Sunday 25 December 2011
Saturday 19 November 2011
Moving on... not literally unfortunately
I've already got a new EA in my life. Tom is popping round this morning to value the house. He's part of an internet only EA... so that means lower fees. I guess you could say I found him via internet dating...sort of.
Anyway, we shall see. Had a couple round on Thursday that the current EA said had lots of positive comments, but haven't heard back from them so still haven't sold this house!
Anyway, we shall see. Had a couple round on Thursday that the current EA said had lots of positive comments, but haven't heard back from them so still haven't sold this house!
Saturday 12 November 2011
Breaking up is hard to do
Relationships are complex things. When they work they involve two people achieving common goals in a way that brings happiness to them both. When they don’t work, they usually bring frustration and anger to the surface, until the point that it gets too much and one of the partners calls it a day. I’m sad to say that I’ve reached this point. After a few weeks of uncertainty, frustration, anger and complaining to anyone who is unfortunate enough to be within earshot I’d finally reached the point where I could see it wasn’t working. Now I just had work out how to tell him….
So here’s the sorry tale of how I finally worked up the courage to break up with my estate agent. He’d arranged to come see me at home to discuss how things were going. I was tempted to cancel the meeting, I knew what he was going to say and I’d no interest in hearing it. But at the end of the day I thought it would be best to tell him to his face. I’d been taking longer and longer to return his calls, and speaking to him no longer filled me with hope but like most men, he obviously had failed to read into the signs. He arrived at the door full of vim and vigour, his little briefcase clutched in his sweaty hand, full of printouts to show just how much he’d been thinking of selling this house and how hard he’d been working.
I had to be blunt, better to be cruel to be kind. Before he’d even sat himself down on the sofa I told him I’d decided to hand in my 2 weeks notice, as and from the 28th Nov we’d no longer be together. He did seem a little taken aback when I thrust my handwritten (the printer was broken) letter of termination of contact at him. And he may have had the right to feel a little hurt when I got him to sign the (also handwritten) letter saying that he’d received notice of termination. Where’s the trust? he must have been thinking.. do I mean nothing to you?
What followed was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversation, where I assuaged his feelings that I wasn’t happy with him or the amount of work he was putting in. It’s me, I said. I’m tired of having to rush home at a moment’s notice to clean the house from top to bottom so some person can walk round it for 5 minutes and decide it’s got the wrong aspect and they don’t want to buy it. I’ve got exams coming up in December, and it’ll soon be Christmas. I just don’t have the time to invest in this anymore.There's nothing out there that I want to buy, and I can't sell this place. I'm sorry, but it’s over.
His little face looked so disappointed I had to resist the urge to pat him on the hand and say “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone else with a better house, a bigger house with more commission to be earned. You'll soon forget about this place".
Rich of course made me feel like the female Alan Sugar, for handing out the ”you're fired” letter so soon into conversation. But I didn’t want the poor man to be lead on now did I ? Better to let him know there’s no hope.
Now all I have is his little print outs of the statistics of how our house is performing on Rightmove (above average clicks … but no bidders). What use is it to me to know how many bored people are gawping over our property details? I need someone to come here and give us a half decent offer. That’s why I told him I’m leaving him for someone else. Someone who won’t require so much effort and money, someone who can deliver on their promise. Someone who can sell our house.. I just need to find them.
So here’s the sorry tale of how I finally worked up the courage to break up with my estate agent. He’d arranged to come see me at home to discuss how things were going. I was tempted to cancel the meeting, I knew what he was going to say and I’d no interest in hearing it. But at the end of the day I thought it would be best to tell him to his face. I’d been taking longer and longer to return his calls, and speaking to him no longer filled me with hope but like most men, he obviously had failed to read into the signs. He arrived at the door full of vim and vigour, his little briefcase clutched in his sweaty hand, full of printouts to show just how much he’d been thinking of selling this house and how hard he’d been working.
I had to be blunt, better to be cruel to be kind. Before he’d even sat himself down on the sofa I told him I’d decided to hand in my 2 weeks notice, as and from the 28th Nov we’d no longer be together. He did seem a little taken aback when I thrust my handwritten (the printer was broken) letter of termination of contact at him. And he may have had the right to feel a little hurt when I got him to sign the (also handwritten) letter saying that he’d received notice of termination. Where’s the trust? he must have been thinking.. do I mean nothing to you?
