Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

Doveling wrote: »

Thanks for the offer of help with househunting, may take you up on that towards the end of next year

A couple of my friends are Druids and one of them is trying to learn Welsh - quite difficult she says.

You'd be quite welcome to Doveling - as long as you're okay with the fact I don't have a car (so it has to be places within walking distance or off one of the more frequent bus routes). So do contact me nearer the time if you do decide to.

I've never actually done much househunting at all for myself personally. Starter house - I walked straight into a house that was being advertised, knew a "good un" when I spotted it and only didn't buy it because the vendor (aka "Little G*t") never really meant it when he accepted my offer and wouldn't proceed with selling it to me:mad:. That house shot up in price over the next few years and is, very probably, THE dearest terrace house anywhere in my city (as that road went from reasonable to VERY desirable).

So - when I had to go househunting again for that starter house - I decided on the best areas I could manage to choose from for my money and grabbed the first house someone told me about and I had only seen a couple of others. I guess I got about the best I could manage looking back.

Cue for me looking at Wales and I decided on the location, figured out the best area I could afford for my money, made out the shortlist and can count on one hand the number I viewed then. I ended up getting the one I had decided was "Most Likely" over the internet. It has certainly had its problems (errr...neighbours....umm...neighbours) - but I had pretty much summed up the whole situation before I bought and think I probably got the best house I could for my money here (and <cross fingers hard>) I think the neighbours have stopped being such a pain as they were initially.

So - I think I can count on two hands how many houses I've viewed in total over the years - as it seems to be possible to pretty much pick out the "best for money available" from the details imo. I could tell you right now exactly which house I would buy if I had the money to do so - I've not even viewed it - but I know the area extremely well.

If you're into things like the "wilder fringes" of things - eg Druidry. Then here is where you need to be actually from what I can see. There is "something I cant quite put my finger on" just sorta in the air imo and I've been meeting people along those lines since moving here. Cue for Really Embarrassing Moments time when a very good friend of mine that is an evangelical Christian was here staying with me for a couple of days and I showed him around somewhat and he looked straight at me at one point and commented he was getting a very strong feeling of "something he couldn't quite put his finger on" about the area in that respect. At which point I realised it wasn't my imagination if he'd picked it up too. Can't quite recall his exact words - but "piercing looks were us" for the way he was looking....

I helped an MSE internet penpal to choose which one when she was viewing across the country and signalling "That One. That One. That One" about one she was contemplating. Last I heard - she seems really please with it.

[Deleted User]

Airs and graces don't earn you a place in a community, you also can't just arrive and have the whole local population put out the bunting and celebrate your arrival in their midst to enlighten their backward ways and lifestyles. Places in any community have to be earned, you have to work and contribute much before you get any recognition and you have to become an accepted and useful member of that community before you can hope to become an accepted local who is integrated into the everyday life of that community and useful to it before acceptance happens. Putting down the local community and continually making adverse comparisons between it and where you previously lived will only put peoples backs up and get you pushed to the fringes of the community along with all those others who denigrate and ridicule the place they have chosen to live. A much happier life is to be useful, be kind, be nice to people and work towards some common good for the whole place, then you'll be a part of it and have a place of your own.

moneyistooshorttomention

As Mrs LWalkers comment seems to be aimed at me and I am feeling not "enamoured" of her having said this 1, 2, 3, 4, lostcount number of times:cool: - one response and one response only being = you don't know what contribution I am making to my new community (but it is noticeable and appreciated - ie voluntary work I'm doing).

Add in that any "comparisons" being made are for the benefit of others as well as myself - ie wishing everyone to have the standard of healthcare, for instance, that I assumed everyone had across Britain. I want the best for everyone - and not just myself.

So - I would appreciate you removing this "continuously playing record" from the turntable, rather than playing it again/yet again ever.

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

That's true but I don't normally read your posts MITSTM only pick up what other posters use as quotes and I hate that you or anyone is so unhappy with their life and where they have ended up living, it's so sad to not be able to find peace and contentment having worked your life through and come to not having to work any longer time. Unfortunately you're not the only one who was very unhappy with the place they ended up living in, I was dumped here on a totally unexpected job move 23 years ago and I felt just the way you do for the first 10 years of that time, I hated the place and the people with a vengeance, I really do understand how you feel. The only reason I play my horribly repetitive record love is that I know it worked for me, I got a job in a local shop to earn the fees for DD2 to go and read Medicine at Uni and it gave me my place, my friends, my life right here and I wouldn't now want to go anywhere else. I'd so love to be able to read in the future that you have found your place too and happiness and 'home'.

