We’ve been homeowners for a week now. I keep fielding the question ‘are you living there yet?’ but you’ll know there’s a lot to do before that will be possible. Target moving date, early to mid-December.

The following still to do

• Builder to fix wall and vents
• Plumber to fix drains
• Electrician to look at wires
• Recarpet (contractor)
• Repaint (ourselves)
• Move furniture in
• Move in ourselves

Doesn’t actually look that bad…?

There’s been a feverish progression of tradesmen through the doors of our new abode. The electrician looked and nodded, and solemnly informed me that chaste electrical sockets are more expensive than mounted ones. The quote arrives a few days later and I realise that the technical jargon is in fact ‘chased’. Which has a similarly bizarre mental image, if I’m honest. Surprisingly, the electrics that are there are perfectly safe and reasonably contemporary. There are just too few fittings throughout, so we have to instal more sockets. There are 13 things on my desk alone which need plugging in [1]. And there’s a single electrical socket in the bedroom that will be my office in the new house. The job will be to instal lots more sockets, and replace the existing, frazzled looking fittings. The quote is within budget. I didn’t ask about installing an ethernet backbone in the house.

The drains man is called Juan and is short and entertaining. He’s reviewed a video inspection another company made before we finalised the purchase and it doesn’t look good. This is hardly news to us, but we certainly weren’t able to deduce this from watching the video ourselves. Juan thinks that the clay pipes that were put in when the house was built some 80 years ago have had their day, and the drain needs completely replacing. This may be expensive. We haven’t heard back yet about the cost of this.

We’ve tried to establish whether the current budget allows for recarpeting throughout. A friendly local firm seems to think they can do the entire house (sauf hall stairs and landing which have been repapered and recarpeted in the very recent past) for under 400 quid. But that does mean getting the cheapest carpets and sticking them to the floor using spray-adhesive rather than anything more traditional like, say underlay. My feet are always cold in the new house so we’re definitely going for underlay.

[1] 13 things that need plugging in on my desk

1. PC
2. Monitor
3. Old PC which still has some files on it I use occasionally
4. KVM
5. Laptop
6. Modem
7. Router
8. Lamp
9. Speakers
10. Scanner
11. Printer
12. Answerphone
13. Mobile charger

(using powe r and creating CO2 just by being plugged in, say GoodEnergy)