We weren't looking to move, as it happens; we quite liked the house we were living in and the road we lived on. We were surrounded by friendly neighbours who became friends more than neighbours. But TW spotted our new house while she was drunkenly surfing rightmove one night, and she started a chain of events which ended up with us living on the other side of Worthing.
We had our house packed up by Perfect Group, who were really good. They wrapped everything fragile in paper and it took me about half an hour to unwrap all our shot glasses. I'll be glad if I never see one of those effers again! (The shot glasses, that is.) I'd have to recommend Perfect Group, they took out all the hassle of packing. TW had put in a lot of preparation, but it was funny/odd to unwrap the occasional item, such as an eggcup full of salt...
We used AVRillo to do our conveyancing, and again, they really were very good. They had a brilliant dashboard where we could see how both our sale and our purchase were progressing, and they kept us informed as we hit the various key points in the process. They also sent us a celebratory hamper once we had moved in to our new house, which was very much appreciated!
And the final party we relied on was the estate agent, Jacobs Steel. TW managed the relationship with them, but they liaised between the buyers and sellers and kept us all informed of what was going on. I was hoping to move on the 4th Feb, but they let us know in the nicest way that there were still a number of things which needed to happen, and it was unlikely. As it was, it only took four and a half months, but it does seem that it was a longer process.
Anyway, it's been three and a half days, and the place already feels like home. That's down to TW unpacking everything like a whirling dervish and committing a lot of energy to making the place homely. She's already been painting today, to get the place *precisely* to her liking... If it had been down to me, it would probably have taken four weeks at least to unpack and sort everything. We've not met the neighbours yet, but hopefully they're soon to be friends.
TTFN.
