It's time to begin.....

greensalad

Re: heating costs, if it has a big fireplace you may well be fine if you confine yourself there. In my draughty old childhood home we had the fire going and closed the living room door, it was absolutely toasty even in the deepest winter (plus it's good for old houses to have the fire going, that's what they were built for). For going to bed, we just had very thick duvets and electric blankets. Turn on the electric blanket for 20 mins before bed time to warm up the bed, then have it on timer to go off after you've fallen asleep. Uses surprisingly little electricity that way. The only time we had the radiators on was in the morning in the bedrooms and bathroom to warm the house up for an hour or two, plus a little blast everywhere once a week in the winter to get the moisture out of the house. Doing that, you'll be able to heat only the parts of the house you need and reduce your bills.  

Kakiste

Yep I think the fire is the way forward. Hopefully the weather should be warmer in a week or so, so it won't matter so much until the end of the autumn. 

greensalad

Kakiste said:

Yep I think the fire is the way forward. Hopefully the weather should be warmer in a week or so, so it won't matter so much until the end of the autumn. 

Also stock up on wood in the summer when it's cheaper! You can normally get green wood which needs to be dried out and then dry it yourself at home. 

Kakiste

There is a both a big cellar and a garden store underneath the house (rammed full of stuff at the moment but going to be cleared out in a couple of months (I've said I'll help with almost everything- but not that- hugely hate spiders and they're clearly all lurking in there waiting for me) but anyway- that will be cleared by summer and I could store wood in there.  

Makingabobor2

Ooh, I am genuinely excited and pleased for you.  Hope you manage to sort out the rest of the stuff you need from FBMP or some freebie pages. What a great new start for you and your daughter this will be.  I wish you all the luck in the world with it. What a great price rent as well. Rents round here are loads more than that. Sounds like a real bargain. 

ladyholly

All sounds brilliant especially the rent. I don't know what they are like where you are but a 3 bed house here would be over £1000pm.

Mrs_Money_Penny

So pleased. Looking forward to hearing when you’ve moved and starting your new life. So pleased for you. When are you moving in? xx

Kakiste

We currently pay £700 for our 3 bedroom house @ladyholly and that's slightly under market rate and in a bog standard town- new house is in this beautiful village in a national park so average rent in the village for 3 bedroom house is £1100 ish. Got a massive deal there. 

Kakiste

So picked up the sofa bed and (also additional sofa that I was unaware of- it was a set of 2) yesterday afternoon. Much hilarity ensued and it turned into a proper saga (will update in more detail later) but the end of the afternoon sees my lounge having a sofa bed and a sofa in it. 

Fridge freezer cancelled at the last minute- trying to work something out today or tomorrow after school,

However have just been given the heads up that our onsite storage building contains loads of wardrobes, dressers and bedside tables that were bought for previous kids who have now left the attached care home and they're there as 'backup emergency furniture. (in case we have a kid destroy something or a new kid arrive with no belongings) I'm going to have a mooch down there later on a free period and see if there's anything suitable- may be a cheaper way of acquiring it than fb marketplace. 

Kakiste

So we left at the end of lessons to get the sofa. Once we arrived I immediately saw that there was in fact 2 sofas and was slightly dubious that I could fit them both in a transit minibus with the seats folded down. There was also an additional problem of the sofas being in a tiny garden down some fairly steep and narrow uneven steps from the road- it was heavy - I'm thanking my persistence at going to all the gym classes as I've increased my deadlift by about 25kg over the past 18 months and my benchpress by similar amounts and I was at my absolute limit of strength. Work friend couldn't lift it- So I stopped a random stranger and persuaded him to help me carry them up to the pavement as it was the overhead lift that work friend couldn't do. So random man and I hoofed both sofas up the steps. (My arms are wrecking today!)

At this stage work friend and I manhandle the first sofa into the van- in order to get it over the folded back seats I was having to lift and shove whilst friend pulled. Sofa suddenly cleared the seats and my arm that was pushing the top of the sofa continued on it's path- which basically meant I full on punched the rim of the van boot and cut my finger fairly deeply. My finger starts bleeding everywhere- (looked a little bit like I had been stabbed as it was covering the pavement) and work friend doesn't like blood so she feels faint and sits on the kerb- I manage to pull out the van first aid kit - open a bandage with my teeth and then one handed bandage my finger. (did a great job as it had knitted closed by the end of last night) We both then sat on the kerb and laughed for a bit. At this point we attempted to tessellate the second sofa into the van and it became very obvious that both wouldn't fit (in fact we would've had to tie the boot down with rope to get one in.) We decided that we would have to leave the second sofa on the pavement, take the sofa bed to my new house and then double back and see if it was still there as it was the best plan we could come up with. 

At this stage a furniture delivery van just happened to turn up right next to where we were- the bloke had arrived 30 minutes early to deliver a mattress with a half empty van. With a bit of negotiation and some cash in hand he agreed to transport both sofa to my house (20 minute round trip) instead of just waiting on the street. He also helped me to carry them into my living room once we got there. 

It was very funny- but also look at the good fortune! Random chance that a van with a willing driver and space just happened to come along when I really needed it.