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The Big Move progress report
May. 7th, 2018 10:49 amI've already talked about a lot of this on Twitter, but here it is for non-Twitterers (and in more coherent form for the Twitterers).
The good
Many items on my to do list have been checked off since my last progress report!
The really big items: shipping and flight have been booked!
The crew will be here to pack on July 9th and load into the container on July 10th. My flight will leave in the evening on July 11th, so I'll be wheels down and in England on July 12th. That's a big weight off my mind!
And the other big weight is the cats. They went to the vet last week to have their micro-chips read and their rabies shot administered. I'd been really nervous the chips might be unreadable (they're nearly ten years old, after all) and then they'd have to have new ones implanted, but thankfully they were easily read so that's sorted. I've now got their paperwork to a state where it just needs signing and dating in the week before we fly, so that's all looking good. The pet shipper will be able to book them onto my flight in a month.
And as a result of a lot of the activity below, I've done a lot of the pre-shipping decluttering and sorting, so I'm further along in this process than I thought I'd be at this point!
Now I just need to start applying for jobs :-)
The incredibly annoying and frustrating
House selling in Canada is *the worst*.
Our work to de-clutter/de-personalise/de-everything the house continued last week and through the weekend, but we have finally finished. I feel guilty that I couldn't contribute much during the week because I work, but at the same time, all my stuff has always been kept to my bedroom and bathroom. The rest of the house is my parents' so, apart from cleaning, there wasn't much I could actually contribute to that work.
My bedroom now looks like an empty echoey shell. It's actually pretty depressing. Nothing on the walls. My radio is allowed to be on the dresser, provided it's packed away before any viewings/open houses. My nightstand is allowed to hold my book and alarm clock at night, with the same provision. I'm planning to just clear that kind of stuff every morning, to make it easier in case there are last-minute viewings. And making my bed has to be made differently in the mornings to show off...I don't know what. Apparently I Do It Wrong.
I make my bed so it looks tidy and doesn't need remaking before bed so I can actually sleep in it. What a terrible concept.
I'm trying to tell myself it's a good thing to disconnect from the house, but frankly, sleeping in such a bare, unfriendly room is not the best feeling.
My closet now holds the bare minimum of clothing that absolutely must be hung, because they want to show off the size of it (by keeping it almost empty). I have insisted that I need to hang *some* clothes, because boxing up my shirts and blazers and storing them under the stairs will result in me looking crumpled and awful for work (and wasting time each morning trying to unbox and find them). The staging consultant has conceded that point.
The stager came for a visit yesterday to check on what we'd done. Helpfully, she turned up forty-five minutes early. Was that a test to see whether we're keeping the house showing-ready at all times? Who knows! She cheerfully sailed in and announced she'd brought some art (a butt-ugly cheap print from Walmart) to replace our awful painting that will keep the house from ever being sold. Mum and I have conceded on so many things, but we're holding the line on our paintings. They are not going into the shed. No fucking way.
Stager was Unhappy. Super Unhappy. Her incredibly cheap print was nasty and didn't actually blend with ANY OF THE OTHER ART OR DECORE IN THE HOUSE. If it hadn't been so awful, we might have given in...but no.
Edit: and the joke's on her. Apparently the realtor and the photographer love our painting and feel it's a great feature in that room :-D < / edit >
Stager did compliment us on how hard we'd worked and how much we'd transformed the house. Then she moved all our furniture around (although she has allowed us to have chairs you can watch telly from) and got annoyed that we still had personal effects out (loo roll! soap dishes! the lunch she'd interrupted! curtains!) even though we assured her they'd be put away for viewings and the open house.
Edit: another joke on her - the realtor and photographer moved the furniture back where we had it, because it looked ridiculous. Hahaha. < / edit >
She brought in some fake flowers and a huge glass bowl to stage things with, which is good, although she couldn't understand why we don't own huge glass bowls or keep flowers in the house. When we pointed out that glass bowls are just new sleeping places for the cats and one cat eats flowers (and steals fake ones to tear apart) she looked at us like we were aliens. Apparently she doesn't do cats and therefore has no idea what they're capable of.
