Housing Problems

Yesterday, I had a problem with my house. The estate agent rang to say that another bidder had gazzumped my offer and I have lost the house. I didn't realise that it was still allowed in England. Scotland and Wales have banned it but just typical isn't it that it happens to be legal here. I wasn't very happy with the estate agents so I have changed to another agent.

This time I'm using Potters Properties in Shelton. It's a lot smaller agent and they promise not to allow further offers when a house is sold. I have found a nice house in Oakhill which suits me great. It's up for sale at the same price and the owners accepted my offer. Better still, because it's empty, they will let me move in on wednesday, so i don't need to change any dates.

The house is in a cul-de-sac with just forty houses. It's a semi with a drive. Two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and kitchen and lounge downstairs. It also has a lean-to which can be used as a store room or laundry.

I can't believe I found another nice house so quickly. The area is nice and close for work and shops and close to both the A500 and A34. What more could I want? oh, yes, the keys of course. I can pick them up on Wednesday too.

Spider in the bath

Last time I saw my Counsellor, I asked her if she could help me with my Arachnophobia as it's so difficult to live with. She said that all the symptoms that I get when I see a spider or indeed even the word gives me the creep.

Apparently, it's nothing to do with spiders. It's the anxiety that I allow myself to get when I see one that is causing me the problems. The hyperventilation, the dizziness, the nausea, the feeling as if I got things crawling all over me, etc.

The first thing I need to do, she said, was to learn to say the word as I always try to avoid it. She had me saying it repeatedly, again and again until it no longer bothered me. I can no say "spider" and it means nothing. Over the years I had allowed the vision of a wolf spider to connect with the word which made it impossible to hear or say the word without seeing it.

Gill taught me to break that connection. I was allowed to connect it with something else so I chose to use the vision of a plastic, multi-coloured Fisherprice toy called Webster. Therefore I no longer have a problem saying it.

She also told me that as from now I am not to run out of the house screaming, when i see a spider. I should calmly just leave the room and shut the door and get someone to remove it for me. When I see a spider, I must think of Gill sitting in the room telling me to keep calm and leave the room.

I got to put this to test yesterday. I went to have a bath/shower and got in without realising that there was a fairly biggish but short legged spider in there. How in earth I managed to calmly just get out of the bath without screaming is beyond me. I never uttered a sound let alone screamed. I even managed to calmly wrap myself in a towel before going downstairs to get my friend to remove it for me.

She was amazed how calm I was and I said I was quite proud of myself. What amazing start. I can't wait to tell Gill about it.

Moving Home

I have finally managed to move out after a lengthy and difficult divorce battle that started almost a year ago. Last Thursday we went to court again but this time it did turn out to be the last time, thank God.

Five hours it took for our barristers to run backward and forward with various ideas before we eventually managed to settle out of court. In the end we settled on exactly the same as my solicitor suggested to Chris' solicitor in December. For some reason he had got it in his head that he would get away with paying a lot less. Well the Solicitor's bills at 10K each was just totally wasted and all the hassle we have had the last seven months. There is no logic to mens minds, is there?

Anyway, I moved out on Sunday. At the moment I'm only staying with friends but I have found the house I want and it's lovely. I haven't been given an exact moving in date yet but it will be some time mid next week. I had hoped it would have been saturday as I have arranged for my new furniture to be delivered then. I suppose I'll just have to postpone them.

My lovely house is the end of a row of 4 townhouses, so i suppose you could call it a semi. It's a corner plot and has a good long drive to it. A big kitchen with a seperate laundry room and a downstairs loo. The lounge covers the entire front of the house and is big enough to have a dining table in as well as the three piece.

The front bedroom is virtually the same size as the lounge. What a luxury to me having to have lived in such cramped conditions for 13 years. Wow, I'm going to get lost in all that space. There is also a good sized bathroom and the second bedroom is not a bad size either.

I just can't wait to get hold of the keys now. In fact I have already brought some plants around and I'm going to spend some time tidying up the gardens, which means that when I get the keys I can just concentrate on the indoors. I still need furniture for the second bedroom.