David and Katherine Goodwin

In a rare turn of events, I've actually pulled my finger out, and done some DIY lately - namely :

• Remove downstairs toilet
• Install washing machine where toilet was
• Remove door from downstairs 'toilet'/'laundry room'
• Plumb in dish washer (finally, after it's been gaining rust; washer required for hose).
• Install Tumble Drier
• Install/Put up Whiteboard(s)

Shockingly, the above only took 1 day. Which implies I'm getting quicker at knocking holes in 'things'.

David's already blogged about this but I shall add a bit.

As he said, everything went pretty smoothly - I was surprised how well it went. I was staying in Bromsgrove so I got in with David(brother), Jenny and Emily at around lunchtime, followed swiftly by David, then the removal men. Everything was in by 3pm, so we got down to the work of unpacking. We broke for the evening later

The best thing about my new house is my beautiful kitchen. The things I love most about it are:

• I have room for all of my things in the cupboards

Finally, on Friday, we moved house. It went pretty much like clockwork.

We started packing about a week before we thought we'd move, so Sue's removals just had to carry and transport. To give them credit, they were very quick and organised, and the physical move itself happened without hitch. Thankfully, they were also quite understanding when I failed to sign the cheque to them, and they had to come back on Saturday afternoon.

At last, we have something real - exchange happened on Thursday 29th November, and there's nothing now to stop completion on Friday 8th, as hoped. I can't wait to leave walsall and settle in to the life we've been planning for nearly a year now.

In other news, we moved into the new office yesterday, but found that the old furniture had still not been moved out, so we've shoved it to one side in the room, and had everything else, in bits, stacked up against the wall.

In still more news, I think I've got the flu. Fortunately, lots of medication and a good night's sleep seem to have rem

Well, finally we have a completion date.

David and I will be moving to Bromsgrove on Friday 8 December!

Yippeeeee!

I'd better go and start phoning removal people...

At last - a house viewing

Our drought of house viewers (who turn up) ended last night, when we had an lovely couple come round who seemed to really like our house. We're now happy and optimistic! Yipee! They came across as seriously thinking about buying it (obviously they need to sell theirs first)

So, there's a chance we will get to move!

After procrastinating about things a bit, Joe and Hannah getting their car vandalised last weekend sort of made us decide to get our acts in gear and start moving on the whole house thing.

Last week when I was child-watching in Bromsgrove, I went with my brother to see a mortgage advisor, to see if it would be possible for us to get a mortgage. Long story short, we can get one (although not at high-street rates, not too bad either). So we started house hunting again. I looked at one that day, and later in the week I booked in two more viewings that we attended yesterday.

The house on Tuesday and the first one yesterday were just way too small (for the money at least), but when we got to the last, we had that feeling again. The house is just around the corner from where David and Jenny will be, has a huge enormous garden, and plenty of space.

Last week, I managed to arrange for some plasterers to come in to finish the dining room (or what will be the dining room).

They came, they saw, they plastered and its looking OK. Could be smoother, but its done now so we're really now just desperately waiting for it to dry properly so we can paint. We may go out tonight or tomorrow to see if we can get a carpet and get it fitted before guests arrive on Friday (I'm desperately hoping, but don't really beleive its possible)

However, the end is in sight. There's lots of tidying up to do but the house will soon be able to go on the market (assuming we'll be able to get another mortgage, which we have to do some investigating with regards to)

Finally we've had a weekend where I don't feel like we haven't got enough done.

On saturday morning the plan was to go and fix my brother's (problem with his modem which turned out to be a trivial setting in the end) and his daughter's computers (didn't even ask David what the problem was as it was fixed very quickly) then we planned to take our weekly long walk. I asked if any combination of the family wanted to come with us, but my brother was heading off to the gym, so we took the girls with us so that David (the brother variety) and Jenny could go to the gym together for a change. While we were there we ended up buying an iAudio (same as ours) from ebay for Jenny's birthday (we're not paying for it, but they don't have much of a feedback rating on their account)

Well, the good-ish news is that I've finished covering the walls with plasterboard; Hannah and Joe will be glad to hear the end of my late night drilling.

Next, comes the task of redoing the ceiling (we have more than enough plasterboards) so it matches up/is level (the first two were put on the wrong way around and don't join on a joist). Then there will be floor levelling - which might turn into a bigger task than I wanted as half the floor is tiled (raised by approx 5mm higher) :-(.

Mummy, can Santa do my DIY for me?