Images by John 'K'

Anyone who has been following my occasional postings will be aware that 6 weeks after moving into the house we are currently renting, we still don’t have all of our stuff unpacked and set up as a result of an event with an overflowing toilet.

 

We’ve renectly had the construction people in as part of the clean-up/repair process, and all the ceilings and walls have been put back and painted (although the paint job is less than perfect), and now we are waiting on the people who do the flooring.

 

To complicate things, the flooring people can’t get carpet to match the original stuff (which was removed from part of upstairs but 3 of the bedrooms are still fully capteted), and the closest they can get is lighter in colour than the old stuff. The owners of the house have seen this and would prefer to have everything carpeted the same, however the insurance company won’t pay for this. Also, if the whole lot is replaced, it means that the 3 usable (and in use) bedrooms will need to be cleared, re-carpeted, and then re-set-up.

 

Add to this the fact that the workmen in last week also managed to damage the wood flooring downstairs where it wasn’t planned for there to be any work done, so there’s more work involved with the downstairs flooring, and we’re likely to be in an unfinished state for a while yet.

 

Even once the flooring is done, theres some final work needed to finish off the house and have it back how it was before the flood (fittings, sockets, lights and the like).

 

Then…… once all of that is out of the way, we’ve found out that the current owners want to sell the house, and they must sell by the middle of 2007. Because of various factors, it’s unlikely we’d be in a position to afford the property in that timeframe, and so the property agent who is managing the lease is seeing if she can work with the owners to have the house sold to a property investor who could then continue to lease the house. As it stands right now however, this is all up in the air, so we are facing a possible prospect that we may have to move out some time in the next 2 years.

 

I’ll be happier once I know what’s happening one way or the other. Even if it’s to know that we should start thinking about moving elsewhere by a certain time. The problem right now is that it’s all up in the air and no-one knows what the final outcome will be, and that is the part I’m not confortable with.

 

If we do have to move, I’d look to stay in the same area if at all possible. We like it here, and my girls seem to be settling in well at school and making new friends, so it’d be a shame to have to uproot them to another area. I also dread the thought of moving everything we have to another yet house. There’s something to be said for living a ‘minimalist’ life.

 

Just popping back to the workmen for a bit, they also managed to get permanent marker on a 3-seater sofa that we’d only had in the house for about 3 weeks, so that needs replacing. Fortunetely it’s something they’ve taken full responsibility for and they’re doing it without arguement, but it’s something else we’d rather not have had happen.

 

<SIGH>