moneyistooshorttomention

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

That's true but I don't normally read your posts MITSTM only pick up what other posters use as quotes and I hate that you or anyone is so unhappy with their life and where they have ended up living, it's so sad to not be able to find peace and contentment having worked your life through and come to not having to work any longer time. Unfortunately you're not the only one who was very unhappy with the place they ended up living in, I was dumped here on a totally unexpected job move 23 years ago and I felt just the way you do for the first 10 years of that time, I hated the place and the people with a vengeance, I really do understand how you feel. The only reason I play my horribly repetitive record love is that I know it worked for me, I got a job in a local shop to earn the fees for DD2 to go and read Medicine at Uni and it gave me my place, my friends, my life right here and I wouldn't now want to go anywhere else. I'd so love to be able to read in the future that you have found your place too and happiness and 'home'.

I don't think its wise to presume how anyone else is feeling - based on one's own experience.

There are pros and cons. I am quite open about the fact I am not here by choice and would go back if those pesky finances would allow it. This may or may not be how I feel a few years down the line.

I have made quite a few friends here and still working on making more. Plus side is I appreciate having fresh air to breathe/WAY less traffic/lower risk from terrorists on the one hand.

Minus side is it annoys the heck out of me to have a noticeably worse standard of healthcare than I've been used to (and I get annoyed on other peoples behalf as well about it). It upsets me to see public money spent on something a very small minority of people have a personal wish for - when I am shocked at just how very poor the local Councils seem to be compared to the one in my Home City. I would like to see them having a lot more money and to rip out "personal preference" expenditure from the budgets - for everyone's sake. One has to accept there is nothing that can be done to improve the weather - oh well.

By and large - I take the attitude that "It is what it is" and make the best of things and I am doing voluntary community things and meeting quite a few people through it.

The dye was cast years ago - I could have married Mr Second Best and made do and been able to afford to stay in home area or I could hang on in there and wait for Mr Right and gamble as to whether he would ever turn up and, if I lost the gamble, then I mightn't be able to afford to stay in Home Area. He didn't turn up - so I couldn't afford to stay on just the one income coming into the household.

It is what it is.

In a few years time - I might even be able to report back that I feel fine/think it was for the best and the health service here has improved and so has "money wasting". I'm a realist and I'd bet more on the first half of that sentence than the second:( - but there you are.

No-one ever knows exactly what goes on in someone else' head do they?:cool:

elona

I have had to rethink where I am going to be living next year. I know I want to stay in the same town, people are lovely, good bus links and local services and near enough for family to visit whenever they want.

We came here nearly 27 years ago thinking we would be moving for job etc in a few years but have been very happy here. We decided on arrival that we would make the best of whatever there was and it worked out well.

Now I need to downsize and the bungalow I first offered on is being over optimistic on price (even estate agent is a bit baffled) and will need modernisation, decor and carpets as well.

Last night I found a chalet bungalow just on the market which looks suitable and won't need that much doing so am going to view it next week. Feel like a snail that is being winkled out of its shell. :eek:

[Deleted User]

Not presuming to even begin to know how you think but I wish you well and hope that you can find your 'happy place' in life very soon, I wish you well and settled love.

GreyQueen

Really hope the the chalet bungalow is suitable and available at a suitable price, elona. I must admit to rather coveting this particular style of home myself.

Property purchasing is such a minefield, isn't it? I know one estate agent who rents their home, they think the prices are beyond ridiculous and have not intention of paying them.

It's a salutary experience to look at the damage being done to people's homes and possessions by the floodwaters, and seeing how many and varied are the items which have been ruined by the water. Reminds me of a time in Lewes, West Sussex, when I was visiting a couple of weeks after bad flooding there and it was so sad to see skip after skip after skip lining the streets. Each filled with things which had been valuable, useful, comfortable items in their owners' homes.

Makes me thank my lucky stars not to be affected like that.

RAS

GreyQueen wrote: »

Property purchasing is such a minefield, isn't it? I know one estate agent who rents their home, they think the prices are beyond ridiculous and have not intention of paying them.

I did the same at the back end of the 1980s. Was gazumped twice and decided to rent for a couple of years. Bought at the bottom of the market for £44k what had been on offer at £58K, and would have probably sold higher, three years previously.

But that is only an advantage if you are not in the market; if you are selling and buying in the same area at the same time both properties are likely to be affected by the same boom or slump.

fuddle

We have paid £47400 in rent over the past 6 years.

Suddenly buying a home looks a bit more attractive huh? :cool: