... potentially uplifting if it works out OK, that is!

First of all, I never did introduce myself in the Meet & Greet 3 or so years ago, so sorry about that (I never did do things in the right order), BUT ....

Having sat innocently whiling away the time waiting for a big fat YES from Canada (skilled worker application) I got used to not thinking about it too much, and in fact got a bit sick of friends constantly asking me about it. I forgot about the application so successfully that when months of delay were caused because of photographs getting lost in the post, I merely tutted and just sent some more. Eventually the medicals got done (27 March) and I went back to forgetting.

Then suddenly last week I woke up with a jolt and started fretting about whether the medicals had even arrived or not, so I phoned the doctor Monday morning to enquire. Yes they had been posted on 9 April and using the tracking number I discovered they had arrived the following day. As a couple of months had passed since then, we emailed London to enquire about the progress of our application and got a reply the next day informing us that they had written on 15 May asking for our passports and as we had obviously not received the letter they were attaching a pdf of it to the email. This was Tuesday afternoon, so Wednesday we went off and had more photos taken and I delivered the passports/photos to London on Thursday afternoon in person (decided not to trust the post any more!).

So went from knowing nothing on Monday morning to delivering the passports 3 days later, but that's not all....

Also on Monday, I phoned a local decorator I know to come and look at my hallway, landing and stairs as I don't wish to annihilate myself attempting to paint on the top of a wobbly ladder. He arrived full of questions about how much we wanted for the house (well he's nosey like that!). The following day he called again and asked if he could come round. We had just heard our application had been successful (hooray) and so I was feeling quite chuffed. Decorator arrives on the doorstep 5 minutes later and informs me that his business partner is interested in our house which is not even on the market yet. Can he come round and have a look?

Well if you saw our house (we are in the middle of throwing everything away, and there is an old mattress propped up on the landing, stuff everywhere, beer cans, coffee mugs, etc.) so I said no, he couldn't just come round and have a look, and he would have to wait until the weekend but could pick which day. Next afternoon (Wed) we get a phone call saying he had picked his day, and can he and his wife come Saturday morning at 11.00 a.m?

Well how could I refuse?? Even though the next day I was leaving at lunchtime to go to London to deliver the passports and then straight to work after that, so no chance of getting rid of the clutter or cleaning or anything, so that was Thursday completely wiped out. I did a couple of hours that morning planting flowers in window boxes and patio tubs before hot-footing it to London with black grimy fingernails, so the front garden looked quite nice anyway!

So now I have tomorrow to clear the house up and accelerate into one day all the things that I was planning on completing in about 3 weeks! I have no idea if this man and his wife will want to buy the house but wouldn't it be great if they did?

So for everyone whose plans are delayed because of the non-sale of their house - you never know what may turn up. Maybe nothing will come of this, but you have to admit - even though I'm a WOMAN, that this is not a tedious boring story, but lovely, glowing, positive and potentially uplifting for humanity.

Next instalment after Saturday morning!

oh sorry dozed off half way through







but really congratulations, everything happens quickly at the end, we had 4 months to do about 2 years of building work on our place because timescales were accelerated out of the blue.

naughty solarfish. not tedious, uplifting - I agree. Good luck for Saturday! (and beyond)

and and and - - -what happened after the visit????

Well what happended?

What happened was we almost killed ourselves cleaning, sorting and throwing away all of Friday, and I was vacuuming down the stairs at 10.30 that night because I didn't want to leave too much to do early the next morning.

This morning I packed up 5 of the 6 dogs and put them in the car along with their crates, dog beds, toys and everything else that indicates we have far too many dogs (left the oldest one sleeping on the sofa) and drove the car up to the top of the road. It also had four bin bags full of washing (so I could close the laundry basket!) plus a couple of bin bags full of other things - the kind of things that just hang around in houses without any real place of their own and multiply until you can fill bin bags with them! (NB: Thank goodness for large people carriers!).

The couple turned up and went through the house making all the right noises ("oh THIS is a good size", etc. etc.). Our house is big but the back garden is just a courtyard - it used to be a farm but practically all the land was sold off so houses could be built in the 70s, so anyone wanting a big garden would be disappointed. Anyway, out they went and I heard "well it's much bigger than the one we have at the moment" so of course I breathed a sigh of relief. They are living in a very small house which is too small now they have a second child (about 6 months old) and they are actively looking for somewhere bigger. He grew up locally (in the old part of town) and wants to move back to this area as their current house is a little box on a new estate.

Anyway, he said he might ask to come back for another look but in any event he will let us know "within days" if he is going to put an offer in. We discussed the price and I helpfully pointed out (!) that a house a little way along was up for sale at more than we were looking for (and it is about half the size). He won't find anything this big for what we are asking for, and we are in the happy position of being able to do this because we bought it relatively cheaply 11 years ago (though it didn't feel like that at the time and we were broke for 2 years!) and even at a lower price than the one suggested, we will more than double what we paid for it.

It took me back to when I was in their position (tiny house, not big enough) and walked in here, and I wanted it - so hopefully they will too. There is a fair bit of work that still needs doing but he is a painter & decorator so can do it himself. We can only wait and see what happens (and hope that if he does make an offer it isn't a ridiculous one). I said we would consider an offer below the price named but if it was too low we would go ahead with some more cosmetic work (he know we got a quote from another decorator last week) and then either go through an estate agent or wait until next spring having done the whole house up in order to get the price we want (Yes, I can hear you all thinking ... what a bloody stupid threat ..!!!!). I felt it was important not to look desperate, and as he has jumped in before we are even ready to sell, he might feel a good bargain could slip through his fingers if he doesn't play it right.

Well anyway, at the moment we are drinking beer and enjoying our lovely clean and tidy house, even though we ache all over!

NB: The neighbours think we've gone a bit mad with all the window cleaning, fence painting and front gardening activity that's been going on in the last few days. Two households went on holiday last week when our front garden was barely presentable and they will be coming back to window boxes, manicured lawn, painted fence and hanging baskets. As we don't have a for sale board up no wonder everyone seems a tad mystified. Perhaps they think we have suddenly become houseproud, or been overtaken by aliens!

Question - why do we only do these things when we are moving out, and not before when we could have enjoyed the benefits?

Answer: Because it's too much like hard work??

I've made my mind up that my Canadian house will be well kept and a little palace (how long will that last I wonder .....)

oooh good luck

OMG - are the dog still in the car up the road????

No, they were up there for a couple of hours and then I walked up to collect them. It would have been mean to just take them back indoors so we went out across the fields for a run first (they ran, I walked). After which I collapsed on the sofa with beer and chocolate!

phew - had visions of you being so euphoric you 4got them - sort of thing I would do!!!

Well my husband did say "Can't we just leave them up at the top of the road??"

Great read Sayonara my first thoughts were are the dogs still there

Wish you well hope it works out ok
and congrats on the passports.