The bowl and flowers will be put away except for viewings and open houses. This annoyed her (because she wants the house show-ready at all times) but for fuck's sake, we're supposed to get 24 hours notice so living in a show-ready house at all times shouldn't be necessary. Argh.
She gave us a long talk about how good her statistics are for getting closing within 30 days of putting a house on the market, HINT HINT, and she was not happy that we actually can't do that because we have shipping and flight dates and I have a job to finish, none of which can easily be brought forward just to make her stats look good.
Thankfully she left before Mum and I completely exploded on her. Wow, I do not like her.
The realtor called round without notice yesterday morning, and expressed outrage that we weren't there followed by shock that anyone would go to church on a Sunday. Hmm. She wanted to fit the lockbox and pick up the key. The lockbox has been fitted--on the porch railing, not on the doorknob where it would block off the keyhole and leave us locked out, phew--and she said she'd come back later for they key...but didn't. Ah well.
Today the photographs are being taken and then the house goes live on the website. There will be an open house on Sunday, which is incredibly inconvenient because I've got my biggest release since last September which will take approx. six hours, so I'll have to go into my empty office building rather than do it from home. ARGH.
Edit: realtor has realised Sunday is Mother's Day. Open house has been pushed back a week. Celebrations all round etc. < / edit >
What's next?
So, the house is now ready for viewings and the open house, so there's actually not much work on that front to do now. We're both relieved because we're exhausted and we need a break.
I have one job application I really want to do this week, because the closing date is soon and I might as well try, right? There are a couple of things I want to apply for next week due to closing dates. Other than that, I think we're planning to take things a bit easier for a few days. I'll be working most of the day on Sunday, but at least I'll be at home with snacks, tea, and kitty cuddles. I've booked some days off from May 18th and while I'm assuming there will be viewings, I'm hoping that I'll get some days at home to really dive into job applications. I also need to get all the paperwork together to put in my application for Transfer of Residency, the form that will allow me to bring my cats and belongings without paying duty on them.
I'm hoping to manage a day or two in my time off where Mum and I can get out and do something fun, because all job applications/paperwork and no fun will probably drive me up the wall.
But at least a huge chunk of stuff is done and my to do list is looking less intimidating. That's good progress, at least.
The good
Many items on my to do list have been checked off since my last progress report!
The really big items: shipping and flight have been booked!
The crew will be here to pack on July 9th and load into the container on July 10th. My flight will leave in the evening on July 11th, so I'll be wheels down and in England on July 12th. That's a big weight off my mind!
And the other big weight is the cats. They went to the vet last week to have their micro-chips read and their rabies shot administered. I'd been really nervous the chips might be unreadable (they're nearly ten years old, after all) and then they'd have to have new ones implanted, but thankfully they were easily read so that's sorted. I've now got their paperwork to a state where it just needs signing and dating in the week before we fly, so that's all looking good. The pet shipper will be able to book them onto my flight in a month.
And as a result of a lot of the activity below, I've done a lot of the pre-shipping decluttering and sorting, so I'm further along in this process than I thought I'd be at this point!
Now I just need to start applying for jobs :-)
The incredibly annoying and frustrating
House selling in Canada is *the worst*.
Our work to de-clutter/de-personalise/de-everything the house continued last week and through the weekend, but we have finally finished. I feel guilty that I couldn't contribute much during the week because I work, but at the same time, all my stuff has always been kept to my bedroom and bathroom. The rest of the house is my parents' so, apart from cleaning, there wasn't much I could actually contribute to that work.
My bedroom now looks like an empty echoey shell. It's actually pretty depressing. Nothing on the walls. My radio is allowed to be on the dresser, provided it's packed away before any viewings/open houses. My nightstand is allowed to hold my book and alarm clock at night, with the same provision. I'm planning to just clear that kind of stuff every morning, to make it easier in case there are last-minute viewings. And making my bed has to be made differently in the mornings to show off...I don't know what. Apparently I Do It Wrong.
I make my bed so it looks tidy and doesn't need remaking before bed so I can actually sleep in it. What a terrible concept.
I'm trying to tell myself it's a good thing to disconnect from the house, but frankly, sleeping in such a bare, unfriendly room is not the best feeling.
