TLDR – Being forced out of the house, we cannot buy the next house yet due to paperwork. Moving all of our stuff to Storage between our current house and new house via Bicycle
Why we need to move
Back in May, we went sale agreed on a house. We’d hoped to move in August, then we hoped to move in September. Now it looks like October will be the winning month, we hope? Sadly 1Oct is the last day we can live in the place we’re currently in. The Landlord does not wish to give us any extra time in the house as he wants to turn and burn sell it as soon as possible. The Irish house market has peaked already, is currently flat and I feel will drop off a cliff by the end of the year – Thanks Putin.
We hoped it would only be a week or a few days we’d be homeless. We heard from estate agent Robert. His excuse-filled message boiled down to it could be 3 more weeks until we have a place to live. Which represents about 3 plus weeks of homelessness to us. The three weeks are not because of a real reason they are because people take as long as they feel to process paperwork. – FUCK THAT – By People, I mean the completely useless piece of shit Shane Dowling, solicitor in Skerries at Direct Law Solicitors. – I could go on for hours about my feelings about this guy but I think you the picture.
The three-week comment totally ruined Michelle and I; it broke us. We separated into offices and started packing in private. Not wanting to cry in front of the other. We needed to be strong for each other and could not let the other see us give up. A few hours later, the “check has been ordered” comment brought us back to life a bit. Sadly even with the check being ordered and only taking 5 days or less, the Solicitor for the seller, for some reason, needs 3 weeks to process the paperwork. The paperwork they returned to our solicitor has a closing date of 21 October. Which will mean 3 weeks of homeless. Many many calls to solicitors and estate agents will happen. Going to be the most annoying client possible to see if we can reduce the days. – Spoiler being an arse did nothing to speed up the process
Moving to Storage
To be out of the house, we need to move everything into storage and find temporary housing. Michelle’s friend Emily has offered us a few rooms in her house and we found a storage facility about 1km away. – we have a plan, it will hurt but it’s a plan – more importantly, it’s something we can physically control and do.
While Wes and Carie were here visiting when we made the decision to move to storage. Wes and I walked up to the storage place right up the street and rented 2 of their 4 remaining units. The first few loads of moving we took with the bikes. Maddex can haul four Ikea bins on the trailer behind his bike. I can haul 5 up front and about 2 – 3 in my trailer. The first unit, 80 square feet, we started filling floor to ceiling with plastic bins from Ikea. We can stack them 10 high. One load with the bikes is one stack. During the first few days of moving boxes, Maddex and I moved about 90 boxes.
We’ve been stockpiling boxes for a few weeks in anticipation of moving, we cleared out the entire stockpile. Renting the unit and starting the moving process is something we can actually control and physically see. So much of this moving process is out of our hands waiting for solicitors and estate agents. Been driving us nuts being totally at someone else’s mercy. Moving into storage is therapeutic. Feels spectacular to have an impact, and be doing something.
September comes and goes, we’re now looking at October to close. Our hopes of holding keys while Wes and Carie are here have been crushed. The seller informed us another party needs to sign papers for the place she is buying. Another step, for some reason, not done in parallel, which will cost weeks in the process.
Over the last week of September Wes and Carie chose to fly home, not wanting to add to our stress. Stupid drama ending a visit. Friday, the first of October, we rented a Cargo van from GoCar. Michelle and I spent the day loading, driving, unloading, and packing storage units. We quickly filled up the two units we had and rented a third unit. The units are only about 80-95 square feet. I’d wanted a few 150 Square feet units, but they did not have any open. We’ve started to name the Units.
We have a unit full of boxes, the box unit, another full of Ikea shelving units, the Kalax room, and the last unit, the shorter unit, is the couch unit. After a day of moving several phone calls to estate agents and solicitors, we received some idea of a date. like 3 to 4 more weeks out. Whatever we are moved out, and have a place to stay.