Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. Things have just been rather hectic on the home and work front these past 30 days or so.
On the home front, my landlord waited until the 11th hour to make mortgage payments that were in the rears. To be exact, repossession of property was to take place on 17th April and mortgage company only received confirmation of payment from bank on morning on 16th April. Most annoyed that he allowed things to spiral out of control as I had been paying my rent on time to Foxtons the property management company who in turn had been forwarding in a timely fashion.
In any event, by the time the payment went through, my things were being taken to storage and I had already made arrangements to temporarily move in with a family friend. I ultimately deferred the move until this past Sunday. The situation is not ideal (I haven’t lived with anyone in over 10 years), but it provides great flexibility for Choo-Choo and I to move after I’ve found a suitable flat/house for purchase.
So how is the search going? Well it’s threatening to take over my life. I mean, my budget when translated into US dollars would buy a posh 2 bedroom place in Chicago’s Gold Coast/Boston’s Back Bay Area, but here in London I am being relegated to looking in more up and coming neighborhoods. So far, I’ve seen about 30 flats and put in an offer on 3 places. The offer for the first place was quite cheeky and so the vendor, declined. With the second place I had my heart broken. It was the first place I had seen that kept me up at night and in the end, I just couldn’t match the offer from a competing buyer. With the third place, loved the size, but wasn’t too crazy about the location. So when I realized that I was once again bidding against another buyer, I just walked away.
So I am still looking and desperately trying not to be exhausted by it all. Budget is driving the search, which means I’ve been spending a lot of time running around the city trying to explore new areas based on advice from family, friends, co-workers, etc. It gets a bit confusing because one person will praise an area, while another will slag it off. So a bit frustrating, but I am finally starting to hone in on certain areas. Now just need to be persistent. Goal is to be in new place by middle of the summer.