Stay or go? A leaving London update…

So last week a ‘for sale’ sign went up outside. Which means our flat is officially on the market.

But did we decide on an area to move to; and are we leaving London?

Well yes we did and no, we’re not. We’re staying put, albeit slightly further down the road, but still within a travel zone, and close enough that Alex can be home for bathtime each night.

There wasn’t a lightbulb moment; it was a gradual decision. The primary reason behind it was of course not wanting to change my blog name (what else?). And that most of the lovely, not-London places we looked at weren’t a whole load cheaper than here, then would have to be combined with a longer commute, much less time for the three of us, and travel that costs several thousand pounds. Even with my terrible grasp of maths I knew it didn’t add up.

We were also really loathe to leave everyone we know to move somewhere completely new. Parenting is hard work, as everyone knows, and I do think it can harder when you don’t live near your immediate family. If we’re thinking about the big second baby question at some point, then we’d like our friends to still be around us ( and NO, I’m most definitely not pregnant again, I’m still far too tired). I know babies and children and groups and schools are great places to meet new people, but you don’t instantly form the sort of supportive friendships where you can freely talk about the amount of stitches you all had, do you?

Of course the two major red traffic lights in this plan are that we still need to sell, and we also still need to find somewhere to buy. We’ve found a child-friendly area we really like – with more affordable housing, nice schools, and the kind of things you’d list if you were on Location, Location, Location. So I now have a second career, fielding calls from over-friendly estate agents (sample conversation: estate agent “Hi, we have a PERFECT house for you…£30k over budget, completely the wrong area…just PERFECT.” Me “Brilliant! Oh, must go. Bye…”

We had our first block booking of flat viewings on Saturday, so to keep out of the way we took Eliza to breakfast at where it kind of all began – the cafe where we used to go on the cold winter mornings when we first came house hunting here in 2009.

So while we’re not quite ready to leave London just yet – we’re thinking further along the road – we’re hopefully going from a top floor flat to a house and a garden, so it’s a big move. I’m sad to leave our lovely flat, but you take the important things with you – and what’s to come is much more exciting.

Fingers crossed, wish us luck!