February 17, 2009

One excitement after another this week- we've been thinking about moving into Cambridge because it's so hard to meet up with people living out here in Swavesey. We love Swavesey, love the village and the area and the parks, but we haven't had one person out to our house since we've been here, because it's just too far for internationals and even British people to travel. Many don't have cars or anything. Those of you who know us from A2 will know that we had people over to visit all the time, and we had dinner with people and just hanged out. But here we have been very isolated, and we've thought about moving closer in for awhile but didn't find anywhere suitable that we could afford.

A friend at Bounce A Round suggested this website to me, so I searched it and found a very VERY nice house, closer into town, that we could afford (although it would be even better if we had another person take one of the 4 rooms) which also has a huge garden in the back. It's a bit of a risk for us- I hate living in the city period. City life really isn't for me. Every every other place I've seen so far is smack in the middle of Cambridge, too expensive and very small, no garden (Nelly wouldn't be able to go outside) and generally unpleasant. But we've been chatting with other people at StAG, and they also thought it'd be good if we moved closer into town so we started looking again.

So we put a sort of hold deposit on this place today. I only found it Sunday, and we saw it this morning. But since it's the only good place we've seen in Cambridge the 17 months we've been in the UK we decided to risk the deposit and if it doesn't work out we'll eat the small deposit. The house is VERY big- it has 2 big double bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 2 half baths, with a big living room and dining room (well, big for England). The kitchen isn't hot- it's long and not as nice as ours, but there's not much we can do about that. The house comes with a garage, and the garden (or yard) is really long, with the first half being a sort of flower garden with nice trees etc, and the back half has a big plot for a vegetable garden and it has a greenhouse! So there are benefits for sure.

Please do pr for us- we've been pring about it as well, and are willing to trust Gd in it. But we love living in the village, and moving will mean a huge sacrifice for us. One worth making, but one that I will find hard. It's worth it to be able to invest in relationships with people, have people over for lunch or dinner, and for it to be so much easier to meet up with people in town. We could start having the ladies' study there, and other outreach events like that. So it's totally worth it. Having such a big garden is a consolation for living in the city, and the street is very quiet- I feel like Gd is being so merciful to us in providing things which would make our living in the city more tolerable. He doesn't have to do that, but He is, and I am grateful for it! Do pr for flexibility from the people who are leasing- we'll need to put in a cat flap, and we'd like to repaint (they just renovated the entire house) to make it usable for us.

This is the house in question. :) I didn't take this- it's from the realtor's site.

Again, not my photo. This is the first half of the garden. There's a section beyond it even.

Also pr for us as we sort out moving, and say goodbye to our wonderful landlords. They are the only real relationships we have in the village. Cambridge camera club is full so I'll still be out every week for the camera club, and be keeping up with the club. And we can visit with the news agent lady then too. :)

This new house has NO closets what so ever. So we will need some wardrobes, and several dressers. We're also considering whether to ship all of our stuff that's in storage over, because that would be cheaper than getting furniture for this place. It's totally unfurnished, so we need our couches, chairs, and the 2 beds for the other rooms. And it would save us the cost of renting that space in A2. Anyway as you can see a lot is about to happen. Happily, we will now be able to have more people come stay with us since this place is so big. :)