Crush, kill, destroy, crush, kill, destroy, destroy!

[reddragdiva]

Good news: we have a lease. \o/ House, two double bedrooms and one single. Walthamstow. Lease starts Saturday.

Bad news: we asked the current place for a week or two extension. The landlord had already scheduled builders. We have one day extra. Last day is Monday. FUUUCK!

So, er, don't expect any of us out this weekend, or this week. We have a few things to be getting on with. We've asked the new landlord if we can move stuff in a day early, which will help. Mind you, he forgot that we'd said we wanted it unfurnished and just bought all new furniture for the place! So he has to find somewhere to store that and then move it back out again ...

vatine and eyeliner297 made volunteer assistance noises. Anyone else? We have beer! Or will do! Not only can Liz or I not do heavy lifting, Arkady can't at the moment either. Furniture, computers, musical instruments, DVDs, books, CDs, clothes, ourselves and four cats. We'll be trying for white van men, but if not I may have to use my shiny new licence.

To-do list (what have I forgotten?)

• Water, gas, electricity done by Liz
• Phone line (BT) switch off old and switch on new Friday, got new number
• DSL (Zen) scheduled, provisioning takes a week, got 0845 dialup until then grah
• Post redirection
• Change of address with everyone
  • Screen Direct
  • ...
• Sky engineer visit next Wednesday
• Call and book white van men
• Shift stuff out of lockup (after move from current house)
• Call current landlord to arrange leaving (how much cleaning do we need to do if he's getting builders in?)
• ...

Comments

[i-beloved.livejournal.com]

Arse in gear time! Congrats on the new place, though.. it will all work out (although I'm not jealous of your timelines) xoxo

[rbradakis.livejournal.com]

Sounds complete... Oh, wait, pre-schedule food. Delivered or whatever. Unless, of course, you live in civilization and can have anything delivered at a moment's notice.

I'd help, except for that minor geographical hurdle.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

same deal... 3500 miles doesn't make for an easy trip and I hate airports to begin with.

If I were someplace where it was just a trainride and a walk, I'd be there.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

i would happily help if i were able, but train tickets to come just to help you move look difficult.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

Yay! for new place to live!

[nictoupee.livejournal.com]

congrats! sounds grand near the cemetary and all. any back yard for poi, cats and the like?

any pics of the location for stalkers erm I mean curious antipodeans?

[reddragdiva]

Tiiiny back yard, but yes!

Pictures are unlikely on a public post I fear. Maybe a locked one later.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Alas. Won't be in town until the weekend following. I'll *pint* you guys then, though, cos it sounds like you'll need it?

[reddragdiva]

*pints* of laudanum all round, I think.

[nictoupee.livejournal.com]

as (locked) you like it...

just sounds like quite the dream location... :D

[lunrwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm likely free this weekend, and I'm at least in the right city to help out. IM details in my journal.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

http://www.iammoving.com/

Is good for the Change of Address with Everyone thing.

[lpetersson.livejournal.com]

I should be able to help if you're moving afternoon or later Saturday or earlyish Sunday.

[kellydamnit.livejournal.com]

Good luck... believe me, I know what a pain moving can be. but, we managed to get everything out of one place and into another in a single day, so I'm sure you can, too.

Are furnished apartments the norm in the UK? They're unusual here, and generally either turnkeys for corporations that want something for out of town workers, or filled with junk left by former tenants.

[reddragdiva]

Why is my first thought "this will mostly ensure a continued flow of postal spam"?

[reddragdiva]

Surprisingly and annoyingly common, actually. In Australia they're mostly aimed at students or occasionally at corporates. I don't really understand why they're so popular in the UK.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

In my case, it is a train ride and a walk (well, bus, train, Tube and walk), but given that I can't lift heavy things either, I don't think I'd be much use.

[redcountess]

I think it has something to do with how compact everything is here - people don't want to be navigating vans through streets or sofas up flights of stairs if they can avoid it.

Allow me to rant on the subject

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Why, because you're supposed to live like an animal and trash everything in sight until you become a home owner or council/housing association tenant, don't you know? Thus the ginormous hassle of finding a rental place and providing references and shit. I'd forgotten how much easier it is to rent back home till my friends moved to Boston - saw a flat they liked on Wednesday, forked over a wad of cash, moved in on Friday.

If I had a pound for every time I got grief or funny looks because I took care of and indeed make improvements to my various rentals over the years, I wouldn't be stuck in the shitty day job.

Re: Allow me to rant on the subject

[reddragdiva]

References are nearly as painful in Australia though. Mind you, I was renting at the shitty end of the market.

[reddragdiva]

Oh, I think you're welcome to come along, get in the way, act like a housecat and make acerbic comments ;-)

Re: Allow me to rant on the subject

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I've experienced both ends of the market in Canada (admittedly, the top end vicariously), and have never provided a reference for renting over there.

[redcountess]

Phone is going on at new address on Friday as well, and there's already a connection there, so there won't be a charge. However, I've just checked with A and there wasn't a phone plugged in there, so the connection will create an open fault.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Actually, I found they were worse than useless last time I tried them - for just about every company I was trying to notify, all they did was produce a downloadable PDF form letter for me to print out, sign and post myself - it was far easier to just call the companies concerned or print out form letters myself.

Nice idea in theory, utterly useless in practice.

[karen2205]

Furnished flats tend to be more common in London + the other big cities. I'm now living in a unfurnished place out in the countryside (which was what I wanted, because of the quantity of furniture/white goods that my Mum had and wanted to get rid of).