My closet now holds the bare minimum of clothing that absolutely must be hung, because they want to show off the size of it (by keeping it almost empty). I have insisted that I need to hang *some* clothes, because boxing up my shirts and blazers and storing them under the stairs will result in me looking crumpled and awful for work (and wasting time each morning trying to unbox and find them). The staging consultant has conceded that point.
The stager came for a visit yesterday to check on what we'd done. Helpfully, she turned up forty-five minutes early. Was that a test to see whether we're keeping the house showing-ready at all times? Who knows! She cheerfully sailed in and announced she'd brought some art (a butt-ugly cheap print from Walmart) to replace our awful painting that will keep the house from ever being sold. Mum and I have conceded on so many things, but we're holding the line on our paintings. They are not going into the shed. No fucking way.
Stager was Unhappy. Super Unhappy. Her incredibly cheap print was nasty and didn't actually blend with ANY OF THE OTHER ART OR DECORE IN THE HOUSE. If it hadn't been so awful, we might have given in...but no.
Edit: and the joke's on her. Apparently the realtor and the photographer love our painting and feel it's a great feature in that room :-D < / edit >
Stager did compliment us on how hard we'd worked and how much we'd transformed the house. Then she moved all our furniture around (although she has allowed us to have chairs you can watch telly from) and got annoyed that we still had personal effects out (loo roll! soap dishes! the lunch she'd interrupted! curtains!) even though we assured her they'd be put away for viewings and the open house.
Edit: another joke on her - the realtor and photographer moved the furniture back where we had it, because it looked ridiculous. Hahaha. < / edit >
She brought in some fake flowers and a huge glass bowl to stage things with, which is good, although she couldn't understand why we don't own huge glass bowls or keep flowers in the house. When we pointed out that glass bowls are just new sleeping places for the cats and one cat eats flowers (and steals fake ones to tear apart) she looked at us like we were aliens. Apparently she doesn't do cats and therefore has no idea what they're capable of.
The bowl and flowers will be put away except for viewings and open houses. This annoyed her (because she wants the house show-ready at all times) but for fuck's sake, we're supposed to get 24 hours notice so living in a show-ready house at all times shouldn't be necessary. Argh.
She gave us a long talk about how good her statistics are for getting closing within 30 days of putting a house on the market, HINT HINT, and she was not happy that we actually can't do that because we have shipping and flight dates and I have a job to finish, none of which can easily be brought forward just to make her stats look good.
Thankfully she left before Mum and I completely exploded on her. Wow, I do not like her.
The realtor called round without notice yesterday morning, and expressed outrage that we weren't there followed by shock that anyone would go to church on a Sunday. Hmm. She wanted to fit the lockbox and pick up the key. The lockbox has been fitted--on the porch railing, not on the doorknob where it would block off the keyhole and leave us locked out, phew--and she said she'd come back later for they key...but didn't. Ah well.
Today the photographs are being taken and then the house goes live on the website. There will be an open house on Sunday, which is incredibly inconvenient because I've got my biggest release since last September which will take approx. six hours, so I'll have to go into my empty office building rather than do it from home. ARGH.
Edit: realtor has realised Sunday is Mother's Day. Open house has been pushed back a week. Celebrations all round etc. < / edit >
What's next?
So, the house is now ready for viewings and the open house, so there's actually not much work on that front to do now. We're both relieved because we're exhausted and we need a break.
I have one job application I really want to do this week, because the closing date is soon and I might as well try, right? There are a couple of things I want to apply for next week due to closing dates. Other than that, I think we're planning to take things a bit easier for a few days. I'll be working most of the day on Sunday, but at least I'll be at home with snacks, tea, and kitty cuddles. I've booked some days off from May 18th and while I'm assuming there will be viewings, I'm hoping that I'll get some days at home to really dive into job applications. I also need to get all the paperwork together to put in my application for Transfer of Residency, the form that will allow me to bring my cats and belongings without paying duty on them.
I'm hoping to manage a day or two in my time off where Mum and I can get out and do something fun, because all job applications/paperwork and no fun will probably drive me up the wall.
But at least a huge chunk of stuff is done and my to do list is looking less intimidating. That's good progress, at least.
