We’re moving again

We’re moving to another town in January!

We found a small detached house, a little bigger than our current place. It’s seven minutes to school (instead of 20-25), a 40-minute commute to London (instead of 50), and the house is in a cul-de-sac with neighbors who are always watching (that’s GOOD!).

The house has a normal-sized kitchen and lots of storage space, including a large open area under the stairs where Trudy can kennel up (she likes sleeping in her kennel) and watch the front door at the same time. It’s still just three, itty-bitty bedrooms, but that seems to be the norm (small bedrooms, that is). We’ll still have 2.5 baths–hurrah! Oh, and we get a conservatory too, which I think would be nice to use as a dining room. It’ll be great to spread out a bit.

Renting a place here is kind of weird. You have to put in an “offer” (the amount you are willing to pay and any requests for repairs) and then wait to hear from the owners. When they agree, you have to put down a deposit to hold the place (in this case £500), which gets applied to your normal deposit (1.5 times one month’s rent) plus your first month’s rent, all due the day you move in.

If you are living in another place, you have to give 2 months notice! And while you are trying to move out, the landlord of your current place is supposed to be able to show your house to prospective renters.

But one good thing about the rental contracts here is that most of the time, though the contract is for one year, you can break the lease without penalty after you have been in the property for six months, as long as you give your two months notice.

Oh, there are additional fees that the renter must pay: an administration fee (for the letting company), a inspector fee (to hire an independent person to look at the property to assess the condition), and I think there is one more thing, but I can’t think of what it is.

Anyway, the town we are moving to has a decent collection of shops and is very close to a larger shopping area. Not that shopping is terribly important, but when your child changes jean sizes every three months, it’s helpful to live near a mall.

By the way, just for the record, the weather this last month has been glorious! We had a few cold days, but most of the time the temperatures were in the 40s – 50s with mostly sunny skies. I thought it would be quite dreary, but maybe that’s still to come. I know February to mid-March is cooooold.

Tomorrow: More Prague pics.

NaNoWriMo word count: Still at 8,011, same as yesterday.