Getting the keys was A. BIG. DEAL. We had sold W’s house 6 weeks before and had taken up residence at his mum’s house waiting to move in. After hours of restlessness and realising we couldn’t wait a second longer, we called the estate agent.
“Um… yeah just wondering if they’ve dropped the keys off yet?” I tried to sound non-chalant but I wasn’t kidding anyone.
“Ohhh I don’t know, pet. I just got in from lunch, let me check…” An excruciating 30 second wait followed. “Oh yes! We have them here, you can come pick them up.”
Half an hour later, I put the key in the door and took our first step inside of a house that we had looked at for about 10 minutes 12 weeks before. Stepping inside, our hearts sank. It was filthy, the carpet had been ripped out of the living room and underneath was old, dusty and paint-ridden floorboards. The walls had been painted around the furniture so shadows of former colours stood silent greeting us.
The house, tastefully dressed during our viewing now looked vacant and tired and we both took a breath inwards. What had we done? Was this house a mistake?
After piling all our earthly belongings into every available bit of space and unpacking at the very least the kitchen so we could make a cuppa and putting together the bed, we collapsed.
We awoke the next day and this is what we had awaiting us… These are TRULY our before pics as it really doesn’t get any worse than this! Those with a delicate disposition may want to look away now….
And yet, ignoring the mass of boxes and the floors that needed finishing and the walls that needed painting, we noticed the sunshine. Sunshine pouring into every room, highlighting the high ceilings and the scale of the room sizes (so much bigger than the matchbox newbuild we’d come from).
We started to fall in love with it all over again. And we each breathed a big sigh of relief.
