Buying My Maisonette

I have some very exciting news. I will be completing the purchase of my maisonette in five days time. The weird thing is that I am not excited. I think it is because it does not feel real. That, and I know that so much stuff has to happen before I can move in. I need to get the electricity reconnected and the faulty wiring fixed, then the gas needs to be reinstalled and the water needs to be reconnected. Then I need to wait for a new payment card to be sent out for the gas and electric, because I do not want the debt from the previous owner (I am purchasing a repossessed property) and I also need to figure out where on earth I top the payment card/token up at. Several people have already warned me about the two not-very-nice new agents shops that are around the corner from where my maisonette is.

The maisonette needs a new kitchen. There are no kitchen cupboards. Well, there kind of is, but it is strange. The kitchen is 11ft x 5ft. There is a cupboard under the sink and the narrow one that you put your cutlery in between the sink and the oven and that is it. There is one upper cabinet on the opposite side of the kitchen in the only place where a dining table and chair could go, so you will hit your head. I, also, dislike the tiles. I really do not want to prolong moving in, as this property purchase has already gone on five months longer than it should have, but I do not cope at all around ongoing works (apparently it is related to my autism) so I cannot move in without a finished kitchen.

I, also, want to paint the walls. There I no way that I am finally moving into my own place, having rented my entire life and not paint the walls how I want them. People who do not want or wallpaper their house to their taste are weird. I have also had experience where people think that builders and internal designers are the same thing, so they would not pain their walls, because they thought that buildres knew better. Let me tell you, that house looked like a three year old’s set of paints threw up and spread different colours all over the house. Ther was a lemon room, a periwinkle room, a sky-blue room, a pink room and burgundy room. Just thinking about it makes me shudder. Who thinks that’s a good idea?

Oh and do not get me started on blinds. As someone who worked in the blinds industry for two an a half years, and even prior to working there, I cannot stand people who have office blinds in their house, unless it is for patio doors. It dates that house and give it a 1980s feel, when blinds were first being introduced into homes. And then there are the people who do not have black out blinds in the bedroom, because it costs more, and they have dimout blinds throughout. How do they not know that everyone can see into their house when they have the lights on. Most people don’t even realise until the blinds shop received a phone call wanting to know why the neighbours said that they could see everything that he and the misses were doing that night. That is because you are an idiot and have dimout blinds in your bedroom! I am very sad that, I think, my windows are too big for the light grey, faux wood, venetian blinds that I really want.

I have some of my furniture already. My settee is stacked up, on its side, at the back of my mum’s living room, because the sofa shop could not hold on to it any longer. I also have my TV unit and a small side bookcase in my mum’s living room, in boxes too. I have my own wardrove, bookcase and a wooden cabinet. The only furniture piece that I will need to buy is a bed and a mattress. My mattress has had a spring broken in it since 2016, also, I ama middle aged woman and still only have a child’s bed. I have my 4ft x 5ft bed on order to be custom made, which I am really looking forward to. Oh and I have two rugs as well. I do need one more, but I am waiting until I have moved in to confirm the size.

My only worry is something that an occupational therapist said to me in January 2019. He said that he was worried that I might isolate myself entirely if I live on my own, which would cause my depression to worsen. He suggested that living with a friend or partner, and it being just the two of us, would be the ideal situation for me. I cannot share a space with two other people, even if they are both my most bestest friends in the universe. I wondered for the longest time why I always struggle in three people situations and again is it another thing that cannot be helped with my autism.

Part of me is not worried about the living on my own aspect, right now, because, for the most part, my depression is completely gone. I just have an incredibly, severe bad turn when something very strongly effects my sensory autism and I get overwhelmed. This is usually really loud noises, like the neighbours blasting music and screaming from6pm until 2am, while I am trying to sleep. I completely shut down, I am unable to move or remove myself from the situation and sometimes, when it gets really bad, I scream uncontrollably – like when ten fourteen year old were banging on my bedroom wall, while screaming, squealing, cackling and cheering and blasting music. Getting severely overwhelmed makes me suicidal… and it can happen incredibly quickly. The one thing that makes me less scared is that I will be on the first floor. There will be no one above me. The person below me and a recluse, old man. To the left of my maisonette is the outside wall and to the right is the communal corridor. The maisonette opposite the corridor to me is currently being sold too, but I know that no one will move in any time soon, because there is months of work to do it, which will hopefully all be carried out while I am at work. I leave the house at 6am and I do not get home until just after 5pm, so I am hoping that most of the noise will happen while I am out.

One of the neighbours told me that the road is usually very quiet. She said that when there is a fate on at the part around the corner, that can be noisy, but that only happens once a year. And the only other time it is noisy is during pride, which is very nice to know, being demisexual/bi, it is nice to know that my neighbours are not judgemental.

I think that is it for now.

- Josie -