Our House - Day 1: Exchange Day

Exchange Day
We finally got an exchange date for Thursday February 14th 2019 - hooray!! As it always does on exchange day, the time seems to drag with no news. We had arranged to collect a second hand sofa bed the same day, as we knew we wouldn't be able to move the bed until later. Luckily enough we had friends who helped us move the sofa with their van. When the news finally came we were on our way to collect the sofa bed and the news was mixed. We had the keys but there was no water in the house due to damage caused by the previous occupant trying to disconnect their washing machine. This didn't stop our excitement, but did mean we were thrown straight into adult mode. We got the sofa bed safely moved in and checked out the damage to the water pipe.

A quick trip to PlumBase and we had the pipe capped off and the water back on. 

We knew the house would need some updating but believed it to be functional and certainly liveable. We soon found that the 'little water pipe issue' hadn't been all they had left. The kitchen cupboards were full of old crockery and pots, there was an unexpected fridge freezer clearly damaged with the doors internal insulation hanging out. The supposed working cooker (which we had agreed to them leaving) didn't have a single working ring and the oven was caked in cooked on food.  We soon realised that we had much problem solving/adulting ahead. 

First Night

We set the sofa bed up in the living room and treated ourselves to fish and chips. The front room had dado rails right the way round and a strange combination of paint and paper. We decided to get stuck in and started removing the dado rails and scrapping the walls. A decision we might later regret. 


The Clear Out Begins
By 9am on the Saturday morning we had cleared out the kitchen cupboards, boxing up the contents, and had take 1 car load to a charity shop and 1 car load to the dump. 
We managed to track down a second hand gas oven/electric hob, acquired a fridge freezer from a family member and we scrubbed the kitchen. We took two cars to collect the bed and made the precarious trip back from Hayle with one half of a double divan bed in each car and the mattress strapped to one roof. After 3 nights on a sofa bed - it was bliss having a bed again. 

The Main Bedroom
When we moved in we noticed a whiff in the house, particularly in the main bedroom. The carpet was stained and we decided to remove this ASAP. The rooms instantly smelt better, although removing the carpet unveiled a new problem. Not only had the pet urine soaked through the carpet into the floor boards but the boards had begun to sink on one side and did not look safe... More on this in a later post.