What followed was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversation, where I assuaged his feelings that I wasn’t happy with him or the amount of work he was putting in. It’s me, I said. I’m tired of having to rush home at a moment’s notice to clean the house from top to bottom so some person can walk round it for 5 minutes and decide it’s got the wrong aspect and they don’t want to buy it. I’ve got exams coming up in December, and it’ll soon be Christmas. I just don’t have the time to invest in this anymore.There's nothing out there that I want to buy, and I can't sell this place. I'm sorry, but it’s over.
His little face looked so disappointed I had to resist the urge to pat him on the hand and say “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone else with a better house, a bigger house with more commission to be earned. You'll soon forget about this place".
Rich of course made me feel like the female Alan Sugar, for handing out the ”you're fired” letter so soon into conversation. But I didn’t want the poor man to be lead on now did I ? Better to let him know there’s no hope.
Now all I have is his little print outs of the statistics of how our house is performing on Rightmove (above average clicks … but no bidders). What use is it to me to know how many bored people are gawping over our property details? I need someone to come here and give us a half decent offer. That’s why I told him I’m leaving him for someone else. Someone who won’t require so much effort and money, someone who can deliver on their promise. Someone who can sell our house.. I just need to find them.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Boo
It's not a great picture, or even a good picture but it's the best Rich could manage since the kids had got at the camera and changed the settings. I've got them back to normal now, and bought a new memory disk having lost the old one (ironically I can't remember where I put it), so you can expect more pictures and less waffeling on here from now on.
Just had the kids parents evenings.. very interesting as Noah has already attained the level expected for reception child at literacy and numeracy after only 6 weeks. Which on the face of it sounds great, but does make me worry how low the level actually is if he's surpassed it before he's got his bum on a seat. Fortunately that doesn't mean he gets to take the rest of the year off..... I think he'll be filling his time playing at being a lion and trying not to swallow anything he's not supposed to.
Amie's report was a bit less clear cut...she's great at thinking outside the box, creative writing and socialising and to quote her teacher "Certainly does not suffer from any self esteem issues". How to take that one? BUT she does find it hard to follow instructions and her listening skills aren't great.. she's likely to go off on a tangent and do her own thing rather than what she's supposed to be doing (good for her I say... far too many people joining the dots... RUN FREE MY CHILD RUN FREE I SAY .. though not to her teacher of course.
We haven't sold the house, we have had an offer in but won't be able to buy a 4 bed if we take it. Have to weigh that fact up with the fact if we hold out for a higher offer it could take up to 2 years to sell this place.. then Noah's only on top of the waiting list, and so realistically there's probably no point in changing him as Amie will be getting ready to leave Hawthorns school anyway.
EA rang me this morning to suggest a meeting to "discuss the situation" which means he's going to come round and tell me we need to lower the price.
Just had the kids parents evenings.. very interesting as Noah has already attained the level expected for reception child at literacy and numeracy after only 6 weeks. Which on the face of it sounds great, but does make me worry how low the level actually is if he's surpassed it before he's got his bum on a seat. Fortunately that doesn't mean he gets to take the rest of the year off..... I think he'll be filling his time playing at being a lion and trying not to swallow anything he's not supposed to.
Amie's report was a bit less clear cut...she's great at thinking outside the box, creative writing and socialising and to quote her teacher "Certainly does not suffer from any self esteem issues". How to take that one? BUT she does find it hard to follow instructions and her listening skills aren't great.. she's likely to go off on a tangent and do her own thing rather than what she's supposed to be doing (good for her I say... far too many people joining the dots... RUN FREE MY CHILD RUN FREE I SAY .. though not to her teacher of course.
We haven't sold the house, we have had an offer in but won't be able to buy a 4 bed if we take it. Have to weigh that fact up with the fact if we hold out for a higher offer it could take up to 2 years to sell this place.. then Noah's only on top of the waiting list, and so realistically there's probably no point in changing him as Amie will be getting ready to leave Hawthorns school anyway.
EA rang me this morning to suggest a meeting to "discuss the situation" which means he's going to come round and tell me we need to lower the price.
Saturday 22 October 2011
and more ranting
Last week a family came to view the house at late notice on Saturday (luckily the house was still more or less spic and span.. since I'd been running around the place saying to everyone "Don't do that" "Put that back" and "Did you flush?"). I sent Rich and kids out of the house and showed round a couple and their 3 children. They were moving for the same reasons we want to ... catchment. They want their daughter to get into the school this house is in catchment in... I was VERY nice to their kids... I could sense they liked the place... an offer was hovering in the air... I could smell it (either that or someone hadn’t flushed).
