Hello East Belfast

Moved house - check
Re-connected to the interwebs - check
Settled in - ongoing but almost there.

I usually say it's been a mad couple of weeks when we've been busy but the best part of the last 3 weeks have been immensely hectic. Just saying we've moved house hides the fact we've actually moved into a different house to the one we were intending to move to. It also hides the fact that we started moving into the house we now rent the same day the lease, a house just hours before hand we didn't know existed.

The first week was a case of hanging on for things outside of our control to take shape and then jumping into action as soon as answers could be found. The last week has been a case of trying to get things sorted and organised, things that we'd usually do in advance or in a structured way - like getting the phone/TV/Internet installed so as not to leave a gap. To be honest, although stressful, it's been a pleasant enough change, usually we're quite sedentary beside the gym, but the last 2 weeks has had us very hands on and really valuing any downtime we've had. If it wasn't for family, vodka, wine and beer (to all of whom we're very thankful) I think we'd have been nervous wrecks by now - and we're well versed in moving house - 7 times in 10 years for me now - hopefully that figure will space out a bit from here on in. This move was just something else - almost as worrying as the time we moved to Northern Ireland when the van company decided last minute that we couldn't take the van over water even though they'd taken the booking with the destination listed.

Oddly though, as unexpected as events were, I think it's worked out pretty good. We quite like the new place, we've a bit more room and we moved to the area we were hoping for so that we're both close enough to work to not have to have any long commutes.

There is still plenty of hard work to do yet before we can fully relax and enjoy our new surroundings but so far so good. Belfast isn't the biggest city in the world and we know East Belfast a little already but it'll be fun finding out what makes it tick and getting to know our new neighbourhood... not that we'll be far from North Belfast as we'll be running back and fourth a lot, especially down to Seaview for the football.

Moving House - One Piece of Fluff at a Time

Helped by our new beetle friend who took it upon itself to help transport some fluff outside, we're currently in the strung out process of moving house. Thanks for the help little creature!

It's amazing how quickly a few years flies by. I can still vividly remember moving into the house we currently rent and yet I look at the post I made the last time we moved and 3 years have passed us by.

The house we're in has served us well but we're moving on to pastures new for Norngirl and me to be closer to our work places and also to rent somewhere with a bit more space. The preparations have been a good time to de-clutter, binning the rubbish and sending bags of books, clothes and miscellaneous stuff to new homes via charity shops. There is something satisfying about getting rid of the clutter... though I have been looking at the bags and wondering just where all the stuff came from in the first place. Like the weeds/snails etc in the Sims Social game on Facebook, I'm sure that when we've been away for a while, random stuff just materialises onto the property - the thing being in real life you don't get money for having to tidy it all away - damn you reality!

So the count is now up to 7 moves in 10 years, at least we got a full 3 years where we are now before getting the urge to move again. 3 years in a house, that's settled right? Sure, if I dare say so myself, we are just awesome tenants - it'd be impolite and selfish of us not to share ourselves around all the estate agents and landlords.

As always, moving is tiring and a little stressy but it'll hopefully be worth it when we get to our new place. You see we've not technically signed the lease yet, so I don't want to jinx it, but if all goes to plan we're hopefully moving over to East Belfast. We've spent plenty enough time during the day there before but neither of us has ever lived in County Down before... I kinda feel like we're cheating on Antrim a bit but sure, it's all Belfast. The biggest downside will be being further away from relatives and also from Seaview for the football but we'll just be a couple of buses away so no big deal. We're just having to hope it'll all go to plan with the move, hopefully it will or we might be sleeping in the removal van! Time will tell.

In hopeful anticipation of a successful move, does anyone know of any hidden, lesser known gems of things to do in that neck of the woods? Any underground sci-fi conventions, East Belfast Crusaders supporters clubs or maybe some yummy pasty selling bakeries we just haven't yet heard about yet?

Time to move

The new house cleaned and almost inhabitable (not yet thanks to our landlord who isn’t even in the country) we’re currently in the time consuming and back aching process of packing up and moving all our worldly possessions to the new place, but there is still a long way to go. Contrary to other moves and we’ve moved a lot in our time (this will be my 6th house move in 7 years) I think we’re starting to realise the scope of the problem of accumulating stuff.

It’s been a busy week, not just at work but most certainly at home. The evenings have been largely taken up sorting whatever we have. Even during the days it’s been an uphill task to get Estate agents to do their job. It’s amazing how when our Estate Agents have been looking to get you to do something they’ll chase you down when it’s not at all convenient and ask for everything to be done right away with threats of wrecking all the plans they know you’ve already set in motion. Then when it comes to you needing something from them, which should have been done before they rushed through the whole matter to get to the money. They’re not in, or can’t come to the phone, deny all knowledge of anything and of course they’ll never even apologise or admit any fault no matter how small. As Norn Girl says, they’re a shower of b*******. Even if it’s not a general trend, those I’ve happened to encounter are by far doing their best to make sure that stereotype is founded by some harsh truths. I’m not sure if it’s the pressures of the job or if it’s just that not very nice people have happened to take the job, but for an industry that affects someone’s life, the standards of customer service for us have been quite shocking at times .

Thankfully the builder representing the landlord has so far been a breath of fresh air. So kind and helpful and not at all ‘Estate Agent’ like and as such my worries about the move have subsided about 85%. There are several problems with the place but hopefully they are now in hand.

