Exchange!

So one thing is now definite: we will be completing and moving out of our Abingdon house on 23rd April. A week today!!

The solicitor phoned this afternoon to say that the buyers were ready to exchange contracts, and then called back about 10 minutes later to say we have exchanged.

It would be rather nice to have some more certainty on the Italian side of things - at the moment it feels like we are leaving our lovely Abingdon home with no certainty of having anywhere else to move to! Needless to say, we haven't heard any more about the possible hold-up/problem since last Friday, so we're still none the wiser as to what the problem is, how serious it is, whether there might be a delay of a few days or a few weeks, or even any delay at all.

I experienced my first farewells today - Ana & Jenny at the dojo, who are off on holiday to Thailand next week, so may not see me before they go, and Monika, who I visit for my daily coffee from the Sophos restaurant, who is off to Poland to visit family and won't be back until the start of May. It feels very odd, and slightly surreal!

Stuart is having the first of his farewell drink get-togethers this evening in Birmingham, with as many of his Birmingham-based buddies as can make it.

As I said - surreal.

~ Helen

Packing

Trying to put the potential delay at the Italian end to the back of our minds (never mind the fact that we have yet to exchange contracts on our Abingdon house), we spent a significant part of the weekend packing, sorting and clearing out.

After 8 hours at it yesterday, the loft is now completely clear, the shed has been cleared out and tidied (we are leaving a few items in it for the new owners), and we are up to 21 packed boxes.

We had a brief visit from Jennie, Pete and Megan yesterday afternoon, who came to relieve us of some toy storage units that there simply won't be room for in Italy. We managed to grab a half-hour break and a cup of tea with them in the glorious sunshine in the garden. It was really lovely to see them all and a very welcome distraction, although they were gone all too soon and there was nothing else for it than to get back to it.

The cats have not been impressed with all of the disruption, and frankly I know how they feel! It's all very unsettling and now Stuart has gone to Birmingham for the week, leaving me and the cats sitting amongst boxes, dust, cobwebs and general disarray.

There have been no more updates on the Italian situation as yet (no surprises there - we must get our heads around doing things the 'Italian way' at Italian speed!), but the solicitor dealing with our Abingdon sale has reported: "Apparently there is a bit of a hold-up in relation to [the buyers'] own sale transaction. They are selling a Leasehold property and the Management Company have not put in place the necessary fire risk assessments and asbestos checks regarding the Building ... those are being dealt with now but it may take a few days for them to be resolved."

I'm finding the uncertainty of it all very difficult to deal with - I need concrete dates and definite arrangements! 

~ Helen

Problem?!

'Four weeks today we should be completing the purchase of our Italian home!' ... Or maybe NOT!!!!

Stuart received an email from Richard this afternoon, saying "Andrea [the geometra] has spoken to the bank today and there may be an issue with them been ready for the 9th. He is going to keep the existing appointment and will let us know if it needs to be changed."

Arggh! What sort of issue?!!! Are we going to get our mortgage ok?

Hopes of a non-stressy weekend have just gone out the window...

Might have to sink a large glass of wine or two this evening :-/

~ Helen

8 boxes, a birthday and a fight with a tiger

As good as his word, Stuart started packing boxes the same evening they arrived. Our house is now in disarray, with piles of things to be donated to charity shops, stacks of packed boxes and other stacks of yet-to-be-packed boxes. The living room looks very bare with all of the books gone from our bookshelves (not to mention DUSTY! - I'm no major fan of dusting, but even I am appalled by the build-up of dust on the shelves) and we are reduced to eating dinner on the sofa, balancing plates on our laps, as the dining table and chairs have been moved out of the way to make room for the stacks of boxes.

The trip to the vet on Tuesday evening was traumatic to say the least. 

I was thrilled when Florence went up straight up to her travel box to sniff the inside of the box, I gave her a gentle nudge on her rear end, and she walked in of her own accord. What a well behaved little cat!

However, Lucca was another matter altogether. It's unfortunate that this has all come very soon after his recent stay in 'cat-hospital', and he absolutely did NOT want to get into his box, or be lowered into his box, or be coerced into his box, or be shoved into his box... It took Allison and me a good 15 minutes to get him securely in - a very stressful 15 minutes for everyone involved. I ended up looking like I'd been in a fight with a tiger as every time I picked him up he wriggled and squirmed and tried to get away by crawling up across my back, using his claws to gain purchase. Poor Lucca - I felt horrible putting him under so much stress. Allison was an absolute angel (and far too polite to say whether she had taken any blows). I'm sure my back was bleeding as I finally left the house.

Once I got them to the vet everything was very straightforward. Neither of them even so much as flinched when they were jabbed, and then Stuart came to help take them home (the easy bit!).

