Monday, May 4, 2009

A very tired British Woman, reporting from her country home!!!!

Well, first I am having internet issues, and so it could be very hitty-missy with my blogging.

So, where do I start with this moving lark. We closed on the `new`house on Tuesday and we picked up the keys late Tuesday afternoon, so we had an early supper and we were up at the house by 5:30pm.

What greeted us however was a nightmare. The place was filthy, and I mean pig dirty filthy. When God was handing out cleaning skills, the people who owned this house were in a far away place. My goal for Tuesday night was to clean out the fridge. That took me two hours to do that, as it was black inside. The stove was so dirty that dh took pity on me and said we are buying a new one, as there is no way he was using that stove. So that was all I got done on Tuesday night. It was also a night of discoveries, as it turns out they `hid` a lot of things. An example is that one mud room door is siliconed shut, so we can`t use it at all. The other one is so hard to shut and lock it`s so hard on me. Dh went to close the downstairs patio door, only to find he had the door handle and part of the frame in his hands, and on and on it went.

Wednesday, we were up there bright and early and I set about cleaning the upstairs. They had a couple of dogs with short hair and there was dog hair everywhere. I don`t think she had ever cleaned the windows, and there were so many dead flies I could have made a couple of dead fly pies with them. The window panes were black, the walls are filthy. The toilets were icky, but by 4:30pm Wednesday, I had managed to clean one layer of dirt off the upstairs so we could move our stuff in there.

Meanwhile, dh spent to day cleaning the garage and the basement. Now in our contract we had specified that they had to get rid of two old fridges, an old oil tank and the rest of the garbage off the property. Well they did get rid of the fridges and the oil tank, but left the rest of the garbage. We are going to have to hire a skip, to haul all the garbage away at a cost of $200 for the week, and $80 a tonne thereafter. Lets just say Dh is not a happy camper at this point. Plus in years gone by, they must have collected the rain water and stored it in a concrete tank, which we call the pit. The ceiling height on the basement is probably only six feet (in the old basement), so this `pit`is probably 4 feet tall, and what they did was throw all there construction garbage in that, so dh is really ticked about that.

Anyhow, we go home, as dh and my dad have to go and pick up a truck at U-Haul for Thursday`s moving. Thursday, my dad and dh move all the stuff from the garage, basement and shed to the new house, as we had hoped to save time and money by doing that. While I cleaned out the kitchen cupboards, which of course were filthy. It took me all day to do that, plus wash floors.

Friday the movers were here by 7:30am and had moved us and unpacked the truck and left by 12:30pm. They did drop one box, and smashed a couple of dishes, but it wasn`t anything too important thank goodness. We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and setting up the bedrooms, so at least we could have a place to sleep. Now I did pick up the mail that morning and it was all bills for the prior people, plus some flyer's for a couple of local stores. One of the deals was a trailer for the lawn tractor, which was on a two day special for $99.99. We had just picked one up earlier in the week on sale for $170, so we popped out that night to have something to eat and pick up the trailer.

Saturday, I did get the dresser in the kitchen washed and polished, but in between hands the Bell Internet guy turned up to install the internet, which of course wouldn`t work. Then the satellite guy turned up to install that, which actually worked. My dad and step-mother came and my dad set to work doing some bits and bobs of jobs for us which was a super help.

After lunch me and my stepmother went shopping, and to pick up a 3GB Internet stick with USB connection, in the hopes we could get internet this way. The kids arrived, and we bbq-ed, and everyone left around 7:30pm.

Sunday ds left just before lunch time, and me and dh went out in the afternoon to pick up a stove and a couple of other things that we needed.

We are so tired me and dh its not even funny. We ache in places we didn`t know even existed. There are so many jobs to do on this house that we weren`t aware of, its just plain overwhelming and goodness knows where we are going to get the money from to do it all.

HOWEVER, as I am sitting here on Sunday night, its peace and quiet, I am looking over the countryside and it`s just lovely. It feels as though we are taking one step forward and ten back at the moment, but it is coming together slowly but surely. I know in a couple of weeks time the place will look different again, and each day it looks more like home.

I will say the people in the local town (a ten minute drive away) are super nice and extra friendly and helpful. We had a neighbour pop by on Thursday to say hello, someone else called in on Friday and someone else on Saturday. It`s a big adjustment on our system, going from a city to the countryside, but I think, no I know we won`t regret it.

I will fill you in on everything else over the next few days, on all the other going`s on.

