h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[Back on hootoo after a month off]


The diocese want their house back. So Paff the gypsy is on the move again.

Whichever way you put the statistics, it looks fairly hideous. Pick any one, they're all true:
This'll be the Paff family's 3rd house move in 15 months.
That's an average of one move every 5 months.
We're moving into our 4th house in Devon since we got here less than 3 years ago.
We've had 5 Devon houses if you count the one we bought but never lived in.
We're moving for the 6th time in 3 and a half years.


So, is it getting a bit tedious? Oh yes. And it ain't cheap either. But hey, there are advantages to moving every six months or so:

You get to know exactly what's in the loft:
I was so confident about where the Christmas decorations were this year, I didn't even go up there myself, I sent eldest nipper up and he found them straight off.

You get a chance to ditch the stuff you never needed anyway:
We aquired a very long ladder off our neighbours 8 houses ago (6 years ago). I used it once. Moved it about with us until last summer when I left it in the barn along with some acro-props, about 30ft of copper pipe, maybe 100 quids worth of plastic guttering and a couple of plasterer's platforms.

You get a chance to ditch the stuff you _really_ never needed anyway:
We aquired an oven off a friend of a friend 8 houses ago. We never used it. Till we got where we are now, where the diocese don't provide an oven. It's rubbish. We're going to leave it for the next vicar.


So anyway. Paff the gypsy is on the move again. Give it six months and I'll be at it again.

Paff

Come to Cleethorpes. We need a reliable Vicar at house number 42.

Ah but I'm not a vicar. I just live in the Rectory.

And although number 42 sounds great (if I was going to live at a number, I'd like to live at number 42) when I moved to Devon, I decided never to live somewhere with a number again. If the house doesn't have a name, I'm not living there.

Where we're going next is called Elm Cottage. There's a cottage at the bottom of the garden, which I'm hoping is called 'Elm Cottage Cottage', or maybe 'The Cottage At Elm Cottage'.

Paff

I just did a quick working out. I lived in 5 different houses between September 2000 and October 2003, including 3 of them in a 13 month period. At one point, a house I owned was in one county, the house I rented was in another 100 miles away and all my belongings were in self storage mid point between the two.

I'd agreee with all the positive things Paff lists though. I know the contents of my loft well, and decluttering regularly is highly recommended.

So it's not just me then coelacanth? I feel better already.

I'm a serial house mover alright! Checking further back it was 6 addresses in 10 years. Although the 3in 13 months was a bit of an accident, I think the more you move the less stressful it is. You get better at it, more efficient. A good removal team are worth every penny though.

I've lived in this place for just over 3 years and I keep thinking to myself "Isn't there something you should be doing? Oh yes, moving!" My current plan is to do a bit of property speculation in a year or two, nothing high pressure but more of a hobby or a project house.

I agree that having a house with a name is nice. This one does and it's the first time.

Not leaving Devon are you Paff?

Not leaving Devon - no. Couldn't bear to. Like it says in the Devon EG entry, I _belong_ here. And like it says on my PS, if I left here, it'd be New Zealand or somewhere.

In fact, I'm moving a few hundred yards at most, from the top-left corner of the village to the top-right. There'll be no more view of Dartmoor , although there will be sheep back at the end of the garden, so that'll do nicely .


As for getting better at moving, I agree. Although I've not yet found a good removal team. This time and last, we are moving a short distance, so a few day's van hire and a bunch of friends with trailers should do the trick again.



Although, talking of New Zealand, the idea has recently begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing our minds so give it a few years and I could be changing my tune.


Paff

I've often wondered if they need good umpires out there myself. The odd thing about the Westcountry is that we appreciate it most when we've emigrated

So you're leaving that house with the big garden and the lovely view? That's a shame!

I once moved four times in five years, but that's more to do with being a council tenant at the time than anything else. I moved out of my childhood home into a one-bed flat for two years, then a two bed flat for three, then arrived in my current two bed house, which I bought. I swore I'd never move again, and I've been here for 8 years.

I am getting itchy feet though - but I think that's because it's getting so I can't stand this house much longer, but the thought of having to move again makes me feel faintly sick. I don't envy you at all, but I do appreciate the thing about decluttering. The last time I moved I got rid of a load of stuff because it didn't seem worth moving a load of stuff we never used from the loft of one place to the loft of the next place where it could continue never being used. The only exception is some of my childhood toys, which I would like to pass onto my nieces at some point.

Rich,
I checked for umpires ... http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ ... no mention I'm afraid. There's a skills shortage pdf you can download. There's no climbing type stuff either, but they do apparently need skydive instructors. I fancy the bee-keeping myself.

Mina,
The garden you're referring to was actually two houses ago. Where we are now has a better view (Dartmoor), but a smaller garden (although still big enough to hold tea parties on the Rectory lawn (but never got the chance to hold one of our own)).

Paff

If you think about it, skydiving is just about the opposite of climbing. Well, you'd hope so, anyway...

Big gardens aren't all they are cracked up to be - too much bleeding mowing of lawns - but I'd like a house with a view that's not just the back of 12 other houses that look almost exactly like mine.

Skydiving vs climbing ...

Too right about the mowing. Tips for keeping on top of a quarter of an acre of grass:
Get a gardener.
Get sheep.
Retire.

It's funny, when we lived in Kent, people would buy up the fields round where they lived and rent them to cabbage farmers to stop anyone building on them.

In Devon, the land owners are getting rich by selling up their fields and having 20 executive homes built on them. They don't seem to mind that they've just sold their lovely view

I take it you've seen the pics of the grass when it got a bit, err, shall we say, long?

March - Still looked like a garden. The pheasants liked it anyway.
http://flickr.com/photos/39572418%40N00/374732878/
April - I started getting lazy. Did crop circles instead of the whole lawn.
http://flickr.com/photos/39572418%40N00/374717540/
May - Managed to cut some paths through it.
http://flickr.com/photos/39572418%40N00/374688073/
June - Even the paths got a bit much.
http://flickr.com/photos/39572418%40N00/374688077/
July - Got the neighbours round with their tractor + topper. The topper broke. Here's a topper ->
http://www.major-grasscare.com/groundscare/trailed.htm
August - Went on holiday for two weeks. Got a friend to hack at it while we were away with the ride-on. Came back. The grass was down, but the mower needed 150 quid of work before it would cut again.
http://flickr.com/photos/39572418%40N00/374725954/