Moving

As most of you probably know by now, I have moved! No, not countries or even cities, only from one neighbourhood to another in the same city.

This was one of the most frustrating moving experiences I have ever had. Let me explain:

We (my friend Alastair (Al) and myself) have given 2 months notice at the end of October (as our contract at the place I was at expired at the end of December 2010). So, since then we have been looking for a place in the CBD area of Cape Town (Oranjezicht, Gardens, Vredehoek, Tamboerskloof, etc.). Each place we looked at and liked were 3-bedroom and via agents and each tenant had to apply... so those basically fell through due to the 3rd person issue (we did not have someone confirmed, and when someone did want to share, things took long and it just did not work out).

Then, at long last we found another place, this one in Tamboerskloof that was quite sizable. Once again we had a 3rd tenant issue, but that kind of got sorted out as we found someone and all applications were in as such. Then, we had to wait for approval. By this time it was my last week at work in December (week of 13 Dec 2010) and I was planning to go to George for the December part of my holiday and I did not want to go before I had the flat sorted out. By the end of the week we have not had a confirmation yet and I decided to go to George after all (hoping and praying we get the flat). While I was away in George (left the Sat 18/Dec/10) I got word on the Monday from the agent that we have the place as long as we adhere to the rules (email from owner with rules included attached to the email). We were taken aback by the tone of the owner's email (very bossy-like). We discussed and agreed to accept the rules as we needed the place.

Something else about the place - the previous tenants' contract ended only at the end of January and we needed it from the beginning of January. However, the tenants wanted to move out early, so it was not going to be a problem. So, once we informed the agent that we accepted the rules, I asked which day we can start moving in. She then checked with the tenants and then confirmed that it will only be the end of January as the current tenants decided to stay till the end of their contract as their other flat option fell through! What a sinking feeling I had!

Immediately upon finding the latter info out, I contacted Al to let him know and ask him to let the 3rd person know. He then had a chat to his boss about it and his boss generously offered for us to possibly stay in a place he had that were not far from Tamboerskloof for the January month (interim period). This was not ideal (as moving twice in a short time is HECTIC), but at least we will have somewhere to put our things and also to stay without inconveniencing family and friends.

We decided we will look for another flat in the meantime that was hopefully available sooner and possibly nicer than the Tamboerskloof flat.

At the end of December we returned to Cape Town (Al went to George as well for a few days). Then, we started looking at other flats in earnest, but there were not many that suited our needs (price, size, area, etc.). Then, we found out that we cannot stay at Al's boss' place anymore as his daughter needed the place urgently. So, now we really had to scramble to find a place!

On Wednesday, 5 Jan 2011 we went to see a few flats at Skyways in Zonnebloem area. We eventually decided on 1 of the options (a 3 bedroom). We gave our details to the agent and then later the same day we got confirmation that we can have the place! This was excellent news as we can move in on that Friday already (we got extention from our landlady from the Newlands flat that we can stay till Sunday, 9 Jan 2011 at the Newlands flat, but had to be out by then - after explaining to her the situation of not having a place till Feb).

Then on Thursday we had to sign the contracts and pay deposits before we can get our keys for the flat to start moving in. Needless to say, we did all of that and started moving in on the Friday. We were moving up until Monday morning at 1:30'ish. I only had 4½ hours sleep before I had to go to work on the Monday 10 Jan 2011. It was NOT good as I do not function well on little sleep. It had to be done though and I survived!

Before we started to move in, we asked the ladies that cleans and also used to clean our flat to come in and help to get the new flat clean (it had a basic clean, but lots of things still needed a proper clean). This flat also has a cockroach problem that we need to get sorted out (we had the same problem at the Newlands flat before we moved in, but quickly got rid of the cockroach issue there and were rid of bugs at that place - now we had to do it all over again).

In the meantime I had to buy myself a bed as I did not own my own bed. We also had to buy a fridge and washing machine for the same reason. All this has been done!

As I said - this was the most frustrating moving experience in my life and I hope I never battle to find and secure a place again! Hopefully the next place will be cockroach free before we even move in!!!

That's all folks!