Priorities

Apparently we've deprived our avid readers of an exciting, interesting and thought provoking blog in the 2 months since we returned from travelling. Ha! Having now caught up with pretty much everyone our avid readers turned out to be mainly our family and close friends, and random people in the States, Germany and Russia... of all places!

A lot has changed since we've back, this blog is a random cacophony of events that happened next, as they happen...

We've both been back to work, it started snowing within a week of being in 35 degree heat, and we got back with little money at the start of the longest month of the year! But now the disgusted comments about our fading tans are few and far between and we've got lots to occupy our minds and our free time... and to keep us from complaining!

Our first task is to move home...

We've seen a total of 16 houses so far, which is already more than we saw before we bought out current flat.

It's always a funny experience going to view a house, with so many unknowns to contend with; Is the owner going to be in and will they know if its obvious that you're really not interested? Will they follow you around? Will they be the ones to show you round because the estate agent doesn't bother coming along any more? Will it be a dump, pushing the powers of imagination? Is the estate agents name going to be Sam or Steve? Will they drive a Mercedes drop-top or a branded Fiat 500? Will the pins in their pin-stripe suit be wider than the gap in my front teeth?!

In 16 houses we've seen a huge variety, but one thing stands out above anything else... as we're looking for the 'big' house (as it has been dubbed) we're looking at grown-up houses, where actual responsible adults live (most of the time), and somewhere with a lot more space than the flat we currently have. Which is all a bit frightening to be honest.

We've seen an 18th century cottage, which was a peach, but we had to discount on account that I couldn't actually stand up straight in the bathroom!

We've seen houses that have hot air heating systems... instead of radiators it blows hot air through vents in every room, kind of a reverse air conditioning. (Fiz couldn't see the attraction!)

We've seen houses in the middle of the countryside, within spitting distance of a train station. We've seen new-builds with so much space you could swing a Bengal tiger in every room.

Sadly, there have been a couple of houses we've seen where the owners don't want to move but because of deaths in the family they need to downsize or relocate. These are the hardest to see.

And we've seen many others that we've discounted and forgotten because they were just too bland. Did I mention that we have a list of requirements the length of our arms? It'll be a miracle if we find a place we like!

But our fave so far has been this big house that looks like it has grown extra limbs over the years. For its various extensions and dirty white pebble dash, it's pretty ugly. It would need modernising to get it to where we would want it; no doubt it would be a great house with some TLC and a bit of cash in 5-10 years. It sticks in our minds though because it was huge, it had so many different rooms, each of them seemingly occupied by students. One of which answered the knock on the door and as we peered in to see a massive desk, with dual monitors on it and a huge gaming PC on the floor, we noticed that he was standing on a thin half- inflated rubber bed, which was looked like a permanent solution! He clearly had his priorities sorted!

As our hunt continues, I promise to do better with the photos... have you ever tried taking photos of a stranger's house without them knowing?!