Moving Out

Where do I even begin? Since my last blog post so many things have happened and changed, namely Luke and I moved from the quite streets of Southam to the “city” of Worcester, home of Worcester Sauce (it’s true passed the Lea & Perrins factory just the other day) When Luke and I first planned to move here that was all I knew about Worcester, well that and that it was in Worcestershire but I suppose that’s pretty self explanatory. Now I can inform you that it is also the birthplace of a famous composer who I admit I didn’t know named Sir Edward Elgar and was the location of the last battle of the English Civil War. As well as being home to the world’s oldest newspaper the Berrow’s Worcester Journal which first began publication in 1690, I’m determined to get an internship there.

The reasons behind my long absence are two-fold, one being I have been so busy I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off and the other being we do not have Internet set up yet at the new house. It has been ordered and a man is coming to install it on September 16^th it’s still a week away and it feels like ages. To be honest besides feeling cut off from the world I have not even had time to notice not having Internet we’ve been so busy. The place we found is a three-storey townhouse although at one time it was one large property. The age of our home has been under some debate. Lindsay was looking at an old map of Worcester from 1806 and swears our house was on it, which would make it Georgian. Luke’s Granddad says the style of brickwork is too modern to be Georgian. Luke says the brickwork and style is too old to be Victorian (he lived in a Victorian property in Manchester). Someone else has mentioned a possibility of it being Edwardian (which would place it somewhere between 1901 and 1910). So where does that leave us? I’m living in a house that was built sometime between 1800 and 1910, although general consensus puts it at about 1830s/40s – in other words old. Although I guess when you look at some properties around England that are from the 1500s it puts it into perspective.

I learned one thing very quickly about living in an older property; they are a lot of work. Especially if let’s say the property was vacant for nearly a year allowing it to gather dust and giving spiders a chance to fill the ceilings with cobwebs. I never thought I had much of a problem with spiders until I moved to England and was informed that what I felt was a large spider is indeed ‘only a tiny thing’. The previous tenant seemed to not take much pride in a house the paint was just slopped on the walls. Clearly someone had never heard of this handy dandy painting tool known as masking tape.

The ground floor comprises of a living room, small hallway with a closet under the stairs, and a backdoor leading to our little garden. The living room was painted a bright aqua, not at all warm and welcoming, but it is now ‘malt chocolate’ and the hearth is painted ‘intense truffle’.

The kitchen is on the second floor and while the walls were fairly clean I doubt the oven had ever been cleaned in its life. It was absolutely disgusting. I had the happy chore of cleaning that, it has been cleaned twice and still isn’t perfect. The other disappointment of the kitchen was what Luke and I believed to be a washing machine is in fact a tumble dryer. Rented properties in the UK are not required to supply fridges, washing machines, dishwashers, or anything like that. In fact perhaps properties in the US aren’t either but when Luke and I looked at it we just assumed it was and didn’t bother to double check. That means now we have to go out and buy a washing machine unless we feel like doing all our laundry at a laundromat (which for the record I don’t) or send it back to Lindsay to do it all for us (which for the record she doesn’t). The kitchen was a plum colour, which Luke liked but I wanted to brighten it up besides it was done very badly. Luke and I argued about the kitchen colours, everything I liked he didn’t and vice versa. In the end I just gave up and went with the colour he liked ‘dusted damson’ which is a pretty purple but not what I would have chosen for the kitchen. As Luke said “Not many boyfriends would let you paint the kitchen purple” to which I replied “No, no not many boyfriends would choose to paint the kitchen purple.”

The bathroom is on the same floor as the kitchen and is by far my least favourite. It’s small and dingy and for the first week of us being here it had no light bulb in it. But Lindsay has promised to make it her pet project, says we won’t even recognize it. This was before we’d properly moved in, all we had were some thin mats to sleep on from out of Lindsay’s conservatory and not much else. We’d scheduled the moving van for a week after we first got the keys. In that time we figured we’d have the whole place spotlessly clean and completely painted. Clearly we were under delusions of how much we were going to be able to accomplish. While the rooms are all painted, none are fully done. We have trim to finish in the living room and second coats and trim to finish in the kitchen and bedroom.

