A House, A Home!

Photos by the Boy

Last weekend I came up to Bristol for another round of house viewing with S. We viewed two flats - one which was rather a disappointment - small, electric heating, single glazed windows on a noisy road - and another which had everything we wanted but furniture. After a little discussion we decided to go for it and dashed across to the lettings agent to put ourselves forward. This was the third time we'd done this so we were pretty much expecting to be turned down or pipped at the post by employed people. However when they phoned the landlord he immediately said yes - no letting other people view or waiting 'til Monday, just immediate acceptance. We put down the required deposit and left, still not quite believing that we'd finally found somewhere.
After a few days of anxious waiting we got an e-mail saying that the referencing had all gone fine and all we had to do now was sign the tenancy agreement & pay up. I spent some time dabbling in comparison sites, trying to work out the mysterious world of insurance, and on Friday we went in to sign up. I was a bit nervous of the lettings agents as the lady we dealt with first was rather scarily efficient and professionally unfriendly, but it turned out we only had to see the accounts lady who was lovely and put us much more at ease. It even turned out that she's a keen sewer! S got a new crochet book out of her bag to show me while our card payments were going through and we all got distracted for a few minutes while she told us about her duct tape mannekin and the vintage patterns she'd just ordered.
Anyway, we got our keys and decamped to a coffee shop to recover ourselves and have some lunch. We spent the afternoon in a haze of organisation - getting council tax, water & sewerage, and TV licensing all sorted on top of completing the 29 page inventory. Phew.
It's been a somewhat stressful month and the fact that neither of us has been living in Bristol has made it a bit frustrating to organise but we finally have a home. Now all we need is some furniture...