Because this is very long:

I had a cunning plan on Saturday morning that involved being at the estate agents at 9am. Except that I left the house at 9am and had to de-ice and de-steam the car. I hate doing that. But I did pick some petrol (see later for why this is a good thing) and Will (ditto, really) on the way. And Graham was running late anyway, which was just as well.

So there were people in the house for things to be delivered, furniture being made, cleaning going on and it was all going well. Until I discovered a letter in the kitchen attached to a receipt from the bed people (bedsonline.biz - don't use them, ever) to say I needed to ring them to pay for Saturday delivery. I ordered over the phone, so it's their fault they didn't add it on. And they had my old address as their billing address, so should that not have suggested that's where they should send the receipt to? I had tried ringing them on Thursday but couldn't get through, so strangely enough, couldn't get through on Saturday either. And they hadn't rung me, as they had my phone numbers. So I hoped for the bed to arrive, while me and dad tried their number a few times, tried online chat, tried emailing, all nothing. The bed was supposed to be delivered by 1pm and oddly enough, it wasn't.

By this point, it was lunchtime, so we couldn't all go at once due to waiting for things to be delivered. Will went and fixed someone's computer, Graham made some furniture, dad discovered Heli-beds deliver same day and on Sundays but don't have prices, I picked up some stuff from home. Turns out I have to go to Heli-beds but as long as it's before 1pm they can deliver Sunday, so I have somewhere to sleep. I phoned Barclaycard and they suspended payment for the bed, and they are sending me some stuff to dispute so I don't have to pay, hopefully. I still need to ring them, haven't got round to that yet.

I was then paranoid that Comet weren't going to deliver my hoover and microwave, so I rang them and they told me it hadn't been put on the van. So they might deliver it at some point maybe. So mum found what I wanted on the Argos website, reserved it and I went to pick it up. Dad cancelled my Comet order as I was on the mobile, due to my landline not being changed over till 10pm. We got back from Argos and a nice busy car park to find Parcelforce had tried to deliver my Comet order. Usually, it's a complete nightmare trying to get them to deliver anywhere else/leave with a neighbour. So this time they decided to leave them with my neighbour. Dad spoke to Comet again, who are apparently ringing me yesterday or today to organise picking them up, since they are cancelled and I'm not paying for them. Still waiting.

Having just discovered all of this, and just come from my old house to collect some more stuff, Emma turns up. Late as ever. So I go and find her and we mostly achieve nothing except dinner and moving a bit more stuff. And my temporary custody of her steam cleaner to clean the sofa that came with the house. The plan was then for e to do some more packing that evening and us to go to heli-beds in the morning before she went off to Southampton. Except that her clutch broke and I was too knackered to do anything except fall into bed and watch a DVD. The slightly strange thing was that my phone line went off so I couldn't ring anyone and they couldn't ring me, but I still got a dial tone and the broadband still worked.

Sunday morning, the plan was to get to Heli-beds at 10am. I eventually got hold of Emma about 10am to find she was probably going to get towed somewhere. So I went to Heli-beds with Will (as I didn't want to go somewhere I'd never been on my own). I felt like I'd been run over by a lorry and had my work shoes, which are best for driving in, at the wrong house.

The bed choosing was like The Three Bears - the first was too soft, the second was too hard, the third was just right and I didn't want to get up. So I bought that one and a headboard and it came to £100 less than the previous people. Only trouble was I don't know my credit card pin number because I only use it online and they wouldn't let me sign, although I'm sure they should (and Argos did the previous day). I wasn't going to pay by debit card, based on Saturday's fiasco. So I ended up borrowing Will's, so now owe him rather a lot of money.

So then we went back to my house and my sister and her boyfriend turned up. My room went from looking like I still lived in it, to looking a lot more empty (not to mention dusty, it was disgusting). We drove round to the new house, Will walked and turned up at the same time. We then had to go to lunch in shifts. My sister's boyfriend hoovered the lounge and filled the Dyson. There is a hoover in the house, it's crap.

My sister also put away my clothes, drugs, food stuff. We were just about to send all but my sister back to my old house to pack the rest of my stuff when the bed turned up. So Will stayed and made it, me and her boyfriend packed, he took some stuff away and I cleaned. Then they all went away, I got my freeview working so I could watch Torchwood, although I'm still confused about where I'm putting my aerial leads.

I'm still not sure how the storage heaters work, their website tells me nothing. The bedroom one has a timer that doesn't seem to correspond with the current time. The fan heater in the bathroom makes it really hot in about two minutes. The hall light doesn't work. The shower doesn't work. It's a mixer thing, so you have to pull the knob up to change it from bath to shower. The knob doesn't stay up. And if you hold it up, the water coming from the hot tap dwindles away to nothing - but is fine through the bath tap. The estate agents are sorting it - this is where I'm glad I'm not buying because it would just be another thing to sort out.

I went online on dial-up, to find freeserve had changed their number and didn't want to tell you what it was. So dad had to find out. So then I wanted to make it my Best Friend, so BT's website refused to work, neither did their phone system. This morning it turns out that you can't have the new number on Friends & Family. And they've deleted all my friends & family numbers, even though they said transferring everything (and keeping my number) meant that wouldn't happen.

My broadband will take 7-10 working days, but hopefully less than that. And will be 8meg for £1.50 more than I pay at the moment for 1meg. Which will be great if it works - I've heard all sorts of horror stories. And I can't get to most of my lounge because it's filled with boxes - so I know what I'm going to be doing most evenings this week (with a break tomorrow for Rotaract and Tesco shopping).

There will be a housewarming, details to be confirmed, probably after Tuesday, for those I'm inviting. The next time I plan to move is never. Or at least, buy a house next time and move again never.

2 Responses to “The move story”

Fuzz Says:
Monday 18th December 2006 at 7:42 pm

Moving is no fun, I usually try and spread it over a couple of weeks. Beds are a bit of a hassle as well - I ended up sleeping on the floor for two months when I moved here.

Anyway good luck unpacking and have a good Christmas. Fuzz oxo

Nic Says:
Monday 18th December 2006 at 11:21 pm

I probably would have spread it out a bit more had it not ended up being the weekend before Christmas!