I just wanted to add, one of you questions is, why don`t we go after the people who owned the house for all the issues that they hid and for not taking all their garbage away. Well the lawyer told us they owned nearly $7,000 on their property taxes. The woman who lived here had a different name to the guy, and she was telling me she wasn`t paying Canada Post to forward their mail. On Friday there were three bills in her name, that I have had to put moved, return to sender, as she obviously hasn`t given them her new address!! We think they had money problems, so it would probably be more aggravation than enough trying to get money out of them!

14 comments:

DeniseinVA said...

Sounds like one heck of a move Gill but at the end of the day all will be rewarded. We had lots of hidden things when we moved here and we couldn't believe the cheek of it all but there you go, can't expect people to think or behave in an honest manner like we would when it comes to selling a house, the gloves are off and that's the honest truth. Good luck and it was good to hear from you.

Lindsay said...

What a nightmare for you - the previous owners sound like hell. I know what it is like moving - Husband and I felt like death - we spent 6 months clearing and cleaning our old home - it was like new when we left and the new owners were very grateful and have become friends. It took us about six months to recover - Husband with a bad back and me with the usual wonky knees. However it is now all a blip on the horizon and I am sure once you are sorted out it will be the same for you. Will be thinking of you.

Rinkly Rimes said...

It sounds like a nightmare! And other peoples' filth is always filthier than ours!

stitchersanon said...

We moved into a property just like that. I dont think they cleaned from the moment we had our offer accepted. The son wipped his nose on the radiator (or worse), the carpets had been used as dog toilets (they told us they had no pets so much have hid them when we came round) and they left an electric cooker which fell apart like a chocolate orange when we touched it and it was STILL connected to the leccie. We had to farm the kids out for a week so we could remove all the carpets and make it safe to live in. You will get there, just do a bit at a time as and when you can afford it. It is an old house and is allowed some 'character' lol.

Ruth's Place said...

So sorry to hear that your new place was so dirty! We had a similar experience when we moved and I was 38 weeks pregnant at the time.

I hope it feels more like home soon.

Erin said...

i hope you resolve everything over time. had to a lesser extent some problems when we moved into current home that was supposedly a-ok per the house inspectors. shortly after moving in...replaced water heater, water softner and so on. not good. hubby still talks about all the issues 3 1/2 years later. one good thing our home was clean and we just went in and cleaned to our wishes...nothing left behind by prior owners...thank goodness.
take care...good thoughts to you as you try to get things in order and hope you get through it all in quick order.

QuiltedSimple said...

What a move! But at least you are moved and can get things sorted out now!
Kris

Decadent Housewife said...

Dead Fly Pie! I think it's already been done though - Shoe Fly Pie - Wow you've got quite the job ahead.

Jo, a retired teacher said...

Oh my gosh! It is awful what they managed to do to you. Are the rules different in Canada than they are in the US? Did you go through an agent? Have a home inspection? What a lot more work than it should have been.

I hope you are very happy there, you will certainly have earned the right.

Scrappy quilter said...

Gill, I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. Actually the real estate agent should be the one who needs a good talking to especially seeing as quite a bit was covered up.

Hope it all works out for you. Enjoy the outdoors. Hugs

Margaret's Ramblings said...

I can't remember when I last heard a good house move story. Why do people act like this, as my Nana would say, soap, water and elbow grease don't cost much. I feel for you Gill as I bet you worked overtime leaving your old house spotless. But as you said, in a few weeks all will be better.

Take care both of you

Margaret

Twisted Fencepost said...

I'm so sorry! Wish I was there to help out, even if only a little. Hopefully everything will be easy fix ups. And be completed quickly.

Gill - That British Woman said...

I agree with Margaret, I haven't heard of a good house move.

Things will come together I know, its just frustrating.

I just want to thank you though for all your lovely comments.

Gill

clairz said...

I am reading this with great interest, as we are selling our in-town house and planning to move out to the country. In New Mexico, what people call "country" is a lot like "howling wilderness" to me.

I was just thinking that having people marching through your house with realtors was worse than actually moving, but now that I am reading about your exhausting moving experiences, I am remembering that awful feeling where you can hardly lift one foot enough to put it in front of the other.

I'll read on, with the hope that there is a happy country ending coming soon!

{{{SIGH}}}

Tuesday was a mixed bag type of day. Had the appliance repair guy come again to install another circuit board in the fridge.  When hubby got...