On Monday morning, one of the minions from estate agents figured out how to string 7 numbers together and rang me (or he had me on speed dial) with the news that the couple DID really like the house and were going to put an offer in (Aha, I'm not forking out £3000 a year on a psychology course for nothing) but just to be sure they looked up the history of the house and saw that we'd only paid 240K for it 2 1/2 years ago (ah feck). This put them off and they'd bid for another house. I managed to restrain myself from saying that unless they managed to meet Doc. Brown, and do a Marty McFly back to 2009 so they could offer 241K for this house, I didn't really see what their point was.
Anyway I made the point to him that since we were renting at that time and the property bubble was just starting to burst we'd had people chasing after us with contracts, knocking £40k off house prices and throwing their house keys at us. The people we bought from were retiring, downsizing and had already found a place they wanted… they could see their dreams of a new life slipping away with each day bringing more gloom and uncertainty. So being the kind of people we are, we took advantage of them and got this house for a steal. I told him to tell the couple to go take a look at any other house that sold at that time and they'd see this was how the market was at the time, and not a reflection of this property. I also wanted to add that if that was the way they were picking a house I would have appreciated them doing their online research BEFORE I’d spent 2 hours cleaning the house from top to bottom to save us all the bother. But I didn’t.
We heard no more from our friends for the rest of the week. Then this morning a phone call from EA to say the couple have put forward a bid of £290... very politely said I'd rather not sell at all then sell at that price. EA at this point is trying to push us into lowering my price, with the fact that our contract with them runs out in 4 weeks no doubt on his tiny mind. Luckily we're in no hurry though, Noah is very happy at school and with the help of friends we're managing the school run. Plus we really like this house, and as yet have not really found one we both agree on.
However this couple are going to view the house next door (which is up for sale for £315 with a different agent... This could go one of two ways. It could be that this viewing puts our house and our price in a better light for them OR they are going to become our new neighbours ;)
On Monday morning, one of the minions from estate agents figured out how to string 7 numbers together and rang me (or he had me on speed dial) with the news that the couple DID really like the house and were going to put an offer in (Aha, I'm not forking out £3000 a year on a psychology course for nothing) but just to be sure they looked up the history of the house and saw that we'd only paid 240K for it 2 1/2 years ago (ah feck). This put them off and they'd bid for another house. I managed to restrain myself from saying that unless they managed to meet Doc. Brown, and do a Marty McFly back to 2009 so they could offer 241K for this house, I didn't really see what their point was.
Anyway I made the point to him that since we were renting at that time and the property bubble was just starting to burst we'd had people chasing after us with contracts, knocking £40k off house prices and throwing their house keys at us. The people we bought from were retiring, downsizing and had already found a place they wanted… they could see their dreams of a new life slipping away with each day bringing more gloom and uncertainty. So being the kind of people we are, we took advantage of them and got this house for a steal. I told him to tell the couple to go take a look at any other house that sold at that time and they'd see this was how the market was at the time, and not a reflection of this property. I also wanted to add that if that was the way they were picking a house I would have appreciated them doing their online research BEFORE I’d spent 2 hours cleaning the house from top to bottom to save us all the bother. But I didn’t.
We heard no more from our friends for the rest of the week. Then this morning a phone call from EA to say the couple have put forward a bid of £290... very politely said I'd rather not sell at all then sell at that price. EA at this point is trying to push us into lowering my price, with the fact that our contract with them runs out in 4 weeks no doubt on his tiny mind. Luckily we're in no hurry though, Noah is very happy at school and with the help of friends we're managing the school run. Plus we really like this house, and as yet have not really found one we both agree on.
However this couple are going to view the house next door (which is up for sale for £315 with a different agent... This could go one of two ways. It could be that this viewing puts our house and our price in a better light for them OR they are going to become our new neighbours ;)
Friday 7 October 2011
Rant
It all started to go wrong the day I went in to sign the contract with them. That morning an invitation arrived in the post, stamp and all, to an open house at the house of my dreams(if I were dreaming of a 2 bedroom house in the catchment for the Walter school that is). I pointed out the error to our guy, telling him he’d wasted a stamp sending it to us when we clearly are not looking for a property of that size or location. And I’m sure the seller would not be happy about them spending their marketing budget in such a manner.
“Oh yes Mrs MacLachlan, you’re on our system as looking for a 4 bedroom house. That was just an error. Not sure how that happened”.
A minor setback.. nothing to worry about....I’ll just sign the contract and turn into a Tasmanian Devil cleaning my house for the next few weeks...
