Finding a House and a 'Garden' That's Bigger Than a Closet

Spoiler Alert - we found a decent sized 'garden'...see photo above.

House hunting was stressful. Seriously, I felt like a brat. I had my eye set on the most amazing house. Showed it to the boyfriend via the computer and he approved. Showed it to the kids and they were stoked. Called to book a viewing and a time and date was set. Everything was great, birds were chirping, the heavens opened up, and angels sang. Slight exaggeration. But shit was good. Then...two days before we landed in London I get an email from the letting agent (they say 'let' here instead of 'rent') saying the property had been taken. I'm pretty sure I let out a loud, "What the fuck?!" in the middle of our hotel lobby when I read the email on my phone. I was annoyed. Whatever though, we'll just find something when we get there right? Wrong.

The things I required in a house were:
- At least 2000 square feet (that's asking a lot in England...their houses are tiiiiiiiny)
- At least four bedrooms so that each kid got their own room
- A separate room for an office
- A separate space for a play/game/TV room for the kids
- An updated kitchen
- A big yard aka 'garden' as they call it here
- A garage
- A older home with character

I didn't mind a commute so I was willing to drive as much as 45 minutes. I've always commuted to work so it's not a deal breaker for me. Seth, however, has never lived more than 5 minutes from base so this was a big issue for him. He wanted somewhere 30 minutes or closer to base. Here's where it gets tricky - to get a big ass house, with character, and a large garden, you have to live in the country...about 45 minutes away. And after sitting shotgun for a week as Seth drove these small, windy, dangerous roads I was starting to side with my man on the whole "Let's not live that far" argument. Compromise it is.

But with that compromise came a slight change to my "must have in a house" list. Since we were narrowing the search to something not in the country that meant the size of the garden was going to be small, square footage was gonna shrink, and we'd be lucky to get four bedrooms.

So imagine my surprise when the first few houses we looked at were 5 and 6 bedrooms just 10 minutes from base. I was excited again. But when we pulled up to the houses and walked inside for a looksie it quickly became clear that 5 bedroom close to base really means three bedrooms and two closets close to base.

What am I supposed to do with this?

Oh, and PS the dude showed us the garden and it was literally 3' by 3'. No. I said. So he brought us to the next house. The first door I opened was to an 'office'...it would've held my dyson and a back pack. Nope. I said. And we were gone again. That first showing I'm sure was hard for the letting agent because I didn't even see the entire house, I saw two rooms and called it quits.

The next house he showed us would've been super cute and perfect if we were childless. I like the original features and coziness of it but seriously, I couldn't have three kids in that house because it was just too small, I got the feeling the agent didn't understand what we wanted.

He even offered to lower the price significantly which does me no good because I have 2190 pounds I need to spend and if I don't spend it I don't get anything in return. So we kept looking.

Oh and no matter what the inside looks like a lot of the exteriors look creepy. Case in point below. And this was the only bit of yard this house had, the backyard was just a sliver of grass. No bueno.

But before trying again I realized I needed to uncross my arms, realize my indoor heated pool house was gone, tuck in my bottom lip, and buck up. So I did. And I made a new list with further compromises on it:

Let's Try This Again
- At least 2000 sq ft still (this didn't change from the first list, we need this amount of space at the least in order for the five of us not to punch each other in the mouths'
- At least four bedrooms (this didn't change either)
- A separate space for an office
- A decent kitchen
- A decent size garden
- A garage OR carport
- I don't need character but please don't give me green carpets.

Seriously, a lot of the homes had green carpet - it must be a British thing.

So we tried again with a new letting agency and guess what, we found a house! Woot! And it's only five minutes from Bury. Bury has a mall. 'nuff said. Oh...and an ASDA for Seth. Bahaha.

We still don't move in for a couple weeks but when we do you know I'll bombard ya'll with pics. As far as deets are concerned I ended up getting everything on my let's-try-this-again list. It's four bedrooms, two and a half baths. Good sized fenced in garden. Double garage. The eat-in kitchen has cabinets and appliances that are to die for. Laundry room. Sun room. Living Room. A Dining room that we are going to use as an office. And a bonus room that we are gonna use as a game/TV room for our three musketeers. Besides needing to replace the not flattering tint of purple carpets in what will be Ethan's room, and repainting the obnoxiously yellow kitchen, it's move-in ready. So with that we are breathing easier. Well, I am. Seth isn't because I just drove for the first time today and let's just say that he has been scared for his life. Roundabouts are scary. Driving on the right side of the car and left side of the road should be illegal. And I thought it was a legit question to ask if the gas was still on the right but the look on Seth's face followed by the "Hooooooly shiiiiiit" that came out of his mouth told me that my question only further worried him. Did I mention that I'm glad we found a house that's only a 15 minute drive from work. Pray for the drivers of Suffolk County.

Holler Ballers,

L