So, it turns out I’ve been involved in chicken counting. Which is foolish, and I should know better. Although we could sell the house at the price we were offered, it’s not what the agent thinks we should be able to get…and it’s less than we hoped for by a goodly chunk.
So.
We wait.
And we had another house viewing today.
Please cross digits, and possibly extremities for us.
Sadly, the sun’s disappeared… I’d been contemplating a walk.
So instead, you get my mulling, rather than me perching by the river and letting the meandering water be home of my considerations. It’s very odd here at the moment, perched precariously on the precipice of leaving. The future is a massive void of the unknown. We have hopefully got an offer on the house coming, hopefully. Hopefully it’ll be enough to carry us over the ocean. This place we’ve made our home, it will be a memory. The 1930s fireplaces, the tile floor I spent so long over, the area-inappropriate-feature-brick-wall, the sunrise door… it’ll all be in the past. Our garden of which I’m insanely proud, it’ll be someone else’s space. They’ll be lounging on the reclaimed timber deck, possibly with a chiminea, pondering the joys of life.
And we’ll be in the US. Living in another country, far away from the things I grew up with.
Both excitement and nervousness share their times in my brain – but in this weird hinterland of “maybe the house has sold, maybe not” where we’re waiting to find out if we should start packing to move, and where we still don’t know if I’ve got a visa, so we don’t know if we’ll be moving to the States or moving to somewhere just more countrysidey… well, let’s say it’s not conducive to a calm and relaxed state of mind.
It’s all terribly, and inconveniently circular at the moment. My brain swirls with what-ifs and yes-buts, and none of it really gets me anywhere. And then there’s the whole topic of “what about when we get there, what job can I do if I’m not a nurse?”. And “What if I can’t pass the NCLEX”. This is when all my bravado, my faux-confidence used at work does me no good at all. I can run an ED, because I have a work ‘persona’ which is much more confident than I feel. So when I get challenged outside of that environment, there’s often a failure of belief in myself. Which is odd, because I usually get this shit done, when it comes down to it.
Anyhow, I’ve been through the US stuff paperwork, and just need to get myself to a photocopier; and I’ve got a hotel room booked for the night before the interview, to avoid attempting to get to the US embassy for the interview, in London, on the day of the interview and that adding to the stress.
And now I’m going to look at this NCLEX-RN book that I’ve been prevaricating about opening for the last couple of hours. Bah.
So, the viewings seem to have gone okay. Well, the Friday one has led to an e-mail update saying the person is considering offering, which is better than not considering offering. Which is nice to hear. Saturday we’re yet to hear about – but I’m not expecting to know about that until Monday. So with that positivity, I’m trying not to stress about it too much (and failing).
Which means that today I’m going to attempt to enjoy the sunshine by… checking over my US application stuff and prepping for the NCLEX.
I’m good at this relaxing, yes?
So, I have an exam to sit, which is very cool, but quite scary. Especially because I run into a lot of people who’ve failed, or know people who’ve failed. Of course, I realise, that my sample selection is probably somewhat skewed, in that if you passed the NCLEX, you’re probably working in America. I’ve just been cheerfully informed I’ve got until the 17th of December to complete the examination successfully. Which is… not that long. I mean, I was intending to take it before then anyway, but having someone else impose that deadline is moderately terrifying.
But hey.
Secondly, my beloved Minor has gone off to gain a new gearbox, back axle, diff, and front brakes. This should make her safer and easier to drive, and stop her making unpleasant noises. However, the funding for that comes from shifts with my nursing agency…
…and I have seen far fewer shifts available. Although I did manage to get two shifts that I need this week…
so… trying not to concentrate on that too much.
And in positives – the Prius passed its MOT (first try, only one advisory, incredibly).
We have spent the last few days doing frantic cleaning and tidying. There have been one two many trips to the tip, which have removed a lot of crap from the house and for the most part managed to land it in the recycling. My car has become what I am currently referring to as the travelling crap ferry as small random items (like, for example, the stuff I’m wanting to offer John) lurks in there waiting for a chance to be taken somewhere. And indeed, it’s joined by other exciting things, like the small amount of ‘hard plastic’ that didn’t make it to the tip to go into the ‘hard plastic recycling’.
The house now looks awesome, if markedly less like our house. Pictures of us and the people we love have disappeared. They’ve been snunk into corners and boxes, so that people without imagination can picture themselves in the space.