The next week I’m looking frantically for a house that we might want to buy, and more importantly can afford to buy. Unfortunately these two criteria do not happy bedfellows make. A phone message on my house phone from the estate agent who drives a convertible sports car and is far too young, pretty, thin and did I mention young for me to regard her with anything other than contempt, goes something like this..
“Hi Mrs. MacLachlan, it’s the young, pretty, glamorous blond from the agency that makes you reassess your life and look at your love handles and advancing years in a whole new light here (ok I’m paraphrasing). I’m just wondering how your search is going? We’ve got a fantastic property new to the market. Not sure it’s the location you’re looking for. It’s on Manor Road”
Luckily for her she hadn’t got me on the phone, as she was actually trying to sell me my own house. I know people say a good salesman can sell sand to the Arabs, but this was a stretch. However, it did cheer me up to know that she might look a pretty picture, but there’s not much going on behind those mascaraed to within an inch of their lives eyelashes. In fact, her saving grace that she wears so much mascara that it looks like two fat spiders are trying to escape from her eyelids. Otherwise, I’d really have to hate her. In fact I did think later maybe she made the error because she had something in her eye, something like an entire tube of mascara. Anyway, I rang her back and left a message saying I was really excited to hear there was a property we might be interested as I wasn’t having much luck, but since I was currently living in the property I wasn’t interested in buying it at the moment. Surprisingly enough she didn’t ring me back.
THEN yesterday while looking through the free property paper I find our house on there with the open day advertised for tomorrow with the location of the house as BARKHAM.Where the heck is Barkham??? Has there been a huge mudslide overnight and our whole property has slid to a new location? So I rang the office and catch some poor unsuspecting guy at the other end
Me (trying unsuccessfully to disguise my Irish accent “Hello there, I’m just phoning about a property I’ve found in the free property paper. It’s a 3 bedroom in Barkham”
Unsuspecting prepubescent (by the sound of him) boy at the other end (from now on to be known as UPBATOE) “Oh yes madam, just let me find the details of that for you now (pause) Where did you say? Barkham? I’m sorry I can’t actually find that property listed on our system...
Me “Yes I know, the reason you can’t find it is because it’s my house and it’s actually located in Wokingham, NOT Barkham. Where is Barkham?”
UPBATOE -series of excuses and platitudes that I won’t bother repeating that ultimately end in estate agent fashion of blaming someone else..i.e. the newspaper.
Then this morning my friend with the spider swallowing eyes knocks on my door a full 15 minutes early to show someone round to a viewing... causing me to throw various items I was trying to tidy up into my wardrobe upstairs, and open the door to her in a big fat, "I'm older and fatter than you" sweaty panic.
Open house is on tomorrow... it’ll be open season on estate agents if they don’t find someone to buy our house soon!
Sunday 25 September 2011
Update
The kids are getting on really well at school. Amie's joined the chess club as she got bored beating her daddy (think that says more about his level than hers to be fair).
Noah has really surprised me with how well he's coped going to a totally new school in a new town. He's already made some friends with Joshua and Jacob...obviously has a bias for Biblical names such as his own. He gave me a shock on Monday when he swallowed a marble at school. We did end up in A&E at 5am Tuesday morning, but xrays showed it had moved to his large intestines and he was just suffering from cramps. Luckily with the passing of time occured the passing of the marble so we can all relax again.
Our only other bit of news is this:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35297270.html
Noah's moved down 2 places on the waiting list to go to the same school as Amie since the start of term. It's pretty clear that if we don't buy a house in the school catchment that he may never get in there. So, we've decided to give it a shot and see what happens. Does not help that the house right beside us is also for sale! People may get suspicious.
And I have had a word with the estate agent. I have given longer descriptions to Noah's bowel motions when passing said marble, AND he's put a picture of our hall in twice...not to mention the illogical order of the photos. But at least it's out there and hopefully someone looking to buy it will see it.
Noah has really surprised me with how well he's coped going to a totally new school in a new town. He's already made some friends with Joshua and Jacob...obviously has a bias for Biblical names such as his own. He gave me a shock on Monday when he swallowed a marble at school. We did end up in A&E at 5am Tuesday morning, but xrays showed it had moved to his large intestines and he was just suffering from cramps. Luckily with the passing of time occured the passing of the marble so we can all relax again.
Our only other bit of news is this:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35297270.html
Noah's moved down 2 places on the waiting list to go to the same school as Amie since the start of term. It's pretty clear that if we don't buy a house in the school catchment that he may never get in there. So, we've decided to give it a shot and see what happens. Does not help that the house right beside us is also for sale! People may get suspicious.
