The Start

We all know moving is a bitch.  As if packing away all of your belongings wasn't enough of a pain, there's the added hassle of informing everyone that you are changing your address, and updating your details EVERYWHERE (bank, gym, work, council tax office, DVLA, that one thing you subscribed to ages ago and aren't sure how to cancel).  So why bother moving in the first place?  Well, sometimes your landlord is deciding on selling up.  Sometimes you're sick of your landlord.  Sometimes your flatmate gets a job in another city.  And sometimes, you buy a place of your own and think Thank fuck I don't have to do that again for a long time.

Until you start dating someone and then decide you want to get a (bigger) place.  Together.

So that's pretty much where I am just now.  Our goal is to get my apartment ready to sell early next year (March-ish, 2014), before moving my stuff into storage and living at his mother's (a whole other possible Pandora's box) while we look for our dream home.

Having dealt with a number of problems living in a tenement block over my adult years, there are a few things on our 'required' list for a place we'll eventually call home.  These are:

• The property must have its own front door.  No sharing.  Because I currently live in a block of flats where one of the flats is a brothel, I have no control over the 'clients' who frequent my building.  On more than one occasion, a 'client' has found himself knocking on my door mistakenly, only for me to have to let him down gently, and point him toward something he could actually afford.  I'm done with that.
• There can be no asbestos ANYWHERE in the property.  That stuff is bad for your health, and ridiculously expensive/problematic to get rid of.  Fuck that.
• Two bedrooms.  Since we're responsible adults, we might decide to have guests  (ie my parents when they visit the country).  I would like them to be able to stay with us.  Another option, if we're finding a little extra income would help, is that we could lease out the spare room to a friend on the cheap.
• Area.  We have a particular area in mind for where we want to live.  We also have particular areas that I refuse to live.  Some people might say this makes me snobby.  I don't care if they're right.
• Not a new build.  I think they're pretty tacky, and it seems a lot of the modern buildings are designed to fall apart in a decade or two.  I would rather avoid that.

In addition to the 'must haves', there are some things we would like the property to have, but if it doesn't, it might not necessarily be a deal breaker.  These are:

• An exclusive garden area.  Because who doesn't want that?
• A garage. Again, who doesn't want that?
• Stairs.  This is mainly just me.  I would LOVE to have an upstairs and a downstairs instead of being on just one level.  That would be cool.
• A bathtub AND a shower.  I haven't had a bath in so long, because my apartment only has a shower cubicle.  In truth, I'd probably only have 1-2 baths a year, but it's an extravagance I'd like the option of indulging in.

So yeah, we might be living with his mother longer than any of us will care for, but our goal is to be celebrating Christmas 2014 in our new home.  Feel free to stick around for the ride.

-R