Exactly four months after we left our home in Glasgow for the final time, we finally moved in to our new house!
I’m not sure I have the words to truly articulate how bizarre, exciting, exhausting, stressful, hopeful and hopeless this year has been – we have done such a 180, it feels like I may as well be living someone’s else’s life.
It’s always been my dream to live somewhere new; I am, of course, a Kiwi – relocating is what we do! And as soon as I got pregnant, I just knew I had to live somewhere else. I craved something different entirely. The coast, a big city, new opportunities. Better weather!
We had considered a couple of cities in the UK when yet another obsessive Rightmove search landed me on our dream home. When I came across the listing, I carefully did a run through of my “must haves” checklist before saying to Jord “I’ve found it, I’ve found the house” – I know I will remember that day always.
It was too much hassle for us all to go down to view it, so I sent Jord down on his own to view our dream home. No pressure, Jordie!
I had looked all over the UK for a year and hadn’t seen anywhere I would even view but I just knew from looking at the photos that this was the one. It had everything that was important to us.
Months later, after we’d offered and started the buying process, I found out the owner had the same name as my mum. It felt like a sign.
We had already decided to move down this way, but the plan got a little off-track somewhere in the mix. Or rather, it seemed like it would be easier than it was. We had a rented house lined up, and we knew we’d be there a few months, and so, on the drive down, we decided to save the hassle of unpacking and repacking and just put everything we owned in storage. We thought it was the least-chaotic thing to do. We could live out of a suitcase for a bit, right?
Of course, everything was way more complicated and lengthly than we expected. We ended up being in our rental without our stuff for longer than we thought. It wasn’t easy – we felt so homesick for our home comforts.
It has been a lot more mentally taxing than we expected. In hindsight, having a baby, uprooting your life, moving to a new place and starting a new business all in the space of a year wasn’t the best plan. Add on lots of sleepless nights, breastfeeding and possibly a bit of PPA, and it definitely will start to take a toll. Moving so far, with little support, takes a lot of work. I have sort of lost sight of myself over the last few months, so I’m hoping we can start to feel more at home soon.
So here we are, in our new home! It is a quirky ol’ place, but thankfully it’s pretty “done” – I was NOT ready to take on a big project, so I’m in my ‘decorate not renovate’ era. Paint samples and furnishings are way more fun than builders, dust and despair!
There are some things I’d like to see to straight away (built in shelving, naturally) but I also just want to enjoy the process as I think (hope!) we’ll be here a while. We’re very lucky, it’s a gorgeous house with lots of history and character, and the previous owners put a lot of care in to it – especially the garden, which is arguably the best feature!
Thank you for sticking around as I’ve tried to navigate this wild, wild time. I can’t wait to start sharing more with you again. I hope I can find the old me in here somewhere.
Here’s to us! Finally in a happier chapter.
Love,
Kate
