Moving! Maybe?

So the exciting news for this week is that we are going to be moving fairly soon. I posted a few weeks ago about a house we'd seen and offered on but couldn't go for in the end because it needed lots of work. Well, another house in the same road came up and we went to see it, offered on it and they said it could be ours once we'd sold ours. This week has been quite mad because this all happened on Monday and we then had to get ours on the market ASAP. Because every house is in such demand, we quickly booked in viewings - 5 the first day, 8 on the second! We got an offer of the asking price from the first day so could then accept it and secure the house we wanted to buy. Phew! As J is an estate agent, we know the process pretty well and that this is not at all the end of things. 1 in 3 house sales fall through so we are not getting too carried away just yet.

I thought I'd jot down a few things about our house buying experience so far...

- A phrase that I felt God kept giving me was 'hold it lightly', every time we viewed a house. It is so hard not to get attached to the idea of a house that could become home, especially as a wife and mum. When I view houses I have to think of it as mine and how I would make it home. Then when that house suddenly ino longer available or out of our reach, I find it really hard to let go. I hadto allow J to be quite firm when we had reached our limits because my emotional attachment would make me get carried away!

- If you are selling and you have children, get out of the house as much as possible. It is absolutely impossible to keep the house in a presentable condition when you are at home. I would clean one part of the house to then find a spillage or mess in another part. Once the house looks good, escape quickly! It is also better to be away so that the viewers can feel more comfortable looking around. I never like looking around houses with the owner there. You can't linger or look in cupboards or have an honest conversation.

- Concentrate on the good points of moving. It can feel very overwhelming and a huuuge decision when you think about buying a house. The house we are buying is better in some ways than the house we are currently in but in other ways it is not as good. The area in particular just can't compare with the lovely neighbourhood we have now, with the park around the corner and the friends we've made. I feel very sad about losing those aspects. But I know that change is needed and the good does outweigh the bad. I'm trying hard to not allow myself to dwell on what we'll miss.

- Make a wish list. It really helped us to clarify what were looking for and then work out what we could compromise on. Our list looked like this:

1. Area. We wanted to be near where we currently live because we've applied to schools for Chloe around here and it's in the middle for both our works, church, family etc. There were a few villages we wanted to be in and this was the priority.

2. Three bedrooms/potential to extend.

3. Two reception rooms

4. Nice position/road

5. Character

We got the area, character (Victorian house - yey!) and sort of a nice position (it's a busy road but a nice one). There is a slight compromise on the rooms because it is currently a 2 double bedroom house with a lounge and small kitchen/diner. In this market, it was just impossible to buy something that was perfect already. However we are buying at a price where we should be able to extend straight away. This will at least give us a big kitchen/dining/family room. If we can afford to do the double extension then we can move the bathroom upstairs and eventually go into the loft for another bedroom. A neighbour has done all this already so we are confident it can be done. I'm really looking forward to designing an extension and seeing our plans become a reality!

I'm sorry this post has gone on a bit. There's so much buzzing around my head. It's happy and sad at the same time. I'm going to be an emotional wreck saying goodbye to our lovely family house but it's also super exciting having God lead us somewhere new. God is such an amazing provider!