I've completely lost track of time since my successful interview for the job in Alzira. I'm not totally sure whether it was three or four weeks ago. The time has flown by and today seemed a typical 'no work' day in our household. We started off by writing a list of some of the minor repairs we need to do. Small things that are broken or not quite right that we happily live with need to be corrected before the letting agency will place us on their guaranteed rental scheme. Consequently we launched ourselves into today with a trip to B & Q and then set about some tasks around the house.

I started upstairs trying to install the new bathroom odds and ends, towel rail etc. Sally began downstairs papering the living room. (It is sad but true that according to the rental agency getting rid of any colour in the house improves the prospects of getting a tenant. Consequently the whole house is turning magnolia.) The living room is soon going to join the bedroom, landing, stairs, hallway, bathroom as being a flash of white and magnolia. We are ripping through the house with an industrial sized pot of magnolia paint. Initially it felt like we were wiping out any character that we had put on the house but actually as we get further round the house it feels refreshing. Sally got to the end of papering the living room (with a paper that can be painted magnolia of course) and then asked 'Why haven't we done this earlier?' The answer of course is that if either of us had suggested turning the whole house one bland colour (sorry, not bland, neutral) then the other would have refused point blank.

We've also started boxing up some of the items that we want to take but can live without between now and our moving date of August 6th. It seems a long way away but both Sally and I are concerned that we have too much to take and seeing things packaged in boxes is part of organising in our heads the whole process of moving. This week saw some furniture being sold, items of camping equipment going and even a few bin bags to the tip of things that we really never needed to keep.

We also managed to arrange the mortgage so that we are now on interest only payments and all the additional borrowing we could take is sat in our current account. This meant the car loan got cleared and the flights are booked for our trip in the May half term when we hope to arrange accomodation for September and also get a chance to properly meet the people we will be working with for the first time. It seems a leap of faith to be moving to an area we have yet to visit but I think we are both confident that the area we have chosen will deliver as a good place to spend some quality family time.

The weekend then looks like involving a little more painting and fixing. It was a real blow this morning to wake up and find a chunk of the fascia board had blown off in the night and was sitting in the front garden. It seems like just one more task to have to find somebody to repair it whilst we are trying to actually reduce the number of maintenance tasks to do. I will feel relaxed if we can cut ourselves a month or two free of decorating and maintenance before we leave.

We have also had to start trying to tie visitors down to time. Neither Sally nor I want to turn down any friends or family visiting but so many people have a clear idea of when they want to come out and visit that we are having to start to calendar the visits before we even have a place for folks to stay. It's really important to us that we respect the fact that when people do visit it is quite possibly an annual family holiday to them so making sure they have the space and time to enjoy it is vital. That means trying to ensure we don't double book and end up with people on airbeds - altogether not the best way to spend a holiday. That said, it is really positive that so many people are keen to be a part of this adventure and the idea of sharing the first few months of our move with family and friends in a never ending stream is fantastic. The other positive is that we seem to have found a corner of Spain that can be reached from anywhere in the United Kingdom by budget airline. EasyJet fly from Bristol and Gatwick and Flybe from Exeter. With family in Plymouth and surrounding area, East Sussex and also London I think we have all necessary routes covered.

It is strange to be decorating a house for other people to enjoy but the purpose that moving gives to everything seems to be providing us with a real focus and as a pleasant byproduct both Sally and I are working towards the same aim and pulling in the same direction. It seems healthy to have this shared purpose at home and no doubt that will help sustain us when we hit the inevitable snags along the way.