V is for Valuation (A-Z Challenge 2020)

In January of this year my hubby and I decided that it was time to move on to the next stage of our lives and move house.  I deliberated long and hard about whether it was a good move to take part in the A-Z Challenge this year (pun intended) given that we could be very busy, but decided on balance that having something to focus on might not be a bad idea.  Of course the decision on a theme was much easier to make – Moving House!  

Then Covid-19 put a stop to any ideas of moving so I’ve had to regroup and rethink my posts.  Which means I’m not as prepared as I’d liked to have been but here goes:

V is for Valuation

Well I think I'll have to revert to a Plan B again for today's post.  Under lockdown it's impossible to get a valuation done on a property be it by an estate agent for a property listing or in connection with a mortgage offer to the prospective buyer.  Although interestingly we did have an approach from another estate agent today wanting to know why we were still on the market and how they could help us sell our house.  Now I know the "For Sale" sign outside hasn't been updated to show we are under offer but really?  Wasting time and postage on a futile letter?  I mean, even if we hadn't sold yet we wouldn't be considering doing anything at the moment.

I think our views on value may be completely changed once we get through this lockdown phase and start picking up the pieces of our lives.  Lives that for many will be changed forever.  "Things" will be less important.  Our families will be the thing that we value and appreciate more.  

We might find we decide not to move if we lose our buyer.  Not immediately anyway.  At least we are fortunate in that we can make that choice.  Hubby apparently is considered a key worker (he's a Civil Servant) so we could arrange for a Covid-19 test now if we needed it.  Fortunately we are both keeping well so there's no need at present, plus he's working from home.  (He's even managed to address the issue with his laptop charger and hopefully the IT department will arrange for a new one to be sent out to him.)

We have only been out of the house to do our daily walks since lockdown started.  We've been fortunate to get HelloFresh deliveries every week and an online delivery.  We've got another online delivery coming and a click and collect booked for a week after that.

The only thing we've needed to buy was milk and we managed to get that while on our walks, from local shops that had either nobody in them or just a couple of other people.  We did start our car yesterday and took it for a short run just so the battery doesn't go flat.  Didn't want to have that problem when we have to collect groceries.

And later today we have a wine delivery coming so we're definitely sorted! lol

Listening to the Government daily news conference yesterday, it's hard to imagine how life will be able to go back to any sort of normality any time soon, at least until a successful treatment or vaccine is found.  I'm sure many people will want to continue to work from home rather than risk travelling on public transport.  Driving to work in London is really impossible.  Even venturing out to more crowded shops will feel scary.  

I do look forward to being able to visit family members though.  Those first contacts after such a long time will be priceless.  We won't be able to put a value on that.