Village Life Beckons Us

As my regular readers will know, for the last four years since our wedding Michael and I have been living on the top floor of my parents house. Although we are grateful to have a roof over our heads, the situation is far from easy. Because of the steep stairs down I struggle to get to the shower on the floor below, never mind making it down the further flight of stairs to the front door. I am effectively home bound for weeks at a time. However, now if all goes to plan village life is calling us.

The decision to rent privately

About a month ago we began the process of registering for housing with the council. That in itself was pretty straight forward, but the problem was we would only be granted a one bedroom house. Then add to this the waiting time. Even if we are given a priority assessment because of my Fibromyalgia and the difficulties in this house. It could still be well over a year before we were successful. Considering our lives have felt “on hold” for all these years, we couldn’t face another year. If you want to know more about Fibromyalgia check out this post.

House Hunting leads to village life

Once we began our search it only took a couple of days for Michael to spot the perfect little house for us. It is in a village that is within a sensible commute for Michael and only two miles away from IKEA. Considering every time I visit that shop I want to move in, this is good news. I may make it several times a year (unlikely currently when we go there every couple of years).

Location, Location, Location

I digress, talking about IKEA, far more importantly it is in a village! The church is within walking distance, even for me on a good day. Although there is no garden with this little house, there are gardens full of flowers all around. People have window boxes too (which I’m sure we will do) and the neighbours even have a strip of astroturf outside their door (I won’t lie, in our current neighbourhood it would be stolen. Can you tell how excited I am that village life beckons us!

The right amount of house

One of the frustrations with life currently is that we live in two rooms. We have a bedroom with a sink in it (and a commode) and then a large room that contains the kitchen, living room and my craft room. There is a lot going on. Add to that the fact that I sit in the same chair to work as I do to relax and play computer games and you end up with work/life balance issues rearing their head.

The house in the village

The house features an open plan kitchen complete with a dishwasher and washing machine, as well as a fridge and freezer. This joins onto the living room. Then there is a flight of stairs, which are not too step and covered in a very comfortable carpet. Upstairs there is the bedroom, bathroom and a second small bedroom which will be my office cum craft room. It will be great to close the door on the room when I am in the middle of creative projects. Village life means that we may be entertaining.

A healthy village life

The best thing of all about this house is that we can go for a walk straight from our front door. I have struggled with my health living here because to go for a walk I have to first get down all the stairs and then we have to get in the car to go somewhere to walk. It is a big undertaking. Unless it is raining, village life would let me go for a short walk everyday. Rain and Fibromyalgia do not mix well, it is painful enough being inside when it rains!

The fear of the unknown

Now is the scary time. Other than university rooms I have never rented anywhere and it is decades since Michael has. We saw this house advertised on the day after it was listed. We arranged to visit it the following day (and fell in love with the house and the village life) then the following day we completed and submitted our application forms and a holding deposit. Now it is completely out of our hands! There is no reason why we shouldn’t be successful. Michael can afford the rent and bills from his salary. However, we were told someone else was coming to see the house four days later and if they were also interested it would go to the landlord to choose. I have read a holding deposit will secure it for you, however the house is still on Rightmove…

Our village life dream

I can’t tell you the range of emotions I am going through at the moment. A large part of my brain is happy and excited, and we are cracking on with the decluttering and minimising. At the same time, although there is no reason why anything should go wrong, until the agent completes their checks and we sign the paperwork we are trying not to get our hopes up too much. I think the disappointment would crush us both if anything goes wrong.

Come on the journey with us

If everything goes to plan we could be moving in a few weeks (the week after our holiday to be exact) and I hope you will come on the journey with us. I will certainly be writing about the experience of moving house, as someone with Fibromyalgia. If you have done this please drop me any hints in the comments below. Also, if you can reassure me that a holding deposit does guarantee the house is ours as long as we pass all the standard checks. I would love to hear from you in the comments below too!

Until next time,
Gentle Hugs,
Susan