package from the provider that my advisor got into contact with. Furthering the depth of how much I’ve been thrown into this largely insane and intense worry about this bog-standard thing that people apparently do once every 23 years?
Mind you… Coming to that whole, “once every 23 years” thing, I’m technically only 1 year behind being 24. Not bad.

The day after, I’ve received my solicitor’s email asking for when I wish to settle the transaction.

Uhhhh… Soon? ASAP? Now? In a week? I don’t know… When do you think is best?
I legitimately have absolutely no clue on a good when for this. So instead of answering or not answering, I ask some side questions about what things I would need to do, and if I should have spare time set aside to do it.
My man knows my game and suggests a date while also letting me know what needs to be done.
He knows the game.

So, here we are, with a settlement date and just kinda waiting for things to fall into place.

3rd of October, I received a few more documents concerning what I’ll actually be buying. Layout of the flat and the ground surrounding it. What’s mine and what’s equally my responsibility as much as every other neighbour.
The solicitor’s checks and stuff.

I have my co-workers arguing with me over whether they’ll be buying me Christmas decorations as house-warming gifts, and my unfiltered, reflex response was “You better fucking not.”
As much as the idea of people buying me furniture/furnishings for my flat greatly embarrasses me and completely feels uncomfortably out of the norm, I’m trying to get them to communicate with each other. There is no reason for me to have 5 kettles, but if they don’t know what each other is getting, then that’s what’s going to happen.

“I am a man… with 5 ovens!!”

More documents and guess what, these are signing documents!!

Declaration of Occupancy and the big nasty agreement that if I fall behind on mortgage payments, then the bank gets to repossess my flat.
Nasty.

For these documents, you need a witness to sign as well after watching you sign them. It’s recommended that it’s not a close family member, someone who’s going to be living with you or someone you’re close to. So, the manager at your job is probably a good bet.
Getting those signed and also having a read over the qualified acceptance to make sure there’s nothing I don’t understand… which realistically, who is even sure they ever fully understand these legal jargons apart from lawyers…
All I need to do now is close my Help To Buy ISA, get the closing statement and hand it over to the solicitor, along with the other things I signed and that should be it!

At this point, I am also going to be making a pilgrimage to every charity shop that stocks furniture and:
1. Asking if I can reserve furniture, and if so, how long is it reserved for.
2. If I purchase furniture, how long can they hold it for. As if it’s big items, I may need a hand getting it to my flat.
3. General prices and items held at that shop. I’ve noticed that each shop is a little different.
I’m uncertain if this is down to limits on things they can accept, standards on what they can accept, or just the customers they tend to get.
There are a lot of charity shops where I live, but most only have clothing and knick-knacks. So, I, personally, would assume, if I didn’t know any better, that any furniture I have would either have to be dumped or sold second-hand as there’s no “furniture charity shop”.
I could possibly stop people at the dump and try to commandeer their stuff. However, it’s a long walk out from where I’m situated, and our local dump requires you to reserve allocated time spots to dump… so… no one really goes any more.

And an update from previous post about having a bed, that is no longer the case.
It’s been a while since I was offered it, and they couldn’t hold onto it for that long. That and I’m pretty sure it was just a single bed, but I was never told, and that’s not what I’m looking for anyway.
I do, however, possibly have a toaster and a microwave. But that was from a rapid word of mouth from someone who is not really around all that often any more, so I’m not putting all my eggs in that basket.

The plan is, fridge-freezer, washing machine, bed.
Couch (fold down double bed), Chair (fold down single), Kettle, Microwave.

The rest is all in the air from there.

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