Moving day

On Wednesday 29th July we finally completed on the sale of our old house and the purchase of our new one. It took a little over seven months. Selling was extremely quick, but buying was anything but. Bec has written up the full story of how we bought it, but the short version is that it went right down to the wire: we exchanged less than 24 hours before we completed, which was quite stressful.

The move itself was pretty smooth, even though it was over 30°C. We had help from a removals company, cleaned the old house, and cycled the three minutes to the new place.

Arriving it felt much bigger than our old place which felt exciting and daunting, everything was so shabby, we piled our stuff into as few rooms as possible so we could leave others clear to start ripping stuff out.

On the day we completed, we also applied to the council to confirm we can turn it back into one house. It’ll take about two months to hear back. There’s no reason for them to say no, but you never know I guess. So in the meantime we’re keeping the two flats separate and preparing each one without removing the dividing wall.

We’ve had the house for two weeks now but have yet to stay overnight, we’ve been stripping out old carpets, wallpaper and one of the kitchens. We’re working from the living room in the day which is the most normal room and then cycling back to Bec’s sister’s place to stay with them.

We’ve had a new boiler put in (even though it won’t last long until we move to a heat pump) because the old one wasn’t a combi and we wanted hot water (the house just had electric water heaters on sinks and showers).

Moving in a heatwave felt fitting. The two months before had been relentlessly hot, and we’d been well and truly radicalised. We don’t just want to make this house nice, we want to make it fit for the climate that’s coming: cool in the summers London has now, warm in winter, and cheap to run. It really ups the ante, but it feels like the right thing to do. We’re talking with our architect Ulf and some consultants about how to get the ball rolling. Let’s goooooo