Life Lately (A House Move)

Life lately.

I’ve been meaning to blog about what life has been like lately but I’ve frustratingly not had the time or headspace to be honest as moving house with two kids in tow has been pretty intense to say the least (one, I was still homeschooling due to school renovations), but today, the sun is out and I feel calmer than I have in weeks so I thought I’d fill you in a little.

So, we sold our house in Collingham (you might remember it from the blog tour HERE) as well as a flat we owned in Horsforth, Leeds too (which all went surprisingly smoothly despite the double-whammy of Brexit and Covid-Brovid) and we finally bought our first home in Windsor, Berkshire.

Peter and I have taken this Berkshire move far more slowly than we have historically, after switching cities fairly frequently over the past decade from London to Bristol to Leeds and then back down South to Windsor, so we decided to rent at first here, enabling us to get a real feel for the area: the schools and community, new friends and the commute into London, really taking our time to question whether a permanent move to this Royal Borough in Berkshire was what we wanted long-term, before selling up in Yorkshire, where my family and many of my close friends live.

Peter and I are pretty spontaneous people (we’d move abroad in an instant if it was right for us all) so I’m proud of the time we’ve spent carefully considering this move and feel grateful for the perfect storm that arose in us buying a wonderful home in Windsor, after the original house we plumped for fell through at Christmas.

There are several changes we want to do with the place and I’m excited to decorate (the fabulous Photowall gifted us lots of vibrant paintings and canvases to adorn our walls with) and it’s a beautiful South-facing house full of sunlight, space and warmth.

Rather like our first day living in Windsor, we felt instantly happy and settled, here. It was meant to be.

My Mum always says, ‘When you know, you know’ and rather like finding the right person to settle with, ‘You only need one partner, and one house that’s right’. Mum’s one wise owl!

Once we make this house into a home and the builders have finished, I’ll share a little house tour with you, here.

Right now, there are paintings and mirrors piled by walls in every room downstairs as we’re about to paint the whole place and the garage is full of excess furniture that arrived from Leeds and storage nearby, that will be going to charity as soon as collections reopen.

We also want to transform the garden and are contemplating bigger structural changes potentially but we want to live in the house first before making those more costly decisions (see, we’re being patient, again, must be an age-thing).

Meanwhile, the kids are enjoying their new rooms (and are no longer sharing as they were in our rental); I love that we live near our friends here and timing wise, it feels like a fresh start not only personally but professionally too mirroring some career changes.

I feel deeply grateful that my online career has not been impacted by the current crisis and I hope that my new business will help many other parents to work both flexibly and digitally, around their families, too.

Life has certainly proved busy but more positive of late…The photos were taken on The Long Walk and Deer Park in Windsor and illustrate just how happy we are here, with everything we could possibly crave on our doorstep: open countryside, a friendly community, achingly beautiful vistas of Windsor Castle and Eton (where Xander goes to school), herds of deer to marvel at (we feared this lot who appeared out of nowhere were about to charge at us but they usually keep their distance), and we’re just a 30 minute train ride away from my beloved London.

Bliss.

Updating this post with a new photo of Xander I took in the park today. Not quite technicolour as it was almost dusk but a sweet addition I thought.

 

 

What have you been up to?

Read more blog posts by Honest Mum and her life here.