luckykaa

The previous owners of this house did some strange things. They put a big heavy heaginal head screw into the wall for use as a picture hook. They left a lot of holes in the walls. There are countless wires going all over the place from a selection of satellite dishes and phone lines. A lot of Manchester houses have a small nick in a room to allow room for the staircase. This house has a wooden box over it that can be used as a surface. The owners of this place inexplicably carpeted over it. I have no idea why.

They also stuck paper over the walls. And the ceiling. Lining paper rather than wallpaper. It was a real pain to remove. Most of it came off easily enough. It was not put on well. However, there are a few sections that were impenetrable!

I tried soaking it. Rubbish! Chemical spray helped a little but I got through a bottle on half a wall.

I tried just pure elbow grease. After 20 minutes attacking with a scraper I'd removed a patch about 5cm square, and hated every second of if. Figured at he rate I was going this would take approximately 20 hours of scraping. Eventually decided to go to Screwfix to buy a steamer. But the journey took a little longer than expected. flickums suggested going into Altrincham to look around. We did. She got distracted by books. WE both got distracted by DVD shops (I bought a bunch of cheesy action films - including that 80's classic The Final Countdown).

So after all that, we didn't get back until almost 5:00pm. And I still had wallpaper to scrape.

So I set to work. An hour later, I was running out of accessible paper to remove.

Next day I bought a set of spanners,and set to work removing the radiator to get behind there. The largest spanner was too small... I went back to Wickes and bought myself a large adjustable spanner. Seems most of the DIY I've done in this place seems to involve driving to and from various DIY shops. But I now have a wallpaper free mancave!

Then went to the dump with Flickums to get rid of all the scrapings. I take my girlfriend to the most romantic places.

And I removed the box for the phone socket! And the wire coming from that, and going under the carpet to nowhere. And the cable inexplicably coming in from either the satellite dish or the aerial. And the threshold plate (inexplicably held on with two types of screw, one of which was inexplicably screwed in while bent).

Just need to remove the rest of the paint, and then I can finally start redecorating!

VW vans have a weird control layout.

On the left of the steering wheel, are two stalks. One controls the indicators and windscreen wipers. The other controls the cruise control. Many times I meant to indicate left and found myself turning the speed down to 25mph.

Still, it was useful to have a big van for moving. We have a lot of crap to move. Probably way too much. And we're not feeling well. And we ran out of boxes.

On the plus side, we did have a willing volunteer to assist on the Friday in the form of a Martin. He helped move wardrobe and bookcases and mattress. Unfortunately, the Z-shaped hallway meant getting the wardrobe out in one piece resulted in re-enacting a certain Bernard Cribbins song.

Saturday and Sunday we had the benefit of a Skyblaze and Shadow. We had a van so went to Ikea to get more bookcases for the epic library of Flickums. Shadow turned out to be a master of box Tetris. Also good at assembling Ikea furniture.

Then their train was replaced by a bus replacement service, so gave them a lift home. Took a bit of time out of the day, but it was nice to drive. Plus after driving a big heavy van (even if it was surprisingly nimble), driving a car I'm familiar with was really nice!

That just left boxes. The place is invaded by boxes! So many boxes.

Well, it's been non-stop since Christmas.

We now have ordered a dishwasher, fridge, freezer, and washing machine.

I also spontaneously bought a George Foreman grill.

Still need a sofa. Found one that was amazingly comfortable! But sooo expensive! Will keep looking. I work near the furniture district, and I hear there may be a sale on at DFS.

Then it was a trip to B&Q, where we picked up paint samplers and brushes.

Then to house to do some pre-decoration. Slapped paint on walls in a slapdash fashion because nobody can tell us not to!!!

Then it was down to London, for a quick bit of touristing. Didn't do a lot because everywhere was hideously expensive, and/or closed. Did go to Leicester Square though. flickums  bought me a boar burger! Saw the Lego store. Went to Forbidden Planet. Flickums bought books from the bargain bin. I bought the Dark Judges Judge Dredd comic. Went to Prince Charles Cinema. Saw Trading Places. Was tempted by mince pie and mulled wine but was a little full of boarburger.

Returned to party via HMV. I bought horror classic. Flickums bought Kung Fu Panda 3.

Caught up with lots of people at party! It was a fun party!

Returned home to eat Chinese takeaway and watch Kung Fun Panda.

I need a holiday!

We're finally making steps to buy a house.

It took forever to get this far. I found a place that I really liked. Made an offer. Then realised that I don't want flickums to be my lodger. So I encouraged her to be co-owner. Which was fine, but she didn't like that house...

So we needed to find one we both liked. We found a few that we both hated (Stephen King house was a notable example - right next to the motorway, odd smell like there was a rotting corpse buried somewhere, in a lot of need of cleaning up, floor tiles not properly aligned, and the neighbour may have been an evil witch).

The minimal requirement is a dishwasher (or plumbing for one), and a bath. So, we found a place with a dishwasher and a bath. We called it Purple House. It was a little quirky but had a looong dining room which meant there was space for a gaming table. Sadly they sold it. Next up was White House. This had been very nicely looked after. The previous owners really loved the place. They decided to sell it to someone who was going to rent it out. This kind of annoyed me. Next place was "Mega Cooker House". Most amazing kitchen ever! And a conservatory. Sadly a little pricey. But we made an offer. They decided not to sell.

But eventually we found a place that ticked all the boxes. And it had a very nice kitchen (Oven plus oven/grill), a really nice bathroom, a downstairs loo, a patio area with a barbecue. We made an offer. It was accepted!!!

So we have a house. Probably. At this stage it's unlikely things might go wrong. But this is such a scary proposition. I found a mortgage advisor (who works off commission so doesn't charge me directly) who explained that side of things and was very nice. But then there was a the world's most massive wodge of paperwork to read through, fill in and sign.

Also frustratingly, several of these people want proof of address. We don't get bills any more! Fortunately there's some HMRC paperwork and a smattering of other paper documents, but mostly, bills are dealt with online!

Still not sure when we want to complete... Apparently the sellers want to move as soon as possible. We want to move right at the start of the new year. Decided they can damn well wait for us. I'm not convinced anyone wants to move just before Christmas anyway.

So hopefully everything will go smoothly from here.

Flickums seems happy. She's busily picking out Game of Thrones cushion covers. I'm looking forward to having space for a model railway.

And as an unashamed capitalist, I'm planning to get on the theft ladder.

This is the house I'm after.

I liked the man attic. And the heaps of parking space outside. I also liked that it's opposite one of Manchester's nicer parks. The busy road, and not having a bath are minor concerns, but the large walk-in shower mitigates that one.

So I put in an offer, and it was accepted!

And now I get all panicky and stressed... I have to sort out a mortgage. Which means I need to work out how much I want to put down for a deposit, how long I want the mortgage term for, and so on. I do want a little extra money for a rainy day and enough for a nice car for a sunny day. Actually paying somewhat less mortgage than I'm currently paying rent would be nice.

Going to see the place again. I need the flickums nod of approval, and want to check on things that people have told me to check on.

My god! I'm going to be a homeowner! This sounds scarily like adulting!