And I have had a word with the estate agent. I have given longer descriptions to Noah's bowel motions when passing said marble, AND he's put a picture of our hall in twice...not to mention the illogical order of the photos. But at least it's out there and hopefully someone looking to buy it will see it.
Friday 9 September 2011
The streets of Wokingham were a little busier this week. Scores of mums wandered around aimlessly with slightly dazed expressions on their faces. Finally FREEDOM, after 6 long weeks of summer holidays. Mixed in amongst the crowd there was a special group, made up of mums who had just dropped their child off to their first day of BIG school. The emotional rollercoaster was just about visible behind their tight and fragile smiles. Their bodies are here, wandering around the shops, especially shops with lots of breakable things in.... just because they can..; but their minds and their hearts had been left in the school corridor where they’ve just left their little one. Most of them search each other out and meet for a coffee....because now they can, and because they know that their friend will need the company and the chat.
There is a feeling of pride, mixed with guilt and a little hurt to see your child walk away from you into their new life as a school going child. Sure, it’s great that they are not clutching to your leg and crying like that poor unfortunate child across from you. But should there not be a little more of a backwards glance from them? More acknowledgement on their part of what a monumental step they are taking? Do they not know how lost you feel, leaving them there? There is a sense of losing your purpose, your reason for being almost. You’ve got not little person to look after for the next 6 hours. What are you meant to be doing? Sure there are piles and piles of housework that you could be getting on with... but returning to the too quiet house seems a little too depressing. That’s why the coffee shops and hairdressers of Wokingham are doing brisk business this week!
And while the children slip stream into the education system, and their mums look on from the sidelines... reluctantly, in some cases letting them go.. There will be some who are overcome with a sudden broody feeling. Something they could not imagine a few weeks ago when they would have given their wisdom teeth for 10 minutes peace to drink a cuppa. Being a mum suddenly to two school age children, marks the end of an era...but the beginning also of a time of great excitement, and changing roles. In time the feeling of loss will be replaced with gain... and a relief to have gotten so far, if a little too fast. Though I do realise that I will probably need counselling when they start college :)
There is a feeling of pride, mixed with guilt and a little hurt to see your child walk away from you into their new life as a school going child. Sure, it’s great that they are not clutching to your leg and crying like that poor unfortunate child across from you. But should there not be a little more of a backwards glance from them? More acknowledgement on their part of what a monumental step they are taking? Do they not know how lost you feel, leaving them there? There is a sense of losing your purpose, your reason for being almost. You’ve got not little person to look after for the next 6 hours. What are you meant to be doing? Sure there are piles and piles of housework that you could be getting on with... but returning to the too quiet house seems a little too depressing. That’s why the coffee shops and hairdressers of Wokingham are doing brisk business this week!
And while the children slip stream into the education system, and their mums look on from the sidelines... reluctantly, in some cases letting them go.. There will be some who are overcome with a sudden broody feeling. Something they could not imagine a few weeks ago when they would have given their wisdom teeth for 10 minutes peace to drink a cuppa. Being a mum suddenly to two school age children, marks the end of an era...but the beginning also of a time of great excitement, and changing roles. In time the feeling of loss will be replaced with gain... and a relief to have gotten so far, if a little too fast. Though I do realise that I will probably need counselling when they start college :)
Sunday 21 August 2011
Back From Sweden
We've just got back from a lovely trip to stay with friends of ours that live in Sweden... we know them from our pre children days back in Haarlem, so this was a slightly different experiance... but very nice and very fun!
Legoland Windsor
Viking City, Malmo Sweden
On our way to the beach, 5 minutes away from our friends house
At the Tivoli in Denmark... Rich threatens not to go back to Legoland again. There were NO queues! I spent 1hr 15 minutes in a queue with Amie for a ride that lasted 3 minutes the week before at Legoland.... but we live in the UK, not Denmark.
Legoland Windsor
Viking City, Malmo Sweden
On our way to the beach, 5 minutes away from our friends house
At the Tivoli in Denmark... Rich threatens not to go back to Legoland again. There were NO queues! I spent 1hr 15 minutes in a queue with Amie for a ride that lasted 3 minutes the week before at Legoland.... but we live in the UK, not Denmark.
Saturday 13 August 2011
Trip to Ireland
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Weekend in Cumbria
We had a lovely time visiting Nana and Pa in Cumbria this weekend. It took our mind off the trauma of Noah finishing nursery forever :) Cousins Benjamin and Thomas came up, and the children had a great time. We also snook out to see Harry Potter in the cinema and used up one of our final wedding gifts, with dinner in the Punch Bowl.
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