So much to do and so little time to do it in – we’d like to have the place all finished (well at least painted nicely) by the time my mom comes to visit in October. I acknowledge that it will be some time before we have all our décor settled. It’s a slow process but it is fun. While I have more to say, I had better get back to the house (currently I’m at a pub) and get back to work. Photos and a video tour coming soon.

Erin

x

Our House

All my fears about finding a suitable place in Worcester seem to be forgotten as of last Saturday. I was feeling a little despondent about the whole thing to be honest, all my viewings kept getting cancelled and I never dreamed that the four Luke and I had left for Saturday would produce anything worthwhile. The first property was nice, at least it was better than the hotel room I'd seen on Wednesday. It was small though, more like a student flat or bachelor's pad, not really suitable for two people. Still I was happy to see that at least some places didn't look like cheap hotel rooms in Worcester. At least this property was in a nice area of town, right behind Worcester Cathedral. Luke wasn't too pleased with the place and it wouldn't be my first choice either, so it was scratched off the list of possibilities.

When we entered the second flat, we thought we might have found the one. Compared to the first property it was quite large, in an old Tudor building a little outside of Worcester in a town called St. John's. What walls weren't covered in beams were covered in a yellow wallpaper, or perhaps it was a yellowing wallpaper, it's hard to say. While the kitchen had been recently redone the bathroom hadn't been touched since what I assume was the 70's, the fixtures were mauve. Either way the place was quirky and we liked it. We left the St. John's property thinking we might just have found the place, we enjoyed it's quirks rather than being frustrated by them.

Then we entered the townhouse, once again this place was in a nice part of Worcester a few minutes walk from the Cathedral but close enough to still hear the bells. Behind it sits Fort Royal park, a place that looks down on the entire city (quite picturesque if you ask me). The ground floor is the lounge which includes a blocked up fireplace, I already picture making a candlescape in the fireplace. At the back of the lounge is a little hall that has a closet, the stairs and a door leading out the back. In the back we have a little courtyard, complete with shed and two terraces to put plants, hang laundry, and perhaps get a little patio table so on nice days we can eat outdoors.

The first floor (or second floor in American speak) has the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen even comes with a little breakfast nook where we can with a decent-sized table and chairs. The bathroom is basic just a toilet, sink, mirror, and shower. No bathtub, but I don't take that many baths any way. Up the stairs again is the bedroom complete with two built-in wardrobes. It's a pretty big size, at least it's bigger than our current bedroom and probably bigger than my bedroom was at home. At least it should be big enough to fit the dressing table I'm getting from Nicola! The exclamation point emphasizes my excitement at the prospect of getting a dressing table.

The place is great, all it needs is a little TLC. We're set to move in for beginning of September, but they're allowing us to go in once we've signed all the proper forms to start cleaning and painting the place. That's all it really needs, a good cleaning and some new paint. I'm sure the colour scheme might have worked great for the previous tenants but a teal lounge, plum kitchen, and baby blue bedroom aren't going to really work for us. Everyone has been really helpful here helping us get started. Lindsay and Ian have set aside things for Luke and I, like toasters, plates, pots and pans, plus we're allowed to take all of the bedroom furniture. Neil and Nicola are giving us a lot of their old furniture, like the above mentioned dressing table, a coffee table, dining table, etc. Luke's granddad is giving us a TV stand and a rug. Luke's Auntie Julie is buying us a fridge. Pam and Mick (Ian's parents) have offered to get us something, Mick suggested maybe some chairs. And Luke's dad is going to give us some money to get us started since he doesn't have anything old. Even the neighbours across the street have pitched in, they've offered us their old sofabed which has only been used twice, it's emerald green but we'll make it work!

