A Change of Address...Before even moving....

I guess we are learning that things in the UK really do not work the same as in the US.....
We thought we had found a place to live when Scott & I went over to the UK for a week on our house finding trip. The Latimer House that we had selected was the best home we saw during our visit and really our best option overall. It seemed like a quaint "English" house, and I already had identified my favorite things about the dwelling. All other homes were either quite small (and dumpy) or else they were homes out in the middle of nowhere. Granted this area to which we are moving is not large overall, but the "villages" we visited during the house tour consisted of a street or two, at best, with a few houses on them. There may have been a local pub in that village, but there was definitely not a grocery store, gym, or even a store that you could walk to if you wanted to go out for a stroll. The "towns" we saw do offer such amenities and that is why our only one viable option for a house (which was in-town) was the one we selected.

Sadly, we found out this past weekend that the landlord of the Latimer House decided he did not want to sign a 24 month lease with us. Since we need a two year lease for a house (part of the agreement of our move), we were unable to move forward with this contract on the house. I am slightly frustrated that this information about the lease terms was not presented at the very beginning of our interest in this house, but as we are learning, things are done differently in the UK than we would expect in the US.

Everyone who has lived in the UK continues to tell me I need to take all of my American expectations and throw them away. I will need to adopt a new set of expectations. Situation #1 has arrived. I am just hoping we do not face a simliar situation with the next house we would find.

So, we are back to the drawing board in the search for a house. I am quite anxious to find housing since we will be moving in less than 3 weeks and I have no idea what bed linens (sizes), kitchen items, etc. I will need to pack for our shipment of goods that will go with us. I am also a bit nervous about signing a lease on a place that I have not seen in person, but we are lucky that with the Internet and digital pictures, we should be able to get a (fairly) good sense of a property before agreeing to live there.

I guess my dream of having an AGA stove in our English house was nice while it lasted.....