Help me to keep sane while I try to move house...please

[Daffy]

Please can you try to help me keep my sanity whilst I try to move house. Those of you that have gone through it recently will know what I'm going through at the moment. It's not a long chain about four couples involved, but things seem to be taking ages. My solicitor doesn't seem to ba able to get hold of all the paperwork that he needs in order to complete our purchase, our sale has already been done and just needs signing on the dotted line.
The people that we are trying to purchase from seem to be dragging their heels in everything that they have to do.
Does anybody have any tips on how to get things moving along and can anybody give me any tips on how to get through the next few weeks. We are already on week nine.
It's making me very frustrated, angry, upset and weepy.

So glad to hear that you are happily settled Azzie and enjoying the extra space etc. We have no idea what's happening at the moment as our solicitor had the cheek to go on holiday!! We're going ourselves on the 14th and really hope to exchange before then otherwise it's going to be christmas before we get in. Seeing as it's a completed chain I dont really understand what takes so long, apart from the obvious searches, surveys etc. I'm still determined not to get stressed about it though and so far, I seem to be doing okay although dh insists on making plans for the new kitchen/bathroom/extension/garden etc just about every night over dinner!
How have your offspring adjusted to the move? Has it affected their sleep at all?

Glad to hear you are in and all is OK! I've got good news too - we exchanged on Friday and move on the 14th! I can't believe it is going to happen at last. Feel strangely demotivated though. All we've done is book the removal company and arranged for our Sky dish to be moved! Ds has developed annoying habit of pointing to things and asking if we are taking it!

Its going to be a very busy weekend!

Mckenzie - the kid's sleep doesn't seem to have suffered at all. In fact, they seem to have taken the move completely in their stride, and have settled very well. I think the huge amount of space has helped - they love it! It is now possible to build the most enormous train track on the living room floor.

EmmaM - it's great that you've finally got a date. Don't worry about feeling demotivated - I know exactly how you feel, I don't think I really even felt it was going to happen until the man turned up to start packing boxes the day before the move. As for the asking what you'll be taking thing, ds and dd drove me mad for several weeks by going through almost everything in the house asking that. At first ds seemed to think that a new house meant all new toys, then he got mildly concerned that we might forget some of the old ones, then he wanted to know if we were taking the walls...

It's great to finally be in, though. Good luck you two!

Many congrats Azzie glad everything went ok and that everyone's settled. I must say that I'm impressed you've managed to get to your computer so soon, we were 3 weeks before ours came out of it's box!

Fantastic news EmmaM, I'll be thinking of you on the 14th....hope all goes well for you.

Thanks Daffy. The thought of being cut off from the electronic world was so bad for both dh and I that the computer was up and running by Saturday night (what sad people we are...). The only problem is that there is no phone point yet in the room we are using as a study, so when we want to go online we have to stretch a phone cable from the kitchen - not something to do while the kids are still up and running about.

Hurrah - we moved on Friday and it all went very smoothly! Given all the troubles we had leading up to exchange, completion couldn't have been more different. It was all done and dusted by midday and the removal men finished unloading by 2.30 pm. Ds wasn't too happy Friday night, he wanted to go and sleep in his old bedroom, but the next day he settled OK and by yesterday you'd think he'd lived there all his life. He has been a bit of a sod, but its obviously attention seeking as we have been busy unpacking. However, we made sure that we both took time out to play with him and he had a friend round yesterday afternoon which went down very well.

I've been spending money like its going out of fashion, but what a lovely feeling! I'm off this afternoon to go and buy wardrobes and I can't wait!

Good luck to anyone who's still in the process of moving, it might seem a long drag, but its worth it once you get there! Thanks too to Azzie and Daffy for your words of encouragement. Hope you are OK Mcckenzie.

Congratulations, EmmaM - hope you'll be very happy in your new home. We're delighted with ours, and feel we've definitely made a good move. The kids love the extra space. The only one of us who isn't happy is one of our two cats, who escaped and went missing for a week, then turned up in our old neighbour's back garden. He's now back with us and is confined to barracks, but isn't very impressed with it all.