Sunday 27 April 2014

A house with a viewing

What a strange, strange weekend. Our house officially went up for sale on Thursday and by Friday evening we had two appointments for viewings. We were both a little gobsmacked to be honest and made similar squeaky eep-y type noises, I'm not sure that either of us was expecting people to want to come round quite so soon. We also made appointments to go and look at some houses that we like too, time to step away from the internet and actually go and look at the places! Also slightly eep-y and a bit nerve wracking. 

It's funny, neither of us is new to this house moving malarkey. I bought my very first house in my mid-20s and had sold it on by my mid-30s. And in my former student years, as a wee undergraduate in London, I moved house every single year for 5 years - it got to a point where I stopped unpacking apart from the absolute necessities. In Wavey's former life he bought and sold lots of times too, but neither of us have done this together. We made the decision to move into this house when we decided to live together because of the garden, as I am a total sun 'ho and must have access at all times, my old house just had a little yard and the sun went over the roof at 3pm but that is slightly off topic. So, yep, house moving. This buying together thing is exciting and terrifying and butterflies in my tummy all at once. 

We had all these terribly grown up conversations, usually when we were tramping around the village on our evening strolls, about the kind of things we hope for in the new house. We also declared outright that neither of us would be willing to 'settle' for something even if we knew the other one really liked it - it's utterly vital to us that we both feel the same way about our future house. When we went to the first viewing yesterday I was so nervous! I didn't know what to expect, other than that we both love the location. We went in, we did the tour, we made the appropriate noises, said our goodbyes and then headed home. For the rest of the day we literally talked ourselves all out of house talk! On yet another evening stroll (we do love a stroll) it emerged that we both absolutely loved the house but had been trying to play it cool so as not to make a big deal out of it, in case the other just thought it was okay. By the end of the hour long walk we'd almost decided to put in an offer! We're going back for a second viewing but it's looking like a definite contender. That's all I'll say on that for now as the story will progress. 

As for the viewings at our house. Throughout this weekend I have done more cleaning and hoovering than ever before I think (slight exaggeration possibly), we have a list of replacement cleaning products as we've run out of stuff already, my hands are red from so much washing up, and our house has never looked so bloody clean and tidy! We practically shouted with glee when we could leave the dishes from lunch on the worktop just now, wooop! It's hard work maintaining this level of tidy show housey-ness. The first people were very encouraging, they stayed for about 35 minutes and in the end we let them wander round on their own as we listened to them talk about how they would use the space. The second couple not so promising, I'd be very surprised to get any feedback from them at all. It's a strange thing though, showing people round your home, pointing out all the features that you take for granted and hope they don't notice the quirks. It's all very odd indeed. 

It's very early days in the whole thing. Who knows what will happen or where we will end up but it's exciting and just a little bit barmy. But then how dull would life be without a bit of barmy...? 

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