On getting home, Lucca immediately ran and hid under the bed, and I had to resort to taking his dinner to him (under the bed). He cowered every time one of us went near him all evening, but thankfully seemed gradually to forgive us and ended the evening being his usual cuddly and affectionate self. Phew!

The idea of taking them to Bristol in a little over a week's time fills me with utter dread!

Today is Stuart's birthday :-) He only had a half day's work to do this morning, so has been able to have his birthday afternoon off. He hasn't been taking it easy and enjoying himself though - he's had an afternoon of more box packing and lawn mowing! Hopefully dinner at the Crown and Thistle pub in Abingdon will be a bit more of a relaxing birthday treat.

Four weeks today we should be completing the purchase of our Italian home!

(Although we still haven't exchanged contracts on the sale of our Abingdon house!)

~ Helen

Two weeks (and a day) until completion

Provided our buyers' buyers get their act in gear (apparently they are "waiting for management company information to come through"), we will be completing the sale of our house two weeks tomorrow.

Over the weekend we arranged for Oxford-based homeless charity Emmaus Oxford to collect some of the large pieces of furniture that we won't be taking with us (they have a shop that sells second-hand [donated] furniture on to people who have been homeless and are just getting set up in a home for the first time).

We also tried to make some sort of plan for the 10 days in which we will be nomads before we leave the UK (all but two of the nights are accounted for so far, with a combination of staying in friends' spare rooms, B&B nights at pubs and visits to family). We also set up mail forwarding and booked our Eurotunnel crossing for Monday 5th May!!

This evening Lucca and Florence are due to have their rabies injections at the vets. I'm not looking forward to that one little bit, especially as I now have to take them on my own as Stuart has an appointment elsewhere (hmm, very convenient...). Thankfully, Allison has agreed to pop home with me to help me wrangle them into their travel boxes.

We took delivery of 30 packing boxes from the removals firm today, so tonight the packing starts!

~ Helen 


 

three weeks until completion

Actually, it's less than three weeks until completion if the removals company can accommodate us - our buyers have asked if we can complete on 23rd April - two days sooner than we were expecting, and less than three weeks away. Suddenly it all feels very real, very scary, and there's still SO much to do.

We both feel very sad about leaving our lovely house in Wick Close - and the idea of not having a new home to move into immediately will make it even more of a wrench to leave. We've had some very happy times in this house, and have both realised we are way more attached to it than we realised.

Our 'mogglies' Lucca and Florence have an appointment at the vet next week to have their rabies jabs done and the paperwork stamped for their passports - and we are hoping to take them to their 'holiday home' in Bristol in two weeks. Mum and Dad have very kindly offered to look after the cats for us until the animal courier company can collect them in June - the very idea of it all makes me feel panicky and teary - it's such a long way for two little cats to travel on their own!

We have also been trying to work where we will live after we have moved out and before we leave the country - we will be homeless for a little under two weeks in a little under three weeks!

~ Helen

compromesso

After putting our house on the market immediately after the Christmas break we accepted an asking price offer after only 6 days of viewings!

Nothing else for it but to jump on a Ryanair flight from Stanstead to Pisa in order to sign the Compromesso. This is the initial contract in which you pay a deposit to the vendor and all parties sign a legal agreement in which you stipulate amongst other things a date on or before which you will complete the purchase.

So, if we were to pull out now, we would lose our deposit, but if the vendor pulls out then they not only have to pay us our deposit back, but they have to double it.

This explains why once the Compromesso is signed the house is considered as good as sold - rarely does either party pull out, especially when the deposit is normally 20% of the purchase price. We didn't pay quite that much, we negotiated a lower amount and almost a 12-month period in which to complete.

We met the vendors and Richard (our interpreter) at the geometra's office in Pescia at noon and went through the details of the contract and the property and the parcels of land that come with it and confirmed that the geometra had checked ownership of the house was correct and that there were no obstacles to us purchasing it (he has to check that there are no outstanding debts against the house, going right back through all the records through the years of different ownership).

Richard had to be there, legally, in order to make sure we all understood what was in the contract before we could sign.

An hour an a half later the deal was done!

Next stop the local bank.

Here we had our passports and Codice Fiscali (same as UTR in the UK) codes photocopied so that we could open bank accounts. They also took a copy of the signed compromesso in order for us to apply for a mortgage. It took longer for the 3 of us to get in and out of the bank via the security capsule (one in/out at a time, complete with fingerprint recognition) than it did to request the accounts!

The meeting the next day was another matter - we had to return on our own, without the help of Richard, and an hour or so later, testing our Italian to the extremes we left with our new bank accounts.

Next job, the mortgage.