We moved house…and counties…in a pandemic! What a journey it was! – Mummascribbles

If you follow me on social media, you’ll already know this, but we moved house very recently. We kept it pretty secret. If you’ve been through a house sale yourself, you’ll know how ruddy stressful it is. And we didn’t have an easy time of it!

It was back in July last year when the chancellor announced that he was putting a hold on stamp duty, that I found myself on Rightmove browsing houses. I spend a lot of time on Rightmove, often dreaming of new locations and bigger houses and I didn’t really think my browsing would lead to anything. But I found myself looking in Cambridgeshire, and ended up finding the most beautiful house. It was a dream. The perfect house. And it was up for around what we thought our house was probably worth. We talked about it, we lusted after it, and we phoned about it. Because of the pandemic though, we needed to be in a proceedable position before we could even go and view it and there were a bunch of viewings and offers already in place.

It had sparked something though, and we decided to put our house on the market. We had a viewing before if even went up on Rightmove and we had an offer which we accepted. We couldn’t believe it. We didn’t stand a chance with the house we loved but we took a trip to the area, viewed a bunch of houses, and had an offer accepted on one. We had sold our house and had an offer accepted in a matter of days.

We started the proceedings with solicitors and surveyors and everything was plodding along until boom…our buyer pulled out. There was a wall in our house that needed fixing and she decided it wasn’t something she wanted to do – even though we offered to do it. She just point blank pulled out. We were gutted. So we went back on the market and had viewings here and there but nothing seemed to be coming of it. We were so disheartened but due to miscommunication, we still had the house in our grip. That was until we didn’t sell and it went back on the market.

Within a day or so though, we’d had another offer and had managed to get the house back. We were thrilled. Until we had news that because our buyers buyer wanted everything to move fast, our sellers got jittery and decided to take another offer they’d had. Gutted again. Our buyers told us we needed to find a property that was chain free else they would also change their minds. This was not going well at all. In the meantime however, I had done a bit more research on the area we were originally looking at, and I was actually a bit worried that it wasn’t the right location for us for a number of reasons. This development gave us the opportunity to reassess. We found another area that we liked the look of, and particularly focused on the town that I loved the look of and had researched heavily. We booked a day of viewings, saw many gorgeous houses, but one in particular took our fancy in terms of location and house, and as we were driving home, we put an offer on it. This offer was considered over a weekend and on the Monday we had a little negotiation, upped the offer, and it was accepted. We were over the moon!

On the Tuesday however, our buyer pulled out. We were furious. We had negotiated with our sellers that they would break the chain so we were chain free, which is what our buyers had asked us to do, and they still bloody pulled out. Their reasoning was that they had decided our road was too narrow for parking comfortably. Surely they’d have noticed this at the time of viewing?! They even viewed twice!

Our sellers gave us a week to find another buyer. Knowing how slowly previous viewings had trickled through, we were worried. But then we ended up with 5 viewings booked in and on the Monday morning, we had two offers. We accepted one, they were happy with the wall situation, and it was time for everything to go ahead. We were so nervous though. After everything that happened, we had been let down so many times, we were so worried.

It was all going really quickly and then suddenly, just before Christmas, our buyers decided to have a survey. Once again we were sick with nerves. The previous survey had made the original buyer pull out and we just thought the same thing was going to happen again. We had the whole of the Christmas holidays to wait to find out, surrounded by a million packed boxes – but thankfully at the end of the first week in January, we had the news to say everything was fine with the survey. Phew!

All the searches had come back fine, we were all in a position to exchange in January, and then our sellers delayed things by asking for, and waiting for, storage quotes. They were going to stay with family so needed somewhere to put their stuff. Two weeks later, after a lot of chasing, they decided they were going to rent a house and had viewings booked on the Saturday…oh…my…god. I was bloody furious! I was so worried that this would make our buyers nervous and worried by how much it would delay things.

The following Monday came and went by with no news. And then just as I was getting really angsty on the Tuesday morning, our estate agent called to tell me that he had spoken to the sellers estate agent and that they had found somewhere to live, and could we complete on the 17th Feb which was the week after! From 0 to 60 in one phone call!

We were due to exchange the next day, and we then found out the sellers solicitors needed a mortgage redemption certificate for them…and that the main solicitor had covid. Exchange didn’t happen and we would hopefully do it the following day. The following day dragged on. There was no news. 4pm came round. Nothing. What a flipping nightmare. And then suddenly at about 4.20pm my mobile rang – it was the solicitor – we had exchanged! I couldn’t believe it. The other half was on a bloody meeting upstairs but as soon as he came down we shouted the news at him! What a relief it was. And only six days until completion.

It was all systems go from there. Packing the rest of the house up. Arranging all the last minute bits. The house full of boxes and the last meal – a Pizza Hut!

And at 8am on the 17th, our removal men arrived, I took the boys over to my Mum’s (who is in our bubble), and very quickly I watched our house empty out. Just as they had finished clearing the house and were having a break before doing the garden stuff, I got the call to say we had completed. It was midday. Amazing. The rest of the stuff was packed, we cleaned as best we could (I had been doing it gradually as I was packing for weeks), and we finally said goodbye to the house, drove up to the estate agent, dropped our keys off, and drove to get the boys from my Mum’s house. They were so excited.

Last family selfie at the old house!

Shortly after, we set off on our hour and a bit journey to the new house. We had to pull over twice because Oscar felt (and was a bit) sick, but while we were on route, we got the call to say the keys had been left in the secure key lock on the back of the house and we were given the code to open it. This was brilliant as it meant we didn’t have to stop at the estate agents on the way. And finally, we made it to the house where the removal men were ready to unload. We went in, let the kids quickly run around and look at all the rooms and garden, and then we let them do their job. They put the boxes in all their homes, put the beds and wardrobes up, and then off they went, leaving us is our amazing new home.

We need new sofas once we work out how we are decorating this room!

We are so very happy. We have been busy exploring the area. We have so much gorgeous countryside, the town (more like a village) is beautiful, everyone so far has been so friendly, and it just couldn’t be better.

We have taken quite a risk. The other half still works in London but has been working from home for almost a year now, and it is looking hopeful that it will continue into the non pandemic time. We will be keeping our fingers well and truly crossed that it happens that way because if he suddenly has to commute every day, it will cost us a fortune and we’ll barely see him.

But ultimately, we feel it is worth it. We have moved to a gorgeous area where we are so happy the boys will grow up, and we have swapped a tiny 2 bedroom terraced house on the very outskirts of Hertfordshire (but practically North London), to an utterly fabulous four bed detached house. We even have a garage and a driveway. Honestly, it is an absolute dream come true!