Moving in to the Rental House

The much awaited day had arrived! Friday night (Sep 26th) we packed as much of our clothing as we could in preparation for our Saturday move. Saturday, we caught an early bus up to High Street where the rental agent's offices were located, and we signed all the necessary papers and handed in a sizable chunk of money in exchange for the keys to our new rental. We then took the bus back to the bungalow and had some lunch. Bill was able to borrow one of the school's maintainance vehicles to move our stuff over to the house, so he went and got that. What we had to move at this point was all our clothes in luggage that we had brought, plus the things we had bought in preparation to go into a house. This included the Yamaha Clavinova (ebay purchase), some bookcases, a TV, and some other household items purchased from a missionary who was returning to the USA. We spent the next few hours taking trips back and forth to bring the stuff. Fortunately, our new home was just up the road - about half a mile or so.

(picture from our entrance door facing into lounge and back garden)

(kitchen - facing front to road)

After a few weary hours of moving stuff and simultaneously trying to clean the bungalow we were leaving, we made a quick run to the grocery store for supplies and a ready-made meal, then headed home. We tried to unpack as much clothing as possible - onto the floors - so we could at least access it the next day, and then got our beds ready. The church members were kind enough to give us zed beds (like a cot) and bedding for the children, some pots and knives for basic cooking, some chairs from the church for sitting on, and things like that to get us through the week until Friday when our container of stuff was being delivered. Bill's Dep Head also dropped by a small round table on Sunday that he didn't want anymore. Bill and I used a horrible air mattress that we had purchased cheaply for the week. So all in all, we ended up having enough stuff to get us through the week.

(view of lounge into back garden)

(our luggage unloaded into the master bedroom)

The house we have chosen to live in here in Corby is a town house - attached to four others. There is a courtyard area with garages for each house - we have our own garage that I am not sure would actually fit a car but is still very useful for storing stuff. I don't think I have actually seen anyone else try to fit their car in the garage either - they all park outside! The house is narrow and tall - about 16 feet in width, but going up three stories. We chose this house for several reasons - the bedrooms are very big by UK standards and were much bigger than in any other home I viewed. The faucets in the kids' bathroom and our bathroom are both mixed - most sinks here have separate taps, which I personally dislike, as you either freeze or burn your hands when washing. The kitchen came with a fridge and dishwasher already - here in the UK, rentals consider appliances as furniture and you usually have to provide them yourself! (I did have to purchase a washer and dryer) The back "garden", although narrow, is very beautifully shrubbed in a rock garden - very low maintainance - (this is a good thing) - and has a patio area. The other big draw for this particular house was the fourth bedroom - a very large room that could also be used as a family room; we are using this as a playroom for the kids and that is reason enough to have this house! So although we have had to cut back on space somewhat, I think we have plenty enough in this town house to be quite comfortable.

(view of sheep farm and pasture across the street from front of house; they are currently putting in a large lawn area right across the street just before the sheep pasture)

(the back garden)

Friday, Oct 3rd arrived, and soon the shipping container and the movers arrived. It was a long day of getting everything into the house and put in the correct room. Once the movers had left, I began some organizing efforts that Bill helped with when he got home from school. Later in the evening, Pastor Pavitt, Pastor Tooley, and two Crown College kids came over to move a few things up to the third floor - which was very kind of them. We ended up finding all the bedding for our beds and got them all set up just in time to wearily fall into them that night. There were three small problems we encountered during all of this. The first was that my triple dresser just absolutely would not fit up the stairs. The movers tried, and then we tried later, but there was no way. After being initially depressed : ) I decided to roll with the punches, and my dresser is now our hifi center for the TV. Second, Bill's chest of drawers (matching my dresser) fit up the first set of stairs, but it would not go up the second to our bedroom (master suite is on top floor). So he ended up putting it in Abby's room. Third, we put on our much loved heated mattress pad, and then read that the Watts are 360! Yikes! We had not had time to check this before we left so we had no idea how much we would need to convert. I had some 100W converters, but obviously they weren't going to do the job. Anyway, all that aside, we were overjoyed to get back into our very own talalay latex foam bed and all our soft and wonderful bedding! Every single night, I am thankful for that bed!!!!!

Saturday, Bill rented a minivan and went to pick up our two other ebay purchases. First was a dining room table with six chairs that we purchased for 50 pounds. We really got a fantastic deal with this set - the table is very large oval and additionally has a large leaf to extend it out. It is solid mahogony and is beautiful. The chairs are sage green and also solid mahogony and very attractive and comfortable. I love the set! The other purchase was a table with four chairs and a matching sideboard. The table is square, but has extensions that you pull out from under the table top and they slide into place on either side. They can then just as easily be slid back underneath. The sideboard is high, with nice storage compartments. We purchased this set for the playroom - for a game table and storage for all the games for 100 pounds. This set is a 1930's style and is also solid hardwood and in great shape. Yay ebay!

The following week was spent organizing stuff into places in the house and purchasing all the little things that you need to start off a household. We worked pretty hard though and had it mostly done going into the weekend. Then Bill was off from school (for a two week holiday) and helped me finish up the rest on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

We still have a few things that we need to purchase, but we ought to be able to get all that done early this week. There are of course some mundane things to be done in setting up household accounts etc, but we anticipate that this week we will have time for some sight-seeing by Wednesday or Thursday. Then I will hopefully have something much more interesting to blog about.