2nd half of looking for a house

Sho, if i dont sort my time management out I am going to fall behind and never be able to catch up.

So..the second day I was picked up at Sevenoaks station by Amanda and Anji in Amanda's big Mini.  2 min pause whilst I rack my brain as to which house we saw first, 53 years olds should blog everyday!!

Right, the first property had a garden out the front, it wasn't a bad size but it didn't really appeal. The kitchen was tiny and only had a bar fridge, even if I bought my own freezer there would be nowhere to put it. 2 bedroom 1125 pound a month.

Next on the list was a masionette , I liked this one, I think mainly because of the garden it was also a decent size and a very good price 950 pound a month.
It was very central but not close to the tube, Pierre would have a 20min walk to Sevenoaks Station.  If you look at the pic below, our entrance was down the side, the door you see is for the flat on the ground floor. The little wooden gate is where we would go to get into the garden. I liked the shed...small wood working projects were starting to manifest in my brain!!

Don't panic I am not putting all 11 properties on, just the interesting ones. Just a quick note about my 2 relocators, they were rather amusing, the postal codes they were using in the gps kept taking them to the wrong houses so they had to phone the estate agents and get them to guide us in! Needless to say we got hooted at a couple of times. What was great was inbetween viewings, if there was time they drove me around Sevenoaks and neighbouring towns so I could get a feel of the place.

Okay on we go, the one I am showing you now I put in because it was the only place, other than one other that had storage in the bedrooms, the rest had no built in cupboards and wardrobes are expensive here. At least, I think they are, again I am probably looking at it from a 'I can make that for so much less' point of view.

The place below didn't have a garden but was more spacious. It was going for 1050 pcm. It was also 2 bedrooms. The one I looked at was on the top floor.

We had a quick lunch then we met up with an estate agent that was originally from South Africa, she had told Amanda and Anji that she had the perfect property to show me, they were a little out of our budget but she said she was sure she could negotiate a price for us. Her name was Lynn and she works for a company called Helen Breeze in Sevenoaks.

So off we went to a small village called Leigh (pronounced Lye) it is near Tonbridge.
This is what we found:

Isn't it lovely...
It is a converted barn and I just fell in love straight away.  It was a little over our budget but Lynn chatted to the landlords (who are such a nice couple) and we have signed a two year lease for a lower rental, with a one year break clause. I hadn't heard of a break clause before, what it means is if either party isn't happy after one year, the contract can be made null and void. Normally it is put in after 6 months but because we signed for two years we made our after a year.

Now all we need is our furniture, which is scheduled to arrive on the 29th of April. In the mean time we are getting by quite happily with 2 of everything cutlery and crockery wise, one 2 seater couch, 2 chairs and a small table, all thanks to our landlords Jill and Joe who have kindly lent them to us until our container arrives.

We have had to buy some essentials like a mattress, 1 set of linen and 2 towels, a pot, a frying pan and cooking utensils. There is only one wardrobe and it is quite small so we bought a clothes rail for now. We don't have any wardrobes coming in the container so we are going to have to buy some pretty soon. I have been looking at the YMCA shop in Tonbridge, they have some lovely ones, lets hope they deliver!!

The small garden below is our private garden, the rest of the views from the windows are the landlords garden and trees in the area surrounding the barn.

The barn has two double bedrooms, a spacious kitchen with fridge, freezer and dishwasher hiding in the cupboards :) and then the washing machine. Most of the places I looked at came with the above, some were missing the dishwasher which is definitely not essential. There is a large reception room with a wood burner. A full bathroom upstairs with a bath, separate shower (lots of places had showers over the bath) Then downstairs there is what they call a wet room, it has a toilet and another shower.

Enjoy the pics my next blog will be a short one of tips when moving to the UK, nothing profound just useful I think. After that i will tell you about my first week in Leigh.

Our little garden

Front door from the inside

The wet room, there is a shower on the other end

Reception room

Spare room

Main room

Main room and the epic mattress :)

Upstairs bathroom

Finding a place to rent! 2nd to the 8th of April

I was very busy last Tuesday (2nd) and Wednesday (3rd),.I saw 9 properties in the north-west of London on Tuesday, Northwood and Pinner and on Wednesday I headed to Kent (south-east of London) to look at Sevenoaks.