The past two weeks have been dedicated to setting up things for the move, last week was trying to find a property, this week was securing the property, sending emails, making phone calls, filing out paperwork. While that has kept me pretty busy, Luke and I were able to make it to the pub quiz at The White Lion on Tuesday, and I'm happy to report that we got first place out of 15 teams! Not bad at all, considering we thought we'd done one of our worst performances ever. We won 40 pounds from it, split between five people it only amounts to 8 pounds a person, but still it was nice. Luke and I were at The White Lion for dinner. I had the veggie fish and chips, which intrigued me halloumi cheese fried like the fish with tzatziki sauce, a side salad and of course a side of chips. It was YUMMY! Luke had a gourmet burger, which was massive and put our burger nights at Anthem to shame. Half-pound of meat, a fried egg, field mushroom, onion chutney, I don't even know what all was on it. I just know that Luke had to press it down several times with his fist before he could fit it in his mouth.

Besides the house and pub quiz there is not much else to report, other than I'm still having trouble opening a damn bank account and just finished a pretty interesting book called The Shakespeare Curse, apparently it's called Haunt Me Still in America, which deals with the secret behind the "curse" of Macbeth or The Scottish Play as it's referred to in the theatre. Nicola gave it to me to read, she described it as a more subtle Da Vinci Code but with Shakespeare. I think that's an accurate description. It's not the best written book I've ever read but it was a page turner to be sure! I'd recommend it to anyone who has any interest in Shakespeare or enjoys books about history or like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.

Help!

Finding flats in Worcester is more difficult than I first anticipated. I keep finding properties to view on various websites but it seems whenever I arrange a viewing it is promptly cancelled because someone has taken it. Living in Warwickshire makes it difficult to dash up to view properties at all times of the day in Worcester. Lindsay did take me up on Wednesday to view several properties and get a feel for the place. However those several viewings turned into just one viewing and that one viewing turned out to be a nightmare.

The viewing was at 3 o'clock, sure enough we turn up at 3 and the estate agent is no where to be found. Lindsay calls them only to be told that they're sorry but they are unable to find the keys and we'll have to do the viewing another day. Basically Lindsay told them that was unacceptable and they better find the keys. Jump to an hour and a half later, Lindsay and I are entering a place that looks more like a cheap and dingy hotel room than the 'nice' apartment it is masquerading to be. To continue the hotel room facade on the back of the front door is a fire escape plan like you see on the back of so many hotel rooms and to my recollection no apartment I've ever been in has had this little "feature".

I had just woken up this morning, when I got a call from an estate agent telling me that yet another property I was interested in had been let out. That brings the number of viewings for tomorrow down yet again. This is something I'm beginning to get used to, more I expect viewings to be cancelled rather than actually see the property. I guess I'll have to practice the philosophy that everything happens for a reason, and the only reason these properties keep getting snatched up is because there is a better property waiting for us. Or perhaps it is just happening to make me suffer a nervous breakdown. You know... one or the other.

Erin x

Time Is Running Out

As Luke pointed out in today's Skype session, this coming Wednesday (May 26th) means two weeks until I'm on my way across the pond. This realization was met with heavy breathing and a little bit of panic. I have a lot to get done in the next two weeks, especially considering this coming weekend I'm going to be down in the Deep South for the wedding of a family friend. Time is running out!!!

In my few weeks since school let out I've gotten a lot accomplished, and yet I still feel so behind. I've been to the dentist and eye doctor. Where I got my teeth cleaned and was told by the doctor my eyes are "immaculate ". I am having trouble setting up an appointment with the general practitioner. Instead I talk to this receptionist who is going on a power trip and tells me she'll get back to me later. I've acquired photocopies of a good portion of my medical records and spoken to my bank about closing my accounts. Not to mention a trip to the post office to send three boxes of books off to Southam, which cost nearly $200. I used the flat rate boxes and figured they'd be around $20 a piece, boy was I mistaken. No more using the post to send boxes for me. Instead I think I'll add an extra bag to my flight itinerary.

I've gone though all my old CDs and imported them into my iTunes. After which I threw away all the mixed CDs and gave the rest away. All of my winter clothes have been Space Bag'd and are ready to be put in a suitcase - with the exception of a few wooly hats and my ski gear, which I have not yet been able to find. I've gone through boxes of old toys and photos. Given a lot of stuff to charity and trying to sell what I can on eBay.

Every day I've been working but everyday it seems I think of one more thing I should get done. Moving is no fun! But the end result will be fun, so I must keep focused on that.

Erin x