Completion date

This morning, after dropping Mike off at school and Sophie off at work (she's working all day today) Keith and I drove to Mum and Dad's house to help them with the big move.

The removals men were already there and making good progress with the furniture and all the boxes. I put some fragile boxes in my car and at 11am Mum and Dad drove into Northampton to collect the keys of the house they're renting. Luckily it was a beautiful day with sunshine and blue skies so that was a relief. It would have been terrible if it had been raining!

While Mum and Dad went off Keith and I stayed behind to clean and pack up some more boxes. I found some bits in their kitchen drawers and cupboards so I cleaned them all out and hoovered upstairs. I'd already dismantled the computer for them and put it into boxes so the top half of the house was now completely empty.

At about 11.30am I received a call from Mum saying they had the keys and could we meet them at the house in Moulton. The removals men took Mum and Dad's fridge freezer around to our house (they already have one at the new house) and then we drove to Moulton.

The house they're renting is brand new and is right on the edge of a building site so the road was like a river of mud. I parked the car opposite and was immediately accosted by one of the burly builders (I think he might have been the boss) saying that the road was very busy and implying that my car would be in the way. He was quite dishy so I smiled and assured him I'd only be there a few minutes to unload the car which seemed to keep him happy.

We ended up passing the boxes and other items through the kitchen window as the house was in total chaos. It was a lot smaller than I'd expected so I think Mum and Dad will have to move more stuff into storage than they anticipated. They have a small front bedroom with an en-suite, a smaller spare bedroom, also with an en-suite a living room and a kitchen with a cloakroom in between, and that's it! Still, it will be fine for them until their new house is built and they'll have to use the spare room as a dumping ground.

After we'd emptied my car I headed back to their old house with Keith and my Mum. I dropped Keith off on the way as he needed to go to Tesco and do some chores around the house. Mum and I packed some more stuff up and called Dad to come out as there was still a lot to be packed up and the removals men wouldn't be coming back now to take any more things!

Leaving Dad in their old house we headed back to Moulton once again and discovered that there simply wasn't room for the dining room table and chairs in the rented house. We had to ask the men to take the furniture to the Lok 'n' Store unit which they very kindly did. They were now finished and the house was full of boxes and furniture. It looked total chaos!

Mum and I unloaded some more boxes from my car and then called into the Co-op to buy some sandwiches for lunch. We drove back to their old house and had something to eat before starting on more packing up and cleaning.

I was very glad that Sophie was at work today and Mike was off to see his girlfriend after school as I didn't have to worry about going off to collect them. I put yet more boxes in my car and Keith came around to help Mum and Dad get some stuff from their loft which they had forgotten about. It turned out to be boxes of old vinyl LPs and photographs so we decided to store the stuff in our garage as they couldn't possibly take any more boxes in the rented house.

By 3.30pm we were all finished and I dreaded the new owners appearing before we'd moved out completely. That happened to Keith and I when we moved from our little cottage in Walgrave...we'd been moving stuff to our rented house (while this one was being built) and we arrived back to find the new owners already in!

I left Mum and Dad to say goodbye to their house and went home to have a lovely hot bath before it was time to pick the kids up. Keith had prepared a lovely curry so that was very welcome after our long day!