Moving House & Making Decisions

Moving House is the 3rd most stressful thing in life after Death & Divorce. I've experienced 1 & 3 several times. It's stressful because it involves having to cope with a transition in life. It's about change & unfamiliarity & for many people that causes stress & anxiety. You have no control over anything.

I put my house on the market at the beginning of September in 2019. It's been a long, difficult road. Trying to move when Brexit had devastated the house market & then Covid changed life for us all has not been an easy experience. My house did sell, but one buyer withdrew at the beginning of Covid because he had a house in Italy. Several supposedly keen buyers weren't proceedable & couldn't sell their houses. My current buyer has been extraordinarily patient & has stuck with me, for which I am very grateful.

Finding an appropriate house to buy has also been difficult. I want to downsize in a particular location where most houses have 4-5 bedrooms on 3 floors. Because of the shortage of this type of house I've always been in competition with someone else. So the houses have gone to "best & final" offers. My current prospective house is the only one I have won. Every suitable house I have considered has been in need of a lot of work, which would be expensive & time consuming. Most would not be livable in while the work was going on. So I have to be prepared to rent. Renting for a couple of months is also difficult.

I went through months thinking that I was buying a perfect house in a retirement property, but had to withdraw because of problems with the Management & the Lease. I had to start all over again after making the hard decision to withdraw.

All through this process I have tried to remain calm & positive. I'm hardly living in bad conditions. I have a lovely house in a very good location. So my fall back position has been I can stay here & hope that my physical condition doesn't deteriorate.

Making decisions when you are single isn't as easy as doing it when you have a partner. I've always found that the old adage " two heads are better than one" works. Someone else's perspective & experience is always good, however hard you try to research & be informed. But at the end of the day you are the one who has to decide.

 

So much rides on these decisions. It is literally your life, your home, your happiness & comfort. 

I have no idea whether the decisions I have made will be the right ones. What I do know is that:- 

• I do want to downsize
• My new house has great potential
• Re furbishing will be expensive & time consuming
• The interim period will be difficult - I may be a 76 year old sofa surfer! 

It is a challenge & a project. Maybe my last one. I really hope that it works.