Finding our way around

The end of the first week was marked by the closure of the sale of our old house. It was a very strange sensation to lock the front door and hand over the keys which had been with us for the last 25 years. I didn’t feel sad at all.

As I said; “the last 25 years”, which meant that there was a lot of getting used to routines and finding things to go before we really felt settled in. Everything seemed to take longer than usual. One of the pleasures was shopping for new curtains, lamps and odds and ends. It took a few weeks to get everything just as I liked it.

Even going out in the car had its problems. There were lots of new village names to get used to (and some of them very similar). We even decided that a certain roundabout near to where we live was a second Bermuda triangle. Still it was fun exploring the beautiful countryside around us, either in the car or on foot.

The keys are handed over to us

The day finally arrived when we were to officially check over the house. We packed the car with some boxes of things to put in the loft and everything we needed to make a cup of tea. I also had a measuring tape to measure the rooms so that I could make a plan for moving day. The former tenants were to be there too. It was only our second visit to the house and this time it was empty and spotlessly clean.

As we went over the house we asked a lot of questions about electricity and water consumption, how things worked. We made sure that the papers were marked with any problems and things like cracked tiling. The whole visit, handing over the keys and printing out of papers to be signed took 4 hours.

 Once we were alone, I made our very first cup of tea in our new home and then Mr. Sosie and I set about putting the first boxes into the loft and measuring the rooms. We shut the house up with heavy hearts and went back to continue sorting out and packing the other end.