Yesterday proved that yes, Monday's sufferings could be added to and once again, we had SUCH a stressful day. We finally got reams of paperwork from our solicitor which we then had to print off (thank goodness I had spare printer ink). There were several caveats which we had to process and make decisions upon, and all those reams of paperwork had to be read and understood by all three of us (my brain was in meltdown at that point). Anyway, we ploughed on and finally signed the contracts and scanned them back. Late afternoon, we got a phone call from our solicitor to say that she couldn't get through to one set of solicitors - no-one was answering the phone so she assumed that they had finished working for the Christmas break! We tried not to panic, but I have to say we thought it really wasn't going to happen. Fortunately luck was on our side, and our Agents (WONDERFUL people) managed to get through to someone at the solicitors, and we EXCHANGED!!!
Oh My Goodness - the relief we all felt. Tam and I had a glass of wine to celebrate. Just the one, but this occasion has been a long LONG time in the making and we thought many a time that we would never be in this position. The wrong people kept coming to view our house - because it has such character and has a couple of grand rooms, people expected it to be a mini-estate, not an old farmhouse next to a farm. Time and time again it was the farm (or rather the cattle crossing outside our front gate) which was the deal breaker. Although we had two that said the land wasn't flat enough (erm - this IS Wales you know, famed for its hillyness!), a couple said that the house was too big (look at the floorplans - it does say 4,500 square feet!) or the outbuildings not suitable for their needs. None of them seemed to be interested in the land or having horses here - which we thought WOULD sell it.
Then the right people DID come along, but you will know that the buying process was a difficult one as certificates were required for this, that and the other.
We raced round house-hunting in late September/early October and ended up offering on our new home almost from desperation, and it wasn't in Herefordshire as we had planned (or in Devon, as I'd have loved - though we did try) and it wasn't the house we had viewed twice at Bredwardine and would have offered on in a flash - that sold 5 weeks before we had our offer. Yet I think that the house we have bought will suit us very well, and if I think back to the requirements I had in my head, goodness, it ticked all of them!
We even got a pile of new boxes and bubblewrap yesterday so will carry on with packing today, and I think it will soon start to fall into place like one of those puzzles we got the kids, with one piece missing and you had to move the "gap" around the board until you got it all in place.
Now I can finally start thinking about the bathroom changes (new bath needed and change of tiles) and what trees are going in the orchard we plan to plant, and I can't wait to see what is planted in the garden or what birds we will have visiting our feeders.
One thing is certain, we will NEVER move again!!!
