We Have Our House Back!!!

I finally collected the keys on Tuesday last week.  The state of the house was beyond belief.  What the tenant's didn't steal, they graffittied, broke or urinated on.  So far, over the past eight days, we have spent over 300 working hours cleaning and redecorating.  I'll post the before and after photo's after we've sued the arse off the agent.

So, we will be back in our own home by the end of this month!  Finally!

In the meantime, this week I've been back here in Hexham, getting the house ready to vacate.  Unfortunately the lady who we deal with at the Estate Agent won't be available for check-out of this house, so I decided to drop her a line, explaining what we'd done prior to moving:

Dear xxxx,

As I won’t see you at checkout on 26th of this month, I just wanted to confirm that the work required by the landlord has been completed.  The hedges were trimmed in late July and the lawn will be mown this Saturday (within the stipulated two weeks of our vacating the property).

As per our previous correspondence, on the landlord’s insistence, we have repainted the walls in white.  He should be very pleased with the result as covering the magnolia has completely eliminated any feeling of welcome and warmth we had created in the property.  Furthermore, the contrast of white walls against the aged, chipped and yellowing woodwork has gone some considerable way towards recreating the shabby, neglected feel the property had when we took possession.  Unfortunately we have been unable to recreate this in its entirety as I was unable to match the dirty grey patches that were in evidence prior to our redecorating magnolia.

However, there are a number of issues I need to bring your attention:

• Although we have known about the pending move for some time, we have been unable to replicate the original depth of dust and quantity of spider webs in the months preceding check-out.  However, I am confident that this will continue to build over the forthcoming months while the property lies empty.
• Cleaning the carpets has removed almost all evidence of the stains visible at check-in.  In retrospect we realise that this was an error on our behalf, but without knowing what the stains comprised, we are left impotent to duplicate them. 
• The curtains now draw properly and are now securely hung throughout.  If the landlord is unhappy with this, it can easily be remedied by removing a few curtain hooks. 
• We were unable to secure the broken pelmet rail evident on arrival in the downstairs passage, so for safety’s sake we removed it, lest it fall on one of the children.  The fabric pelmet has been left, neatly folded on the windowsill. 
• Try as we might, we could not take the upstairs bathroom walls and ceiling back to bare plaster, so unfortunately the paint on the walls has to remain insitu.
• Despite our best efforts, we have been totally incapable of accumulating the amount of grease that was on the cooker hood and dirt that was inside in the fridge when we moved in.
• Likewise, the two downstairs toilets are completely lacking in stains, either in the bowl or on the toilet seats.  Therefore the previous accompanying odour is now almost undetectable.

On a more positive note, we are happy to report that the large stain on the kitchen floor has not been removed and that the hall carpet remains poorly fitted downstairs.  We were also pleased to note that the exposed gripper and unfitted carpets were still apparent upstairs when we removed the protective barrier we had installed to save our children’s feet from injury.

The blobs of paint, marks and rust stains on the radiators have not been remedied, nor have they ever been re-painted by us, so remain in their original scruffy, unmaintained condition.  Likewise the wood/gloss work throughout. 

Finally, the electric fires continue to work intermittently and the fake coals on one remain broken, as on arrival.

To summarise, the house has now been returned to its original state and is once again completely devoid of any character whatsoever.

I trust that you will find everything to be in order, however if there are any issues please do not hesitate to get in touch.  Many thanks for your assistance over the past four years.  We wish you all the best for the future.

Yours sincerely,
xxxxx