The feeling of being in limbo is finally over! Even though everything, in the end, went rather quickly, it felt like everything took ages, especially waiting for all the house selling admin and a lot of back and forth about the actual completion date.
But… the house has now officially been sold, and we’re in the process of actually relocating, bit by bit. The feeling of relief after a long time of planning and putting things in motion is immense. We’re finally ready to make the big step, be it in a few smaller steps!
Bye car, bye van
Since we didn’t really stand a chance importing our self-built campervan and importing our car with the steering wheel on the wrong side would be rather pointless, we have said farewell to both our vehicles. Our car sold very quickly, with the second hand car market still being strong in the UK.
Our van took some more doing. January and February aren’t the best times to be selling a campervan. For a while there wasn’t a lot of movement, and only minor interest despite our asking price being rather friendly. Last week though, we have managed to find a new home for it. A young couple (oh, yes we are old now…) who fell in love with it from the moment they laid eyes on it I guess… We can’t really call that rubbish, because we loved it too! Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as we have. It was sad having to say goodbye to it after all the work we have put into it, but it was also a relief not ending up with a vehicle while also moving abroad.
I like the way you move
Did we ever mention we like to be organised? On Friday last week we heard that on Tuesday the removal company would come to pick up our belongings. That meant boxing up the final things and disassembling the last few pieces of furniture. Just packing the last few things always takes longer than you think, and before you know it, it’s almost 3 in the morning on a Monday night before you consider it finished. Good thing we did as much as we had or else we wouldn’t even have been able to finish it all.
The removal company planned in a day and half for loading up our things. This seemed excessive, but then, this is not your average home removal. The truck and trailer that arrived on Tuesday morning was about the biggest you would want to see in a residential area. After getting a few cars to move out of the way, they managed to back their way up to our house.
They were very happy with the fact that most of our things were already set up in the garage for loading. Then a number of bulky items were in the living room. Only three awkward heavy objects were left upstairs that needed carrying down. After a quick inventory, they started their process. Each and every item would get a numbered label. Whether it be a sofa, a box, or a foldable chair, everything got its own label and was put on their list. It also explained why they scheduled in so much time. The admin of labeling and inventorying everything going into the trailer definitely took up a considerable amount of extra time.
They were absolutely brilliant though. They managed to use all the space available – from side to side and from floor to ceiling. Not from front to back though – while we have more stuff than we care to admit, the space will very much be shared between several removals. They made short work of our boxes and simpler items. Once they got to the furniture it did slow down a bit as they had to wrap those for protection, but in the end they managed to get it all into the trailer. And at half past five in the afternoon they were all done and didn’t need to come back for a second day.
Exchange, completion
With a house purchase or sale in the UK, similar to many other places, you don’t have any certainty until the contracts are signed. However what makes it different from most places is that signing those contracts doesn’t tend to happen until very late in the process. even though a couple of weeks ago the buyers of our house were happy to proceed, it still took until Thursday for the contracts to be exchanged due to some issue further up the chain. And that’s despite the targeted completion date being the day after! So even though we’d been going through this process for so long, up until Thursday anyone in the chain could’ve pulled out without any consequences.
In the end, eventually, they did pull it over the line. So, with one day to spare for our targeted completion date, the contracts finally got signed. And on Friday it all proceeded as planned. Money progressed throughout the chain, and after getting confirmation from our solicitor that they had received the funds, we handed over the keys and said farewell to our home.
Moving ourselves
Since we no longer had a home, we had booked an AirBnB for ourselves and our cat Lily. Since Lily isn’t being picked up until the end of next week, but our things will arrive somewhere this upcoming week, we unfortunately had to travel to Portugal separately.
After a couple of nights in the AirBnB together, on Saturday Gaby flew off to Porto while René stayed behind with Lily. Renting a car from Leeds Bradford Airport to drive to Luton was a bit weird, but with everything going smoothly, she’s now in the new home, and will no doubt write another blog about that soon!
Being apart for a week will be the longest we’ve been apart since before we were married. It will be strange, but it also means we’re almost there. With Lily arriving on Sunday night next week, it means that in a week’s time, we will have finally completed the process of moving to Portugal.