Despite the windows having been washed by someone yesterday we were very unhappy with the finish, so I frantically ran to the store and got a squeegee on a stick, then hung out of the windows cleaning like a loon.
Kathryn’s washed/hoovered/swept all over the place. Our wedding dresses have gone off to be dry-cleaned, thus vaporising the two piles of plastic-coated merangue that have occupied the top of the wardrobe… I’ve precariously stacked the very, very heavy record boxes on what was once an ikea bathroom stool in our under-stairs cupboard. By doing so it means the hoover can live where it was always meant to live (out of sight…).
We really take this showing our house thing pretty seriously.
I hope to hell that we get at least a decent offer, if not a couple, out of this weekend. Then we can get on with the rest of the stressful moving m’larkey.
I say this because I’m now at the stage of waking up at 2-3 frickin’ AM most nights just to feel angsty, then to work my way back to sleep. Which is moderately tedious.
Breathing exercises… and moving. Then it’ll be time to take a bit of a breather. Yes.
I am, apparently, eligible to take the NCLEX… the scary/terrifying, up to 6 hour, up to over 250 question, adaptive testing examination for nursing registration in the US. Whee.
My nursing degree is “Comparable to completion of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in the United States.”
My reading of this is: W00T!*
Let’s just hope the state board is happy with the number of hours I’ve done in each area :)
* Although my leaving gift from work appears to be a summer cold :-(
Today they’re coming to value the house. By ‘they’ I mean a gang of three different estate agents. I have a massive list of questions to ask and in the last few days Kathryn and I have done an awesome amount of work on the house and garden. It’s not finished, which leaves me slightly frustrated, but I am willing to accept that realistically I could have done no more.
– Paint the entryway
– Paint the back wall (just touching it up, but there’s a lot of touching up) <- This is part done – all the bits that need a ladder to reach are done.
– Remove the doors and get them dipped-and-stripped (being done)
– Touch up some paint in the kitchen DONE!
– Finish the deck and the garden path
– Weed the garden and chuck down 100s of litres of bark chip
– Build gravel stairs at the bottom of the garden (edge them and then throw gravel in).
– Paint the bathroom doorframe
– Remove excess grout residue
– Make panel to go under sink
I have worked from 8-9am until after Kathryn’s got home; then we’ve worked together. We took our entire day off and worked for 9 straight hours sorting the two spare rooms and the bedroom. I’ve painted, cleaned, cut timber, disassembled more pallets, tidied, washed, wiped, dusted, pcked, sorted, been to the charity shop with a billion donations, bought dirt and path-underlay, moved a literal ton of gravel (and need to move it again)…
The deck now has an edge/barrier planter and (with the exception of the stairs) is boxed in. I’d like to have done the stairs with panelling too, but haven’t quite managed it and may not. Clearing out under there is the first priority.
I’m really quite pleased with it, especially considering the planter’s all scrap from pallets too.
Inside, the only jobs I can think of are to hang the bathroom cabinet and to rehang the doors, when they get back from being stripped (which should be today).
Outside, I’ve still got some painting to do of the wall, and the garden still needs much tidying. The front garden bushes need pruning and the front needs more weeding. I was threatening to paint the front wall, and haven’t yet, which may or may not happen.
And we won’t go into the state of the inside of my wardrobe. It’s almost as tall as me with clothing just hurled in there in a heap. It’s fearsome. It’s a mixture of ‘this needs sorting’, me rifling through it to get my old uniforms out to return to my work, and lord knows what else. All the laundry has just gone in it without being sorted (apart from socks and underwear which does have a drawer).
Oh, and Rebecca is due to go up to JLH this coming week. I’ve a custom gearbox being built which should be tolerable for the Ital engine and lovely with the EV motor.
So it’s all go here. We just have to hope that the visa comes through – although if not, we’ll be moving to the countryside near Bristol. That’s the plan B. And setting up shop here. Anyhow, let’s see how this goes.
So, we popped to see my mum this weekend. Not many of those trips left, which makes me sad. I’m really going to miss my mum, but she has now got a tablet with skype and a front facing camera. So ra.
Her exhibition is over, she sold one painting. Sadly Lisekard is, as she thought, too impoverished for people to buy paintings; lots of lovely comments though… so we photographed all the paintings and I’ll pop up a Esty shop for her in the next few days. She really, really, wants to raise more money for the Nepal appeal, so whilst we’re still in the country we’ll give her a hand with that.
