We Have Moved!

You will have to forgive me but I have been keeping something from you on this blog. Yes, that’s right we have moved house. Something that I wasn’t sure would happen again, certainly not this year anyway. To be blunt, I wasn’t sure our marriage would survive another bout of house moving; house moving is considered one of the most stressful things you can do, so it’s hardly surprising.

Annus Horribilis

I didn’t want to share the fact that we were moving until we were actually in, as I was afraid that it would be a prolonged and traumatic affair like last time. I also didn’t want to jinx it. The Queen would have referred to last year as her “annus horribilis”. I prefer to refer it to it as “the year that the Jersey property market nearly f*cking broke us”. It was no easy road to selling our house. We were frustrated by how selling your house works on Jersey. You are expected to clear out of the house, you never meet your buyers (or if you do, that is considered a very rare occurrence) and you go to court on a Friday, it’s only on a Friday where you exchange and complete. It can completely fall apart up to that point. If it’s delayed then it goes back a whole week at least. It feels like a hopelessly antiquated system.

What We Considered

Then there was the dodgy surveyor report that meant we lost out on our dream house. This report was so flawed that we were able to argue our case and at least get our money back, but it meant that we still lost out on the house. We then had a case of gazumping and gazundering. At times we felt like we would never sell our house, so when we finally did I declared that I wanted us to consider all the options. This included moving back to the UK or moving to New Zealand. For a while, we considered both but neither option offered us anything extra. Well, moving back to the UK would mean that we were closer to family and friends again but then we couldn’t decide where in the UK we would want to live. We no longer knew where home was for us anymore.

In the end we came to the conclusion that Jersey was where we would be staying. The girls are very happy here and Jersey is all they really know, well that is certainly the case for Youngest. We are very fortunate to call Jersey home and it does offer us the family lifestyle we so desperately wanted on the mainland but couldn’t make work. However, property being crazily expensive meant that we thought we would be renting for the foreseeable future. In a way, I was quite happy at the prospect of renting because it meant that we wouldn’t have any ties to the island. We could always pack up and flee and go and explore somewhere new if we wanted to. But then we got thinking, why do we need to go seeking new places for us to live when Jersey already gives us so much? We have so many amazing beaches on our doorstep and a lovely laid-back island vibe. Yes, at times I can feel claustrophobic and island fever will suddenly hit with a vengeance but that’s what visits back to see family and friends are for and that’s why we go on holiday (although the new house means that holidays may have to wait for a while).

How Renting Helped

Renting gave us the space and time to really consider what we really wanted and we came to the conclusion that our future was Jersey based and that we needed to get back on the property market. Again there were hurdles along the way and at one point we weren’t sure that it would happen but it has and I feel very grateful for the fact that we have been able to buy our gorgeous home. Yes, there have been compromises (more on that in another post) and yes, there will be changes that we will want to make, but none of that matters because we have managed to find our forever family home. The girls now have their own bedroom, something I never dreamt possible and we even have a garden, again something that I thought wasn’t possible in our budget. I am feeling very lucky and relieved that we are here.

Yes, we might not be starting a new adventure in a new part of the world but we are starting our new adventure right here, and I for one feel very excited about that. Expect lots of house posts to follow, sorry, not sorry.