Moving Mayhem!

Hi readers and followers, as you may have already gathered from recent, rather stressed posts, it was my moving day yesterday which is why I have been blogging slightly less, and probably will be for a few days more (though I am planning a giveaway very soon so watch out for that).

I was still unsure, at 10am yesterday mornning whether I would even be getting the keys to my flat as there was a lot of messing around with paperwork, and deeds my dad needed to sign as my guarantor etc etc. So there I was, sat in my PJs still at 10am, unsure whether I would be moving or whether everything would come crashing down around me, when I decided to bite the bullet and phone the estate agents to find out. They said they were just on the phone to my dad and checking for his fax, and rang me back five minutes later to tell me that I could come in at 12pm to sign the tenancy agreement and pick up the keys. The relief I felt was amazing and I got Cameron and myself ready and dropped him at my nan's where she was kindly looking after him for me as I was having to move all on my own.

Picking up the keys was pretty uneventful, apart from it took around 45 minutes as the admin woman was being really thorough. I sat and read through the massive tenancy agreement in my car to check I hadn't just signed my life away and then drove over to my new flat to do the inventory and then start the long move. In the meantime, my mum had decided to return early from holiday as the weather had turned awful and she was also feeling bad for me moving all alone.

I got to the flat and went to let myself in, and the second lock on my flat door didn't work!! I was so frustrated and tried and tried to open it, turning it each way and in different combinations with the other lock but still to no avail. So followed a conversation with the estate agents and a long wait for someone to come out and try my key, which didn't work (as I already knew), and then another long wait for them to drive over to the Landlord to get the other set of keys that would work... In this time I went back to my mum's and sorted out some calls I needed to make for change of address. Before I could get my keys back, my mum got back, that is how long the key saga had been going on for...

I finally got into my flat mid afternoon and managed to take the inventory and have a proper look around before I had to go back to my nan's to pick Cameron up. By this point it was getting late into the afternoon and I still hadn't even moved one thing into the new flat, and I was pretty fed up! There was also a misunderstanding with my nan about a bed I thought she was giving me, meaning I no longer had a bed lined up so I had to search for one online. Fed up, I got back to my mum's and we managed to take one load of my belongings over to the flat and unpacked them to start 'making a house a home'.

The lounge

My (very girly) room

Cameron's room

The Kitchen

It already looked lovely as the walls had all been repainted the day before, and the carpets professionally cleaned, so the flat looked much nicer than it had when I viewed it. It was a lot bigger than I remembered too, and I fell in love with it. Tired and still pretty fed up with the non existant moving day, I went back to my mum's and we had dinner and I spent the rest of the evening finding a bed to buy. I managed to find one for £30 second hand from a local seller, and arranged to view it.

So today I hauled myself out of bed early and went down to the housing offices to sort out some admin things I needed to do. I was first at the centre and so everything went really fast, and the people were really friendly, which is always a bonus. When we left the centre, the rain, which had been not too bad, was now torrential, and we got soaked to our skin through our clothes on the short walk back to the car. The rain got steadily worse, and thunder and lightening set in as well. This kind of deterred the moving process as we were unable to put a lot in the car without getting soaked through! We put up the curtains in the flat, but one set for the lounge were not the right length and didn't really match the room, so my auntie who was down from Kent kindly offered to buy me a new pair for a housewarming present.

We met her and my nan at Argos where I also bought a toaster, a kettle, a washing up bowl and draining rack, a bin for the bathroom and a cabinet for my lounge, as well as a second pink clothes rail for my room, as one was certainly not enough for all of my clothes! Whilst we were shopping, we noticed there was a lot of security around, which was unusual, and that the rain was still really strong. On the drive back, we also got stuck in a lot of traffic, and there were fire engines and police everywhere around where we live. After lunch we went to pick up the bed, and also picked up my beanbags to put in the lounge as well. We went over the flat again and this is when I heard about the flash floods in Bournemouth, where I live! It was awful, it made top news headlines and some of my friends who live elsewhere were worried about how bad it all sounded. I was a little in a bubble and unaware that literally five minutes down the road there were scenes of chaos, though I then realised why there had been so much security and emergency services around! The gardens by the sea were totally submerged in water, it was awful!

Bournemouth Gardens, submerged!

Someone canoeing in the gardens where there is usually grass...

I was 2 minutes away from here and completely unaware of what was happening!

My mum and my aunt set about assembling my bed for me, whilst I put up the clothing rail and put all the kitchen appliances up. It had started really looking like a home by this point, and I was more excited about moving in, which should be possible in the next couple of days, once the mattress for the bed has been moved over there. After dinner, my mum and I moved a few more bits over, including a chest of drawers from my nan's house. The only things I still need to get are another chest of drawers, and little things. It should be all done by the end of the weekend and a proper little family home for me and Cameron! I am very excited, and glad that after what was a very rocky start to my move to this new flat, it is finally settling down and everything is coming together....