Today we’ve the fun task to eat the entire fridge freezer worth of food in order to defrost it before we take it to the new place. Many boxes have already been moved with lots of help from Norn Girls family and all the more admin related tasks have, if not done, been noted down.

Moving ourselves and our bed to the new place will, all being well, take place tomorrow and as such, it’s time to get all the electronics and guff we haven’t yet moved ready to go with us.

Sorting the guff has been the major time consuming thing. We’ve somehow accumulated so much that instead of like the last move it being a few bin bags and boxes worth, it’s now a question of can we even fit it in the new place. From documents from 5 years ago that are no longer relevant and need a good shredding to old clothes, toys and gadget we forgot we had, there’s probably a small room worth of junk we’ve managed to hide around the house until now. For that reason we’ve been sorting it and will be continuing to sort it into three or four piles. One for a refuse collection from the council, one for being kept, one for EBay/a car boot sale and another for giving to charity.

That adds another list of things still to sort after the move but it’s something that’s been put off so long we have to make this move an opportunity to get on top of it all. So far so good!

I best get back to the packing and sorting. Sorry for the lack of posts the last wee while. The time just hasn’t been there to sit down and type, but hopefully come the end of next week we’ll be settled into our new home.

Stress for rent

From out of the blue and the April showers, one desision has created a huge list of ‘to do’s’. Put together with other chance situations, even the Belfast Wheel would have had trouble trying to turn my mood around this week. I may have gone a little stress-crazy for a few days. Oddly, in a year where I’m getting married, that’s not what I’ve been worried about. This one snuck up on us. It’s the joy of preparing to move house... again.

Before I begin, I realise at times my largely trivial problems in life pale in significance to many situations people find themselves in on a day to day basis. I do understand how lucky I am and I generally hope I appreciate what I have. Having a roof over your head after all isn’t a given but...

Norn girl and I rent. We would love to own our own place and have dreams of doing so but we’ve not a hope in an afterlife turned bad to be able to afford to do so for a fair wee while - especially with our wedding approaching. We both work full time and although our nearest and dearest are very supportive we have to work hard and prioritise for most of what we have. Like many our age we took out our own student loans – are in lots of debt due to it, we pay our rent and all our bills but we still manage by and large to live what we would describe as a comfortable lifestyle.

The problem of renting is that due to the short term nature of it, at least in our case, we end up moving a lot and giving away a lot of money just for the pleasure of being tied to a contract that’s made to make the landlord money and bring the estate agent commission... and its frickin annoying.

Except for those in the same predicament (a constantly increasing number of the population) I don’t think many people truly understand the pressures this puts on people making their own way in life. It’s something people know about all too well in many major cities like New York, London and Dublin, where short of a life changing sum of cash you're renting for life or moving somewhere to settle down. The majority of people in their early 20’s today who are able to buy have either saved since they left school, or as seems to be the annoying case, are helped out (keeping their heads in fantasy land) conveniently by the bank of mum and dad. For those of us trying to make the best of being stuck adrift of the bottom rung on the ladder, we dream of things like being able to paint the walls without asking, being able to keep a cat or not having to rely on someone (who only see’s you as figures in a bank balance) doing as cheap a repair as possible to somewhere you have to live. If I ever go even more crazy than I did this week and go into politics, my manifesto would include restrictions on limiting the amount of houses one person can own. Surely when something is in short supply, it has to be managed properly and not just left to the whims of markets seemingly left to be controlled by those with no vested interest in the well being of society?

The looming move was partially our choice initiated by Norn Girl and as a chance to reduce our outgoings. In the end it was largely forced by the estate agency and their seemingly non-legally trained staff. Who, from recent experience, don’t understand the terms of the contracts they are advising us to sign. Hence, even though we’ve moved house more time in the last 10 year than the average cat owner could go through hamsters and goldfish, we were technically at fault when it came to notice periods. It’s amazing how manipulative the service we had was. If ever you’re in a position to re-sign a lease, and it’s in a declining market like now, I would advise you get in early and haggle. As much as they lead you to believe you’re in no such position, we ended up unwittingly calling their bluff by actually wanting to move. It’s amazing that something that was to be no lower than the current rental 2 days before, could suddenly have dropped £30 a month less than the current price. Then after terrible service we hold our ground as we actually now want to not have to deal with them anymore and the rent suddenly drops to £55 a month less as a last gasp attempt to try and hold onto you. In the end we’re probably going to spend more than it was worth for the pleasure of moving but it’s the right thing to do, I do believe we’ll be happier in the new house.

So from what can only be described as voluntary stalking from the estate agencies over the start of the week. This was followed by a similar non-stop barrage of madness at work. Evenings were all spent with twisted plans of how to go about clearing space, staring at the mess in our house at the moment (wondering where to start) and trying to not forget birthdays. It’s been one long tiring, emotion sapping and brain tangling time.

Thankfully it’s an extended weekend with lots of football and more importantly with the weekend comes a sleep in. Like it has recently, the sun might peek out from the clouds and we might be able to be outside to enjoy it. Not only that, there’s new Red Dwarf on Dave to bring a smile to the face and as seems to be the tradition on the Easter weekend, some mood enhancing chocolate shaped eggs might be consumed. Therefore the good news is that although time is in short supply and there is so much to be organised, the little distractions we work so hard to keep might just let us sustain a reasonably positive state of mental health. What more can you ask for?