Two Weeks to Go

...in Richmond, that is. We still don't know exactly how long it will be beyond that time when we can move into the house for good, but it definitely won't be that day.

This morning, I went to look at a 1 bedroom house that would have been a decent option for temporary housing--if it hadn't been a dump, that is! Oh well. Cross your fingers that the corporate housing folks in Windsor still have a place for us. If so, we'll just spend two weeks in Windsor and play any residual time by ear. Surely, in 4 weeks time we'll have a working toilet!?

On Friday morning, the removal company [movers] brought me a lots of boxes, tape and wrapping paper. After a quick look around, the Rock-N-Roll Mover Guy brought in more boxes and wrapping paper--oh dear!

So, as you've guessed by now, this Princess will be packing everything myself. I'm very spoilt [spoiled] from the move from Texas to London. I sat back and watched 3 people pack up EVERYTHING in my house and load it on a truck. Then, when it all got here from across the pond, I sat back and directed 4 guys as they did the unloading and UNPACKING!!! Heaven!
...Not so this time. It's worth the trade off. If I paid the removers [movers] to do just the packing bit, never mind the unpacking, it would cost me as much as a washing machine! I'd rather have a washing machine!

So, on the 27th (Friday) bright and early, the removers will show up to load the truck. We toyed with the idea (got a price quote) of moving the stuff into storage and then into the house later--when it was ready. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), the cost of them loading our stuff into a container and driving it to a storage warehouse, to then deliver the same container from the warehouse to Ruislip at a date to be determined, was roughly equivalent to the cost of my new "American-style" fridge AND a tumble dryer. You can spot the trend...I'll have the new fridge and dryer, thank you very much.
Needless to say, I decided that it can't possibly be as dusty at the new place as I was afraid of (well, it is, but I'm going to live with it!). We'll just pile everything into the new house--most of it upstairs in our bedroom and the guest bedroom until we're ready to settle in.

That's not the greatest setup for carpeting, decorating [painting], but we'll deal with it.

In all the chaos, there is some good news. My landlord in Richmond called on Friday to say that I'd been such a lovely tennant, that she's happy to pay for a professional cleaner to come in and clean up after we move out--that takes one thing off my To-Do list! HALLELUJAH!

Also, the new tennants coming in don't want the guest bed or any of the 3 wardrobes--so she also said we could have those for free! Again, quite a coup, because I was just about to push the "buy online" button at the IKEA website to order 3 very similar wardrobes...

Not to let the moss grow on us, we decided to spend today taking two of the three wardrobes over to the new house. I'll save you the gory details, but both wardrobes and most of their contents are safe and sound (enough) in the guest room at the new house. There's a reason that IKEA flat pack wardrobes have the reputation they do...they're not designed to be taken apart, moved and reassembled. But, they're standing at the new place, and that's what matters for now.

Paul's girls (for privacy purposes, we'll call them Drama and Blondie) are here this weekend, so they entertained themselves in the back garden [backyard] and hiding in the boxes of new stuff that has arrived in the living room while we were reassembling wardrobes. This week, the shower unit, range, vent hood, vanity unit & basin [sink] and Blondie's bed (complete with futon mattress and regular mattress) arrived. It's all piled in the living room for now--so it makes for great hide and seek.

As I was packing up the DVDs and CDs last night (the first official packing), Blondie decided that she wanted to help. She did such a great job of helping me load up 3 boxes, I wish she could stay all week and help me pack! This is the same child that thinks it's fun to cook and sweep. Ah, isn't that sweet!?

If it sounds like Paul's leaving all the packing to me--you're hearing me correctly. Conveniently, he has to be in Brussels, Belgium for a training course all next week. He'll get home in time for us to spend next Saturday at the horse races at Royal Ascot (hat and all)--stay tuned for that posting!

Over and out for now!