Our House

Yippee!  I have accepted an offer on my house!

F@@k!  I have accepted an offer on my house!

After almost 8 months of waiting for an offer receiving only a drip feed of viewings the new estate agents, Edison Ford, seems to have done the job.  In the past week I have had 15 viewings, five offers from two families of which I have accepted one very close to my magic number.   Truly a masterclass in selling strategy and marketing.  Bish! Bash! Bosh!

However, sometimes in life you have to be careful what you wish for.  Since receiving the offer I have had a very startled look.  A rabbit in the headlights.  The enormity of what I have done, what it all means and what I have to do to move out of the house is starting to dawn on me.

Moving out of my family home is clearly going to be a very emotional one.  It is the place where Caroline and I have brought our kids up, where they have made friends and where we had a fun and loving time together.  There is no way that we would have moved out of this house.  It’s just a great house.  But I made the decision to make the move some time ago.  Although it’s going to be painful it’s for the best.

The major act now is to pack up 26 years of accumulated family “memorabilia”.  This is going to be crazy!  Downsizing from a four bedroom house with a large garden to an apartment is going to be the toughest task ever!  I am scared to go into the attic.  Christmas decorations of every festive colour possible, the stuff you put out of sight as you convince yourself that “I will deal with that next week”, the cricket kit that fitted a more sprightly figure and most of all so many photo albums.

The photo albums will be the toughest one to deal with.  The photos are so personable and depict my beautiful wife’s life.  How can I disposed of these illustrations of Caroline’s life?  The plan will be to scan the photos digitally and store them in the “cloud” somewhere.  What to do with the albums themselves?  They will probably be in storage somewhere.

Anyway the packing starts now.  Watch this space

I am so relieved that I am eventually on the road to finalising the sale of my house.  I am aware there are still pitfalls in front of me that need to be navigated but someone has made a decent offer.  I feel I am reaching the next major junction on our journey to where we do not know.  We will all be really sad to leave our house in Frampton Cotterell.  It was a real lifestyle place where we could really relax and chill.  Our own sanctuary.  Although filled with memories of so many good times it is now merely a shell.  The love and fun in many ways has now disappeared.  It is the right time to move.

I expect many of my friends will be around in the next few weeks to have their last glance around and help me downsize my drinks cabinet!

So much to contemplate!  Oh and there is the small matter of finding somewhere to live!

The Watson Meal Planner wc 8th September 2014 (5 and 2)

Monday -

Breakfast: Yoghurt

Lunch: Mushroom omelette. (2eggs)

Dinner: Stir fry (Joe cooked )

Tuesday -  Chilli con carne

Wednesday -

Breakfast: Yoghurt

Lunch: 2 Apples

Dinner: Vegetable curry

Thursday (Dad late ) - Chicken Kiev, potatoes, salad 

Friday  (Dad out)

Saturday - (Dad out)

Sunday - Sunday roast

Back to Life

Strange happenings are afoot.   I have been away on holiday for a couple of week.  One week in Puerto Banus and the second week at the other end of the rainbow in Tenby.  As always the two weeks is never enough especially as I always seem to spend the first 3 or 4 days slumped on a sunbed asleep.  So once you have returned home you quickly find yourself back into life’s routine and looking down at your stomach wondering when in the past couple of weeks you swallowed a beach ball.

The champagne frenzy of Puerto Banus and the “chips with everything” mania of Tenby have taken their toll on my bodily shape.  With this in mind I have decided to give the 5 and 2 diet a go – well my version of it.  I know quite a number of people who have been on it successfully.  Basically during the course of the week you eat normally for five days and for two non-consecutive days you eat only 600 calories (500 for women) losing around 1lb per week so they say.  Sounds great.  Only two days of starvation instead of the full 7 when on other diets.  I just needed to eat healthily for a while until my svelte like body returned.  Then completely out of the blue the kids approached me with their own plan for life

“Dad.  We’ve decided to do our own shopping”

I felt there was going to be some sort of coup d’état about to happen with a prospect of a change of leadership.  I wish!

“Okay!  Why?”  I was a bit taken aback.  Not used to them taking the initiative over domestic issues

“Well we want to eat healthily so we thought we do our shopping and you do your own”.

I thought bloody cheek but at the same I had some sympathy.  Joe must becoming fed up with Turkey Dinosaurs!

“So you want to do the little family thing on your own [a standing private joke in the Watson household]?  Well if you don’t mind I will join your gang.  Perfect!”

Somehow our plans for healthier eating knitted together nicely.  Then the real bolt of lightning hit me

“…and I will cook some of the meals” says Joe

My legs gave way!  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Joe had been home since May and now a full week before he returns to Falmouth he is offering to do some cooking!  In fact he had done cooking for Georgina and himself when I was on holiday and it has to be said the Vegetable Curry looked quite nice.  In fact I was pleased.  We had all been on a long horrible trek over the past two years and I was starting to see real signs of them coming through it and taking the initiative.  To outsiders this might not be a big deal.  For me it was another step in the right direction for the Watsons.  It is a pity that Joe is returning to Falmouth on the 15^th September but at least I was going to get a couple of meals out of him. 

Joe will be returning to his student house in Falmouth next week.  Basically Joe will be moving house.  All his gear will be going down to Cornwall leaving his room quite empty.  The room will need cleaning thoroughly once vacated.  In fact it could be Joe’s last full week at home if the house sells.

Georgina will be back to Cardiff in a couple of weeks although she does pop home quite often even if it is only to do her washing.  Georgina told me she has been seeing Matt for two years.  It’s been great having them both around over the summer but very soon the home will become a shell again 

The kids are both sorting themselves out progressing along their own paths.  It’s now down to me to put more umph behind my own life.  The main issue is the house.  I have now engaged with a new estate agent Edison Ford based in Yate.  The normal approach of estate agents appears to be much of a commoditised one.  It’s all about a numbers game.  If you throw enough mud at a wall then something might stick.  I get that approach but you still need to present the house in a better light than everything else on the market.  Estate agents don’t always equipped to deal with something out of the ordinary.

I have engaged Edison Ford based in Yate.  Mike, the owner and MD, has devised a selling strategy.  I have been impressed by the way he took a critical look at my house, making suggestions and then providing means of correcting them.  Something I have been asking the previous agent for six months.  The plan to deal with objection again was certainly a step above any other agent.  The whole go to market strategy is much more thought through and compelling.  Obviously, we will see if it all works out.  We will soon see as the house will be back on the market next week.  http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32224122.html. 

So still a huge amount of stuff going on in our lives.  Never a dull moment.  So kids back to school.  Summer holidays fading as a distant memory.  We all know what that means.  We are on the road to Christmas!