Moving in tomorrow!

[catbud]

We get the keys tomorrow to move into our first house! It's all so exciting
The first job will definitely be cleaning though unless the previous vendor has done it which is rather doubtful. Then I've got to persuade my dad to help me put my greenhouse up

[Lesley Jay]

Good luck Catbud with your first house! I hope the exchange of contracts goes smoothly. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

[eskymo]

That's such an exciting time. I remember driving from Edinburgh over the Forth Road Bridge and into Fife in a huge transit van with all our belongings in the back and the cat on my knee [OH was driving]. We had to pick up the keys from an estate agent and then just go to our new house and let ourselves in! It was so weird and exciting stepping over the threshold into our new house!

I hope it all goes well! Make sure you've got a box of all the essentials - kettle, cutlery, plates, teabags, coffee, cups, bottle opener, toilet paper etc. As you'll need these pretty much straight away - there's nothing like getting into your new place and putting the kettle on straight away!

And also, once you managed to move all your stuff in and decide to get a takeaway, having knives and forks at the ready. The last time I moved I had a lot of friends help me out and then we ordered a takeaway and got some beers, but couldn't find any plates, any cutlery or the bottle opener and had to go round to one of their houses to celebrate instead!

[Shortie]

Hee hee! When we first moved into our first home (shoe box sixed!) our new fridge was waiting to be delivered that weekend, so our first meal was soup in a pyrex dish, heated in a really old hand-me-down microwave. We managed two spoons though.. only just!

We still have the same microwave now, 4 years later... this thing must be getting on for 12 years old now

The oddest bit is when you wake up the next morning and in that instant you wake you wonder where on earth you are

[SueA]

Good luck catbud hope it all goes well. When we moved into our first house the previous owners had kindly left us a kitchen table & a chest of drawers they didn't want but they also left the bonnet of a old car in the garden but fortunately they came back for that!

[Lesley Jay]

When my son moved house 3 weeks ago it was fish and chips for tea on newspaper instead of plates, eaten with our fingers because my daughter in law couldn't find the plates or knives and forks. Mind you it tasted lovely!

Now he wants me to sort out a hydrangea for his garden because he liked the one in his previous garden.

[pigletwillie]

Congratulations chuck, as Dorothy said "there's no place like home".

[Peter]

Good luck & enjoy.

But quite right, clean first.

I'm cat allergic and the previous owner of our house had had two of the lovely wall-scratchers and a non-too efficient hoover.

Spent first few days, hoovering and hoovering.

[nick the grief]

Yep, I'll go with that, Clean first Then Garden. You've got years to unpack

[blossom]

Oh yes, our seller told us they had cleaned everywhere except the kitchen and living room floors, as it is laminate and it was wet when we were moving in.

What a shock we got! The place was disgusting. the bath had a layer of thick dust in it, the kitchen cuboards had loads of their old rubbish in they hadn't bothered to clear themselves, and MOULD. Loads of mould. Everything was dirty. I am not a clean person at all but I wouldn never have had the nerve to tell someone i had cleaned and leave it like that.

[eskymo]

what a pain! having to clean the new house kind of delays the excitement of 'being home'. We were lucky - our house was spotless when we moved in and the previous owner even left us a bottle of champagne!

[catbud]

After a hell of the day where the seller tried to even postpone completion for another week we eventually got the keys yesterday. He took all day to move out and when I went round al 11 last night, it was filthy! The garden was last a builders yard and he's even left the toilet in a mess!!!
I was so angry and upset. However,a day later and with much help it is now clean and we've even started stripping wallpaper and began to paint. Feeling much calmer and happier about things now
I'm now exhausted so off to bed as it'll be another long day tomorrow.

[Shortie]

Sorry you had such a naff experience catbud. At least it's now yours to do what you like with

[Alice]

Hope you will be very happy Catbud. It will all come right and be what you make it - a happy home is the most important thing. Comes before anything else. When we bought this house 20 years ago the seller completed but then just refused to move out. We had sold our house and had to move out. We had to move in to a hotel with our teenage children until everything was sorted out. A real nightmare. It all came right in the end and here we are in our very happy home.

[blackkitty]

Sorry you had a messy place to move into catbud, it can be very demoralising to have to clean up before you can do anything. Its all up from here though.