Positive planning

After some thought and a little research, I've come to a decision. My house is being taken off the market at the end of the month; I have given the estate agent the required 30 days' notice in writing.

There are good reasons for this:

• No one is looking for a house just now. By mid-November, records show that the sale of houses becomes almost impossible until February, when the market picks up slowly; the current economic climate of terminal doom and gloom isn't conducive to major expenditure or reckless enthusiasm

• A house left on the market for a long time risks giving a signal of 'something wrong'. And I hate having a For Sale sign in front of the bay window; I would have to put Christmas lights on it if it stayed! Instead, it can come down at the end of the month.

• I have work to plan and execute, thought of during the time of the great disappointment and told here: Richie the builder/plumber is calling on Thursday to discuss the installation of a bathroom in the small attic, hopefully before Christmas.

• I need to shift the jumbled contents of the small attic (mostly packed-up belongings) into storage while the work is being done. I need to unpack some of it too - Christmas decorations, winter clothes, my boots! And where are all the chargers and cables? My iPod has been dead for months, and I can't find any leads for it. And my lovely autumn wreath? My orderly packing was designed for moving, not being hidden in cupboards and eaves.

• The back yard with all its ferns and climbers will soon become a gloomy, damp and bleak place until the first Spring bulbs appear. (Oh... have just remembered Scooter the Tulip Destroyer.... must do something about that next year!) 

• I want a break from the dwindling but still-present need to keep all in readiness for a possible viewing: there was a call that I missed (message left on the wrong phone too) while at the hairdresser the other day, saying that someone wanted to view NOW - but was clearly not keen enough to try again later. 

• I am increasingly annoyed by the generally poor communication by the estate agency - a friend emailed me to say she had read the article in the Househunter magazine that featured my house - what article? When? Why wasn't I told? Not that it did any good anyway. So far there has been no acknowledgement of my notice-giving email either; clearly they've gone off the boil too. 

So November will be planning and preparation time; December, I hope, will be bathroom installation time, with a relaxed approach, amidst the festivities, to painting and decorating the new room. Later on, there will be intensive back yard and Spring cleaning time, and then the house can be presented to the world with its clean and sparkling new face ready to be re-marketed.

Am I feeling positive? You bet. I'll make that move to the West country yet.

But right now I'm going to ring that silent estate agency and give them a right old ticking off....