Thursday 4 June 2026: Yay!

We both slept in on Wednesday, which meant a late start to the day and not as much work done as I’d like. And the poet had to be at site, so he was in a bit of a rush, although he did feed the dog before he went, leaving me to feed the birds and do some of the housework at least.

I didn’t empty the dishwasher, but I did put a washload through, and I folded and put away a load that was in the tumble dryer, already dry.

I didn’t pack any boxes. I didn’t throw away any clutter. And the dog went for his walk after the poet got home again.

For much of the day I fielded and responded to emails that were going backwards and forwards between us and our conveyancing solicitor and us and our landlord’s agent.

First of all, the solicitor thanked us for delivering the documents on Tuesday and he asked for a preferred completion date on our side. I already thought we’d be waiting at least 20 days for a completion date, so I didn’t get too excited. But I gave him a broad range between this Friday, when all the money would be safely in one place and ready to transfer, and next Friday, which would still give us a good 2 weeks between the 2 houses.

I really didn’t hold out much hope at getting anything like a date within that range, so I was really surprised when he replied that he’d put the dates to the sellers’ solicitor and come back to me. I thought it would be a ‘no chance, mate’. But it wasn’t, it was a ‘let’s see’…

I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole then, looking at what we need planning permission for at the new house.

We want to change a front window into a main entrance door, a side door into a window, and a rear window into a French door. I thought we’d need planning permission to move the main entrance door, but I knew we wouldn’t need planning permission to change a window into a French door at the back, and nor do we usually need permission to change a door into a window. I was letting the fact that it was the main entrance door cloud my memory. But I looked it up anyway.

If we change a side window or door, it’s a bit of a grey area about whether to use obscure glass or clear, but that also depends on which storey the window is on and whether or not we overlook someone at the side. We don’t. We overlook the end of the garden of a house in the next street, and, funnily enough, the only house on the estate that has moved its main entrance door from the side to the front! And, of course, it’s a single-storey house.

I found the planning part of the local authority website and was delighted to see that they have a section called ‘ask a question about planning’, or words to that effect. And so off I went, plugging in all of the details and asking my questions. And it came back that we ‘probably don’t need planning permission’ for what we want to do. Yay! However, it did recommend that we apply for a certificate of planning anyway, just so we can prove that we checked when we come to sell the house in the future.

As it’s a front door we want to change a regular window to, I think I may still go down the planning application route.

We’ll also be looking at remodelling the kitchen and putting a new one in, complete with appliances, and I was doodling with drawings and ideas when an email came in from our solicitor. The sellers’ solicitor was happy for a completion date of Thursday 11 June. Double yay! That’s only next week, though!

I called the poet to let him know, pulling him out of a meeting, then I sent an email to the landlord’s agent with the date and confirmation of the date we can hand this house back to them. And then I contacted a plumber.

The first job we have to do in the next house is sort out the hot water and central heating. There’s a fairly new boiler on the wall in what will be the office, but it’s not a combination boiler. If we put a combi boiler in, we can remove the hot water cylinder, which takes up a lot of room right in the middle of the house.

The plumber already told us we can put a combi in the roof but keep the controls and the stat on the ground floor. And if we can get rid of the hot water cylinder, that gives us either a nice storage cupboard in the hall, or somewhere we can extend the bath into from the bathroom. (It’s currently a large shower.)

While he’s there, he’s also going to look at a solid fuel-burning wall-mounted fire in the living room that will still have the old hot water boiler behind it. We want the fire and the boiler removing.

Both jobs are going to be messy, disruptive, and ‘not cheap’, as the plumber has already warned. But it’s the first job we need doing before we do anything else. And the plumber is going to ‘walk the house’ with us as soon as we get the keys. Hopefully the job is doable, and hopefully he can fit us in sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, the agent came back to me asking if one of us can be here before we vacate the property to admit a valuer. The landlord is selling the house and is probably keen to get it on the market. A few more emails scuttled backwards and forwards and we came up with 3 dates one or both of us can be here for.

Next, we have to decide if we want to take down a wall in the kitchen or leave it in and put a cheaper kitchen in for now. We do need the kitchen doing. The current one is badly laid out and there’s no oven. There’s a hob, but no oven. And we both like to cook or bake.

Once we’ve decided on that, we can engage the window fitters. We also need to arrange for a carpenter to come and fit at least one internal door, maybe two, and a hinged loft hatch. There’s a loft ladder in but no hatch. And then, in the meantime, we gut the house, make good the cosmetics, and move in whatever furniture we’re taking with us.

So we have a lot to decide and do before we move in, and then we empty the current house and get it cleaned. If we have time, and if the weather is kind, we may also weed the garden.

I did manage a look at the proofreading work yesterday, just not as much as I’d like. That means I have to pull out all the stops today and tomorrow to get it back to the client. I’ll be finishing work next Wednesday and won’t be back at my desk until the last 2 days of June. So I need this job to be as good as I can get it before sending it back.

But, hey! I can hardly wait to return to home ownership and get my teeth into everything that entails!