Moving On

Hi all,

I hope all is well with everyone and that you are all fine and dandy. I am very well and back in the swing of things after our holiday. It doesn't take long does it?!

I spent all of my weekend (apart from Saturday night which was spent consuming Prosecco and Cadbury's mini eggs) going through our house from top to bottom with a bucket of bleach, a vacuum cleaner and a bottle of Pledge and a duster. Yes,folks, finally, after years of pleading, sulking and discussions with hubby, we are putting our house up for sale.

We have lived here since June 1997 and our children have all spent the formative years of their lives here. Our house is a 3 bed-roomed semi detached with a loft extension and quite a big garden. We moved here from a house a couple of miles away which was almost the same style in design but which I didn't realise until later. Typical lack of observation by me. I just knew that the new house felt familiar!!

I have never loved this house. I have tried but I have never felt entirely at home in it for some reason. Hubby and the kids love it and I feel sure that we would spend the rest of our lives here - actually, until recently, I really feared that that was what was going to happen - until hubby relented and decided that a move would be beneficial to us both. I think he may have been swayed by my devotion to my hut and to the seaside. He has never been a seaside man but he can see how happy I am these days and he possibly thinks he is heading for an easier life if I get what I want ;-)

Many, many memories are wrapped up in this house. Shortly after we moved in, Princess Diana was killed and I remember that I put a TV in the kitchen so that I wouldn't miss any news.
My Dad sat on our sofa and told me that he feared that he had cancer like his brother in the back room of this house. He was correct and many tearful nights were subsequently spent in the same back room listening to music and feeling helpless and sad.
My Mum rang this house many, many times and I had countless chats and conversations with her about absolutely everything, although usually family to be honest!
This house has hosted  birthdays, barbecues and boozy nights, parties, fundraising attempts, music sessions, Christmases and Guy Fawkes bonfires and fireworks.
We have prepared for weddings, christenings and funerals from here. Beautiful brides and bridesmaids have left here in their finery, the brides going off to the biggest day of their lives.

The garden is the final resting place of a wonderful little dog, a rabbit, 3 guinea pigs, a couple of hamsters and various fishes.
The same garden was tended by my parents in law when we moved in and they helped us establish our roses and gave us loads of books ( and advice) on how to get the best out of the garden. We weren't really interested at the time. We had young children and a house to run and the garden could look after itself. Of course, only now do I wish I could speak to Grandma about certain flowers and how to look after them and get the best out of them. I could ask Grandad but I'm not sure that he ever really knew what was right and wrong. Grandma definitely wore the trousers in that relationship at the time.

We have a lovely patio and back garden path along with a block-paved driveway which was put in by a good friend of ours and which has made so much difference to how the house looks. We have a lovely bathroom upstairs which was put in not long after Mum died and which I will miss very much. I remember sitting in the bath when it was first put in. There was no light and no bathroom door but I ran a bath, lit a few candles and luxuriated in bliss for a while. There is also a great shower in that bathroom and we have our fabulous brother in law to thank for that. He installed all of the plumbing.
We have installed double glazing and my super step-dad has been responsible for almost all of the electrical work that we have had done.

This house has been the place that our children have called 'home' for most of their lives and some of them still call it 'home' even though they've moved out.
We only have one remaining 'child' at home (and the dog) and that 'child' has the option of coming with us when we finally move but I think he is going to stay in the town that he was born and brought up in and where he has friends and a job.

We have wonderful neighbours too. You know, the kind of neighbours that don't interfere or bother you but who you know that you could call on if you needed help. There are also a lot of student houses in the area  due to the ever -expanding university and campuses and that can make parking a bit of a issue but the students themselves rarely seem to cause any problems, at least not for us.

We have also seen sadness from this house. The death of one our son's friends who lived a few doors away at the age of 10 due to leukemia and the sudden death of the mum of a family of 3 girls the same age as my girls shook us hugely. I can see the houses of both of the families who had to deal with these tragedies when I look out of my bedroom window and I am reminded of them everytime I open my curtains in the morning. It is testament to our neighbourhood that both families still live here.
This was also the house that we took our beloved Labrador Charlie for his last visit to the vet after he had been poorly. We returned from that visit without him and I recall sitting in the back garden and sobbing later that evening.

So you may be asking yourself why, after all of that, that I so desperately want to move. Maybe it's as simple as the grass being always greener and we may be making a huge mistake but I truly don't think that's the case.I feel that the time is right for us to move on and make the most of our lives and do things that we have always wanted to and moving is one of those things.

I would like to move down nearer to the coast and, of course, nearer to my beloved beach hut. Tomorrow we will begin our investigations of the areas local to the hut and see if there is anywhere that we like the look of. We may not find anything suitable immediately but we are not in any real hurry to move...as in we don't HAVE to move straightaway...but wouldn't it be wonderful if we were to sell the house quickly and find somewhere we love and it could all be done by Christmas! We can but dream, but, you know, I have a really good feeling about this.

We have a lot of good things to look forward to and the next part of our lives is about to begin. I can't wait!

Much love

xxxxx