Lucky charms.

Ahem......^ do you see that? Do you see it? Thankyou. Noname

Unloved and empty house that we will fill and love for a little while, but not yet. Not for 8 weeks.
Pretty river and steps and water.

A veritable jungle.

THE. HOUSE. IS. SOLD.


Surprisingly, that IS ok. We can stay until the summer is over, then we have TWO houses to move to. Lucky us.

House number 1 is a great big house with a garden that has had students living in it. It is very full of all things students can't live without until they move house and then leave behind. Silver standard lamps and tennis shoes, empty food cartons, smells, you know the kind of thing. It has umpteen bedrooms, bathrooms the size of Texas , rooms we may never use and decor that leaves a lot to be desired. No matter because we we will only be there as long as it take sour landlady to evict a mad man who is living in house number 2, a LONG TERM rental property that we can pretend is ours for at least 2 years. HE is not a good tenant and is as we speak sitting firm and destroying the house.
*sigh*
The estate agents think we are marvellous, says we are a lucky charm, we make landladies empty homes so appealing and homely that they are snapped up by the first people to look around.
I think we might well do the same thing to house number 1, it has the potential to be the most splendid dwelling. Why do people allow such buildings to be so unloved? Even though we know we won't be living there more than a month or three ( you watch, we'll end up there so long our feet will take root in the somewhat ugly blue carpet,which actually will be fine because we can live there RENT FREE til we move again) we will be unable to not love it and will polish it and make it smell beautiful ( please, damp / sweat is so not a good aroma) we will make it our home and have pride in it. It does have a garden ( jungle) and also a river, with real bridge at the bottom of the garden and steps( GET DOWN ELIJAH! NO! ELIJAH..... you will DROWN!) It has windows in the ceiling of the sitting room, could be dining room, how bizarre. It has a colossal kitchen of much blueness. It has a school next door ( not our school though, sadly, how lovely to be able to lift kids over the wall whilst wearing ones pyjamas and then heading back to bed for a while) and a supermarket immediately opposite. It is within walking distance of the town ( handy for H, not so much for me because walking? WHY?)

This house was the one that B the landlady ( hereafter referred to as B) told me about before she showed me the lovely holiday barn that we are holidaying in for the next 7 weeks and 6 days. I wish she had just shown me it in the first place and had us just move right in, oh well.
So, B is going to hire a van and some men and they will move us next time, she will do everything she can to make sure that these next 2 moves are as stress free as they can be.

My only sadness is that the long term house has no garden. None. No freedom for little boys.

The thing is, rental properties are so hard to come by lately, good ones are impossible and long term......forget it. The carrot like promise of at least 2 years of not worrying about moving is too great for us, we will take it and try to make the lack of garden as un-sad as possible.
This summer is going to be one of memories for these little boys. Enormous trampoline, go karts, basketball hoops they have them all, they can go outside
in rain, wind and snow ( and even that wouldn't shock me this summer) and they can explore even the most overgrown of corners of this land we have right now.
I am going to do my very best to enjoy this time, I am going to ( she said with such conviction) gird up my loins ( which actually, will I? Who knows? but that phrase certainly sounds as though it is saying what I mean so I shall use it regardless of whether it is fitting or not) and do what needs to be done, I will dread all the damn form filling and notifying, the switching of utilities ( groan, oh the phone calls) put up with it all because it all means we will have a roof over our heads and a plan for the future.
I will pray that this will be alright, that my nerves can stand it all. That we can have some SUNSHINE PLEASE, this summer.
I shall look on it all as an adventure, as a job of sorts that will eventually be to our advantage. I am sure the boys will be fine, we will make it all seem like fun and let them know that we are lucky to have these chances and adventures.
Wish us luck.

Oh look I went and took pictures, just for you ( and me of course) how pretty is that river?