One Daily Positive - Week 48 Dubai to UK and getting our home back

Normally I start a new post on the Sunday and jot down what my plans are for the week and update and add photos as I go. It's Saturday morning and I have no real clue as to what order everything has gone in, but I have our house back, it's not as bad as previous tenants. We pay for a professional entry/exit independent report, so there is no arguing over what is tenants liability or acceptable wear and tear. I know from having several quotes in already that their deposit won't cover the full cost of repairs and we'll be out of pocket again. We always are as landlords at the end of each tenancy, but we do expect to have to redecorate every couple of years, regardless of tenant damage or not, so we have budgeted for it.

This isn't the end of our landlord experience, the flat is going on the rental market next week, to provide an income for me while I get the work done and before Peter joins me when he eventually retires.

328 Sunday Final day of the European Tour and the Race to Dubai. I got badly sunburnt on the back of my legs over the weekend so managed to find myself some shade for the first 2 hours in between holes. Sat on the 18th green to watch the final hole, it came down to the last putt of the game for John Rahm to win the tournament and the Race to Dubai, $8,000,000 and a Rolex watch. Not bad eh?

329 Monday Think I went out for a coffee, cleaned through the house, met with our financial advisor as part of the preparation and move to the UK as I have no real pension to speak of, so we sorted that out. Out for dinner in the evening.

330 Tuesday Early morning flight to the UK, delayed by 90 mins due to issue in the cockpit which was resolved by turning the plane off and back on again. An announcement was made for a Doctor, Nurse or Paramedic during the flight, which worried me as I've previously been on a flight when a patient 10 rows ahead of us had a heart attack and we were diverted mid flight. Collected car hire, it's a Merc, everything is in German and it keeps shouting things at me. Collected the keys from the agent. My first impressions were WTF? at the state of the house, but it's all doable and I've calmed down. Over to Monmouth to see mum and sleep in the flat for the night.

The Malvern Hills at night.

331 Wednesday Walked Thing 2 to school. Back to the house and to start the cleaning. Mum came with me but decided to go shopping rather than get her hands dirty. that's fine by me, she rarely gets out of Monmouth these days, so it was nice for her to visit somewhere different. I cleaned the one bedroom, the main bathroom and hoovered throughout. My friend K helped me pack the flat up and I went to friend C for dinner.

332 Thursday Whilst out with K for coffee, C phoned from my flat to ask was I helping her with the removal firm who she had booked lol. C then went to the house to clean the kitchen cupboards and make a start on the floor, I supervised the move then drove over to meet the lock smith, plumber, painter and decorator for quotes to get the house back to a reasonable standard. So weird sleeping in our former family home, on my own, knowing that is going to become our home again.

Flat furniture in the house

333 Friday Did some shopping, door mats, sugar soap, bin, littler tray for the cat when she comes over with the dog in January. Spent the afternoon setting up utilities, transferring TV licence, council tax etc. Informing everyone of change of address. Each utility call I made I was on hold for at least 25 mins before calls connected, so phone on speaker I went round the house removing nails from walls. Cleaned the top floor bedrooms and moved the furniture up there around, cheap Ikea wardrobes and chest of drawers purchased 15 years ago. It's a 6 bed house and our previous tenants have never really used those 2 rooms, so easy and quick to clean. Friend C and her partner called in to do a quote for the gardening and removal of the tenants rubbish from the property. They couldn't believe how clean a part of the kitchen floor was but I had to get on with it and bought a steam mop ready in time for the fridge freezer to be delivered.

This is the crap left behind, that I now have to arrange to get removed. I'll be taking the curtains and rails down over the weekend.

334 Saturday Due to the damaged light fitting and missing pull cords I can only have a bath during daylight hours or with the torch on my phone. I can't bring myself to tackle the ensuite rooms, I'm leaving that job to the professional cleaners after the decorating has been done the end of January. Out for coffee, then re cleaned lounge and dining room floors ahead of my dad's desk and mums dining room table and chairs being delivered along with Peter's grand mothers bay tree that friend C has looked after for the past 9 years. Child 2, 2a and 2b visited and my mate down the road called in and we booked her flights for Dubai in March.

On the blog this week:

Marshalling on the European Tour, the Race to Dubai. It's all about the golf and meeting Sergio Garcia.

I've started to Co-Host #PoCoLo Post Comment Love with Stephanie @lifeat139a, why don't you pop over and take a look.

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