So we went back to the street of many children to take a look at the inside of the property again. It is funny how things mess together when you have seen 24 properties back to back in one day. The kids were hungry so I stoppedto grab them a snack while Chad took them on the bus from the tube station to meet up with the realtor. There was only a short window to meet. I assumed I had missed the bus so I walked the 15 minutes. It turned out that Chad had gotten on the wrong bus, and then again and then again. With all three hungry kids and Jash who had thrown up all over me that morning and wasn’t feeling well. So I took a look around the property and waited for them to arrive. They didn’t make it. We had to schedule for the realtor to come back and let us in an hour later. So we grabbed some food down the street and had a picnic in front of the house on the sidewalk.
Poor Chad! This was after trying to return a rental car on his way to work in the morning. Rather than a nine minute drive it took almost 2 hours!! Both our mornings had not been the cheeriest.
So the house… we love hate it. Things we hate: the floor plan, the crowded street parking, the price (especially after seeing a house we LOVED for nearly $1000 less a month!!), the stairs (half a flight down to the main living area, a flight up to the bedrooms and the main bathroom, plus another half flight up the another bedroom and then another full flight up to the master bedroom with the second bathroom that has no door), the distance from the tube station. Really… our list of priorities were off-street parking, open floor plan, yard, street with kids, close to the tube, good commute, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.
Things we LOVE: The street is everything we hoped for. Nearly every house has young children. The school (if we can get in!) is excellent and an easy walk away. We are a 5 minute walk to small shops (one being a natural food store I looked up). The commute for Chad is only 40 min! There is a little yard and a great roof top terrace with an excellent view. There are multiple great parks nearby and play sets. The library is practically next door. A bus runs from right down the street all the way to Chad’s office for the days I MUST bring a stroller.
There are a lot of things to love. The location is hard to beat and we have to look at the things we love because the things we hate are kind of difficult to stomach. I wan’t so much to find a place I LOVE and would happily spend ages in. So for all those praying for our quick return to the states your prayers may have been answered. Because if we can’t make this work then we are out of luck!
I lie, we were house hunting but flat hunting sounds better. we spent all of Wednesday with our relocation specialist from London Relocation, Kenneth. WE hired a nanny to watch Eden and Alden and Jasher came along with us to see 24 properties in 3 areas. We were exhausted! We found a few winners but then I came home and looked at the details. My favorites were a 50 minute or more commute. Yuck! Knowing that Chad will likely be working 10 hour days I imagined how the kids wouldn’t see him at ALL except weekends and holidays. What had we done?! After officially freaking out and being completely downtrodden the next morning I managed to pull myself together… just a bit.
Our top choice was very competitively priced coming in well under what we expected to pay. It was beautiful and the street was nice and the community seemed perfect. Then we went and knocked down the neighbors doors. This was after we showed the kids the house and the gleefully ran around. We went to look for friends… nothing. It turns out the perfectly wonderful street had been perfectly full of children 20-30 years ago. Now all the kids were grown.
Later that day we popped over the the other property and checked out the dynamics of that street. What a difference. Children popping from the seems. It is more expensive but with all the kids and new friends we promised Eden and Alden it will be worth every penny.
We went to the ward today and I loved it. It is small and very diverse. But the people are friendly and there are kids in primary. Now I am hoping we can make this place work. If not I don’t know what we’ll be able to find!
Chad and I celebrated our seventh anniversary by taking an 15 hour trip from San Francisco waking up in the UK. The jet lagged with three kids we collected 3 car seats, 3 boxes, 6 pieces of luggage, a stroller a little worse for wear and a pack’n’play. We had three luggage trolleys to help us get from luggage carosouls to rental car pick up. It was absolutely impossible! I took one look outside on my way to collect the car and was overwhelmed. So we stood up the rental car and cancelled it later and made our way to the taxi center. We were in line for the two next cabs. The first was a nice older gentleman, the second was horrible! He yelled and complained about putting boxes in his cab so we put them all up in the first one, then he yelled and complained at Chad for the 20 minute ride to our temporary housing.
Chad and I soon discovered that our phones didn’t work after all, that the cabbies wouldn’t take a credit card and that we were definitely in a foreign country. It is funny how your view of things changes when you look at it as your new home instead of just a tourist visit.
By pure providence the lady managing our temporary housing lives just across the road and greeted us. She told the taxi driver where he could take Chad to get some cash. For the remainder of the day we tried to keep our eyes open and I tried not to cry. Not the best of anniversaries–but hopefully it is the beginning of something wonderful.
