Back in August, after a long time saving, searching, bidding, catastrophising and crying, I finally got the keys to my first home.

It is small, needs a good dose of TLC, and has already generated a to-do list considerably longer than the one I had before buying it. But it is mine and I love it.

I was, however, under the rather naïve impression that getting the keys meant the hard part was over.

I knew there would be bills. I knew there would be decorating and repairs. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was how much time I would spend trying to arrange the most basic things.

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Electricity. Heating. Internet. All perfectly reasonable requirements for somewhere I intend to live, yet each comes with its own little administrative........

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