Everything Comes

How long would you consider you need to wait for an agreed moving date once a house move chain is established? Two or three months, four at the most? How about eighteen? That's how long it took Keith and Madeline Hatton to move from Ham, outside Kingston upon Thames, to Storrington in West Sussex.

The problem seemed to be that the first time buyers in the chain kept dropping out. Basic checks, like have these people got an agreed mortgage, or mortgage offer, were not done and this caused catastrophic problems when the chain tried to move the process forward. I suppose one might have assumed that the estate agents involved would have carried out such checks but apparently not!

Anyway things firmed up in the weeks before the SigneT Nationals in early August and K&M knew that they would be coming back straight into the move. In additional to moving 'the house' contents Keith's business also had to be moved. This involved the clearance of the large work shop behind their house at Ham, no small undertaking considering the amount of tools and materials in it. I think we moved two half-ton truck loads of wood out just for starters.

The movers arrived on the prior Saturday and started packing things into boxes. On Monday 18th August they came back and things got underway. While the guys loaded the removal van K&M's sons, Paul and Anthony, loaded another truck borrowed from Anthony's place of work. Keith and I loaded our estate cars and a trailer borrowed from Nigel at Aquarius. Madeline alternated between making tea and coffee, hoovering and looking like she didn't really want to go. Eventually everything found its way onto the transport and we collapsed onto the lounge floor to await the phone call from the Solicitor's which would confirm that monies had changed hands and that K&M could hit the road to their new home.

We arrived in Storrington about 2:30pm having diverted via Epsom to pick up Lyn on the way. The movers were already offloading and after a quick look around we pitched in too. Crates quickly piled up in every room in the house. Vast amounts of tools vanished into sheds and the garage while tea started appearing out of the kitchen (always a good sign that!). After the movers left, demolishing part of the front garden wall in the process, some friends, who had already moved down to the area, arrived with lunch. Well needless to say we downed tools and tucked in. Well you can't look a gift chicken leg in the mouth can you?

Since then we have been down to Storrington a couple of times and K&M are now well settled into 'Pinecroft' and beginning to exploring their new surroundings. Keith is also now working on establishing his business in the area. They still have lots to do but they are finally in, up and running. Good luck to them both in their new home.

Mike (Mr. Move-it) Baker