On the weekend before Pierre and I took a trip out to both areas just to get a feel of the two different places. Sevenoaks appealed to us straight away as it was in the country but still close enough to commute. I decided to still go out to the north-west and take a look. I met the relocating agent, Kate at the Northwood tube station. What a lovely lady, so friendly and chatty, which is a good thing if you are going to be spending the whole day together.

Both the towns had a lovely pleasant feel to them but it was still quite built up. Our one criteria was that the property had a garden of some sort and Kate did her best to show me properties that fitted the bill. I saw a mixture of maisonettes,  flats and terraced houses. We are very spoiled in South Africa when it comes to the space we have, bare in mind the property we came from was 5 bedrooms, it had a cottage and the overall property was 2500 square metres. We definitely don't need anywhere near that much space seen as there are now only 2 of us, but to have no garden....the two properties below where the only two that had private gardens, the others that were bigger flats had communal gardens.

I should have taken pictures of the gardens they are very different, the brick terraced house at the bottom, you come out of your door turn left and go through the wooden gate and on down a little path between two other gardens then turn left into yours. So you don't have access directly from your door. Well on this particular property anyway. The one with the white kitchen had two doors directly onto the garden. I must also mention that the property photographers have lots of skill in making rooms look bigger that they are :)

I would have been happy to stay in either of these two places.

to be continued...

First Full Day In London

I got up with Pierre on Friday and went on his work route with him..I was a bit nervous about using the underground, have only previously used it with people who know how it works and have just followed their lead. Turns out it isn't as daunting as I thought it would be...it is very logical. Of course it helps having Google Maps and Tube apps which give you a detailed timeline to follow.

I love the random squares in London that are filled with trees, flowers and benches. They are kept so clean and the real cherry on top is they are safe to sit in and drink your coffee and read your book or just watch the world go by. There is one right out side Pierre's office, Berkeley square.

Berkeley Square

Berkeley Square London

 After saying goodbye to Pierre, I wondered back to the tube station I was a bit nervous about catching the tube by myself...but first I needed to find a
loo....well that turned out to be quite a mission, walked around the whole station went into the small McDonald's, up the escalators..nothing, in the end I found a security guard and asked him, there are no toilet facilities in the Bond Street station Mam was his reply, but if I go out of the station and turn right, 4 blocks up the road there is a McDonald's. Off I went..in a hurry.

Seen as though I had started walking I continued...maybe I should walk back to the flat...google check 58min..maybe not. On I went and guess what, I found a Primark, Lianda, Sharon and Debbie had told me about the cheap clothing at Primark. In I went, I needed knickers, spent my last day in Johannesburg in someones office because it was her year end :) didn't get the opportunity to get the one thing left on my list. Quite an important thing to!!

So this is Primark, it is like a really really big Mr Price mixed with Pick n Pay clothing, so many floors, such good prices. I will keep you updated as too how long the knickers last because I have heard some stories of what happens to Primark clothing after the 4th wash.

Primark Oxford Road

Whilst walking along Oxford Street there were a group of people were dancing and signing the Hare Krishna mantra, I thought it was very apt.

I ended up catching the 55 bus at Oxford Circus, it took me all the way to the flat.

Vic arrived at about 12 and we spent the rest of the day chatting, I picked her brain about living in the UK. We popped down to the shops and she bought pre-mixed GnTs, all different flavours..mmm.

One excellent tip Vic gave me is to go to the shops at around 3pm and look for the meat with the yellow reduced sticker on, they reduce the price of the meat that has to be sold that day. Some really good bargains. Popped them in the freezer.

Arriving at the flat 10 days after Pierre

After my visa finally came through I left South Africa to join Pierre in London on Wednesday the 27th and arrived in London at 7:30 in the morning on Thursday. I was picked up at Heathrow by Adeem a driver from a company called Blackberry Cars (£49 as apposed to Addison Lee £89!!).

Adeem was great, we stopped at the McDonald's drive through and got cappuccinos, he then gave me one of his croissants! The trip into London City took over two hours! Morning traffic apparently. Adeem and I chatted the whole way, I learnt quite a lot about him and about London in general. He has been in London for 30 years, he came over here to do his Masters in IT and has never left.

Pierre was waiting at the apartment for me when I arrived,,it was so good to be together again.  Pierre went off to work and I unpacked and then checked out the fridge....very scary ...so off I went to the shops
                                                                               

 

I found a Sainsburys Local around the corner...After :)