*Moving to Saffron Walden, Essex , in August - does anyone live nearby?*

[SaffyCat]

I am moving from Surrey to Saffron Walden in mid-August with my husband, 7yr old son and 1yr old daughter. We don't know anyone in the area yet and I would love to meet other local mums (am happy to drive a few miles) and also to find out about toddler groups/recomended family activities.

Just looked up the town centre and yup, it says we should be OLD people. With all these London relocators they are going to have to update that

But we are old. have you seen how young policeman look these days

My estate agent looks like he's only just out of nappies! I see him all spruced up in his suit and think 'Aah, your mum must think you look gorgeous.'

Hi Milarkie

We did use an Architect and he is supposedly managing the project for us - would not recommend him though - Kenneth Mark Practice and the builders we are using have a good standard of work A Cox & Son but would not use them again.

I hate builders

Thanks ES - but you seem a bit ambiguous about your feelings for builders

I've just had our estate agent on the phone, claiming that our buyer's solicitors are claiming that there is no planning permission for our loft conversion and kitchen extension (both of which are years old and were here when we bought the house) so we might be stuck here a bit longer

A friend of ours is an architect. I will speak to him and see if he is happy for his name to be posted on this forum, although i don't see why not.

Never get an architect to project manage. Their idea of managing is very different from ours. I sacked our last one in London

2boysmacca - if you don't want to post the name my email is bluebeartwobears at yahoo dot co dot uk.
I'd really appreciate a recommendation. We were thinking it would be good to get a professional to draw up the plans but (especially after our last project manager - grrr) we would run the work ourselves.
It's just converting the loft space and maybe jiggling the bedrooms round a bit I think.

Will do. I don't have his work contacts but I shall be seeing him tomorrow so look out for a mail from me.

Many thanks, 2boys...
Going to have to stop typing as I'm crossing my fingers and toes that the estate agents have got it wrong and our move is going ok

In the final hour of our flat sale (well, the week we were due to exchange) it was found that the works we had had done had not been written into the lease. The leaseholder fortunately was good about it but we had to pay his solicitor monies to amend the lease. £2000 and 3 months later it was done!!!!

we are having major lease hassles with our flat and look like we will be paying two mortgages for a while, gggrrr...

If the architect is happy to post his details and comes recommended we would be interested too.

The sooner leases are phased out, the better

Architect company is
Anglia Design Associates
01603 666576

They are a family business with offices in London and Norwich but the guy lives here in SW. He has done work for a couple of freinds.

Forgot to say, his name is Nathan.

Thank you 2boysmacca.

And estate agent has now sorted out the supposed lack of planning permission, so we are back on track again and will be haunting WA tomorrow morning, and probably searching for yet another tea shop (ok I admit it, I can't drink coffee, something went wrong with my tastebuds when I was pg and it makes me sick now) in SW tomorrow lunchtime.

Does anyone know of any good builders!

we are seriously thinking of gettign rid of ours - they are so slap dash and lazy! we are half way through our project and we are still all camping out in the living room - just been told it will be another 4 weeks before DS can move into his room and another 5 until we can move into ours! the baby is being delivered in less than 3 weeks!

Milarkie - if you see a tent in the playground in WA it's us!

Millarkie. If it's a nice day, try Kims as the kids can play in Jubilee Gardens while you have a herbal tea! Otherwise, we'll see in in Starbucks .

ES - Laurasmiles knows a good builder! We have a great 6 berth tent we could lend you - no, honestly, it's hell when your house is full of strange people and dust and dirt and it seems like it will never end (and irritating people keep saying 'it'll be worth it in the end'). If we had moved already I'd be offering you our spare rooms.

2boysmacca - forgive my ignorance, but whereabouts is Kims? (It's a small town but I tend to miss all the landmarks )

George street. Come out of Waitrose and it's on your left (by the pedestrian crossing). Jubilee Gardens are behind the Waitrose Car Park. Bloke in there is not very child friendly but if it's nice you can sit outside and the kids just love the public gardens.

Best sandwich in town is definitely coucou but it is so small, not great with the kids. No. 5 is pretty nice, next to Barclays on Market Square but I've only had a coffee on their "terrace".

Millarkie. How was the schlepp to SW? Are you fed up of the journey yet? Have you been given an exchange/completion date yet?

Hi 2boysmacca - we sprinted up and back today (well, less than 2 hours in each direction and I got white knuckles from hanging on whilst dh drove my car (6-seater people mover) and kept forgetting it wasn't his (sporty saab).
Loved the house even more today - this was only my second viewing (but dh's third) and we hadn't seen inside it since last November. The rooms seem to have got bigger and we measured wall space and fantastically all our big furniture fits. The children felt at home from the moment we got there (helped by our lovely vendors who let them play with the grandkid's toys and the bouncy dog) and we can't wait to move.
We didn't hang around in SW though since I have a stinking cold and was feeling dizzy and shakey (prob the effects of dh's driving ).
We are crossing our fingers and hoping for exchange within the next couple of weeks and move date at end of April...having said that, we got back to yet another letter asking for ridiculous information from the buyer's solicitor - grrr.

Are you having a good weekend 2boys? Weather's great isn't it.

Not bad. Been suffering from a cold and stuffed sinuses for over 2 weeks now. Dh has been puting up an activity play tower in the garden for last few days. Finally ds has been able to get on it today so I can now see the numerous hours standing next to him, and holding my breath as ds2 attempts to climb up it too!!

My inlaws live in SW London and I can't tell you how much I hate that journey. I can never work out whether it's best to go M11 and travel through London or M25.

We went up via North circular, A1, A505 and came back M11,M25,A1, north circ. No difference between the two time-wise. Cross country is prettier, but children have started to get travel sick (dd vomited all over the back of the car when we went up last week, and now ds 'thinks' he might get sick) so we thought the motorways might cut down the vomit risk. It's not fun whichever way we drive.

Hope you feel better soon.

I loathe the north circular too!