And, in case you missed this due to the ephemeral nature of twitter, I now have a visa appointment. Just under a month from now I’ll get the final answer on whether the US is happy to have me living there. Which’d be handy, because otherwise things are going to get a little bit interesting. Well, either way they’re going to get interesting. As it stands that does shuffle our schedule a little, moving it to the far end of October, rather than the middle, but in all honesty selling the house may take that long. And we’re not really in a position to move until the house is sold.
In consideration of the need to sell the house, we came home early from my mum’s and managed to put in over an hour’s work tidying the garden. There is, therefore, creeping progress on that front. I’ve started to lift the section of path I laid under the apple tree which just doesn’t really work. The path that was planned to be a sort of secondary path is also going to be lifted, made a bit wider, then relaid as gravel (rather than bark chip) – to make it into a more ‘main’ path. I also laid the bricks that now mark the edge of the gravel path at it’s join to the crazy paving we found under the grass…
…so it’s all go. Well, it’s some go.
We were hoping to get the house on the market at the beginning of this week; that’s blatantly beyond us. I’m hoping that I can shuffle it to Friday or Saturday for the valuation. But we’ve got some fairly serious tidying to do in the meantime, and obviously, the house is currently lacking any doors. The deck’s not finished, and the garden’s still somewhat of a mess. We’ll just have to see what we can do.
– Visa interview: Not yet received date. Week 2 of (up to) 6 wait for date now over.
– Nursing registration application: Awaiting review by CGFNS. Week [christ-knows] of [eventually].
Summary of Changes: None
Summary Status: Feeling quite frustrated
Last night, as the clocks rolled on past 2, I hauled myself out of bed, jumped in the car, and took myself across the city to my friends’ house, where they were packing up their last few belongings into a pile of (14) cases and bags. Thanks to: a roofrack, enthusiasm, and a lot of tie-downs; my friends, their kids and their belongings were shoe-horned into / onto our decade old Prius and ferried to Bristol Airport (I leave it to you to decide what ended up in/out of the car).
Where I presume that they got on their plane, since I’ve not heard anything to the contrary, and are, I suspect, somewhere over the US now. Because they are also emigrating. They’ll be about 4 hours south of us, if we get a visa and land up where we want to be.
It’s weird though, I mean, I’m bad at keeping in touch with people. A few days ago I saw someone I consider a good friend – who I’ve not seen for nearly a decade. Nikki and Kate lived in the same city, and I write for Nikki’s website, and yet we’d probably see each other every few weeks at best. Despite that, knowing that they’ve gone makes the city feel a bit lonelier. It’s strange the idea that they’re not there. We’d hoped that we might manage to all get out of the country at the same time, but we’re here waiting on this visa appointment, and they’re in the air, exhausted and sleep deprived approaching the start of their new life.
In an effort to get some sleep (because I woke up at 9, having got back to the house at about 5am) and to progress the things that need progressing, I took the pile of timber I created from many pallets yesterday, and made a planter:
Which was, I felt, good progress. About an hour and a half’s work. It still needs some trim pieces attaching, and frustratingly despite grabbing what seemed like an enormous pile of wood, I’m certain there’s not enough for the tasks remaining (the other planter for the longer front section, and cladding the last few bits, plus some nice ‘trim’ pieces required for covering up the joint between the planter and the deck cladding). Obviously, were things ideal, I’d be asleep now. Rather than sitting writing this, but at the faintest sign of sleep I got disturbed by a double glazing salesman. Bah.
Anyhoo, yesterday we whipped the doors off their hinges and ran them down to the dip’n’strip place (yes, yes, we really should have done this long ago) and tomorrow I’m going to set to on the bathroom doorframe and the loft hatch (which both need a bit of prep then painting with white paint).
Also, I’ve realised I’ve got a big chunk of pine left over from when the kitchen was built that I can use to make the panel to go under the sink. It’s already varnished, so it’s just a case of cutting it to fit. Hurrah.
– Paint the entryway
– Paint the back wall (just touching it up, but there’s a lot of touching up)
– Remove the doors and get them dipped-and-stripped (being done)
– Touch up some paint in the kitchen
– Finish the deck and the garden path
– Weed the garden and chuck down 100s of litres of bark chip
– Paint the bathroom doorframe
– Remove excess grout residue
– Make panel to go under sink
Our sort-of-deadline is Friday next week, at least to get valuations done. So I have faint, very cautious optimism at the moment.
Now, if everyone could concentrate on willing that visa appointment in our direction, that’d be awesome*.
* Of course, they might say ‘no’, in which case I dunno what the hell our long term plan becomes.