Apartment!

We got the keys to our apartment today, and the movers come tomorrow with everything that came over on the boat. Hooray! It feels like we've been here for three months already, and I'm sure that our transience hasn't helped.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures I took of the inside. Please excuse the awful lighting.

Kitchen (bigger than the one we had in Colorado). There's also a separate water closet on this floor.

Living Room

Bathroom (there's a shower to the right of the toilet)

Bathroom storage

View from the bathroom. I'll definitely be closing those blinds!

Big kids' room, with built in wardrobe

Baby's room (tiny!)

Besides being tiny, the baby's room also has a built in desk. We'll just have to make it work.

Master bedroom

Master, much roomier than it seems here

There are three built in wardrobes in the hall, and that's where Matt and I will put our clothes. I'm excited about all of this storage space, because it's not uncommon here for there to be no closets or wardrobes included with the dwellings.

So after the movers drop everything off, I'm guessing we will be spending most of our time unpacking for a couple of weeks. Then we'll be settling into a routine, which doesn't sound that fun, but I'm looking forward to.

Keepin' It Real

I feel like overall I've kept a pretty positive attitude with everything we've gone through so far, but I'd be lying if I said it's been easy. Here are just a few of the difficulties.

A random picture of countryside to break up the text

Not having easy access to public toilets. Especially with a 3 and 5 year old. Most restaurants or businesses have been really understanding if one of the kids really needs to go, but the reality is that many shops just do not have bathrooms at all.

Inconvenient restaurant times. Since we are still in temporary housing, we haven't been able to do much cooking at all. And it's not always easy to find a place to eat. There are sandwich shops, which are open late morning to late afternoon. Then the proper restaurants usually open around 6pm for early birds. There are a few fast food places, but not many (and no drive thrus). Also, if you don't have reservations for weekend dinner, you're basically stuck with takeaway.

We stayed in the round building for two days

Not having local friends. I know I will make friends, but it does get a little lonely not to have someone to text or hang out with. It's hardest for me in the mornings, when I feel chatty but it's still the middle of the night in the US.

Language barrier. Of course people from both countries speak English, but there's a wide variation of terminology. I'm trying to use the English (England English) words and phrases, but I haven't caught on with certain things. I say pants all the time, which means underpants here. Trousers. Trousers. Trousers. Someday I'll get it.
There's also a wide variety of accents. Not a big deal, really, it just can take a moment for your brain to catch up with a conversation including multiple people.

An actual key to one of the apartments we stayed in

Bacon. What they call bacon here is not what we're used to. It's thick and more hammy than bacony. We're still new enough that we get a little disappointed after ordering food with bacon.

Electric showers. Yes, these are real. It's supposed to be a more efficient heating method, as it only warms the water being used. Maybe we have only experienced awful ones, but it started out with a few minutes of ice cold water, followed by a few minutes of super hot water. And adjustments to temp in between take some time.

Park day

Moving around a lot. This has by far been the most difficult part of our move. The town we're in has a lot of festivals and events, so there hasn't been room for us to stay in one apartment/hotel until we get our own flat. We've been here four weeks, and are now in our sixth temporary residence. We've never unpacked anything since the longest we've been in one place is a week. Plus it's been really hard on the kids. It's bad enough that they don't have their toys and other things, but to be uprooted so many times has made them even more homesick. I'm really looking forward to settling in to one place and staying there.

I know that a lot of these things are either temporary or will improve with time (except the bacon). And once we are settled in and used to things, I'm very confident that we will really like it here.

We Found an Apartment!

Well, we found it a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't want to jinx anything until I knew it would be ours.

It's a three bedroom flat in town, within walking distance of the school. It's very spacious, with lots of built in storage throughout, and a private patio. There's no designated parking space or garage, but that's really the only thing it's missing.

Oh, and it's directly across the street from this...

As soon as we walked through the place, we knew it was just what we wanted. We walked outside and Matt called the agent to make an offer. Basically, this just meant that we told the agent the length of lease and rent we would pay (which was the amount of rent they asked for), and told them how many people would be living there. Then we waited.

A few days (!) later, we received word that our offer was accepted. Then we had to submit certain fees and a bunch of information so they could check out references. They called Matt's employer, the guy who owns the inn we're staying in, and checked credit history and income. Stuff like that. This morning, after several days of anxiously awaiting news, we were told that the flat will be ours. Phew!

Oh, and the shipping container carrying all of our stuff has arrived in the country and gone through customs. Yay!

We have to wait to move in until the 28th of September, so we still have a little hotel/temporary apartment living. But we will move in soon, and have all of our things available immediately.

Off to have a pint or two of cider to celebrate!

House Hunting

We've been looking at different houses and apartments since we arrived, and, you guys, this is hard.

We started out with a strong desire to live in the city (it's not a huge city, but we're definitely not in the country). We wanted to be within walking distance of the kids' school, in a three bedroom apartment. From our research, we knew that we wouldn't be able to find American sized rooms, but we were used to a semi-small, one bathroom house. Plus we got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved. Shouldn't be THAT big of an adjustment, right?

Ha. HA. There are three bedroom apartments in the middle of town, within walking distance of the school. And they are tiny. And expensive. Within about five days of arriving, we had to up our housing budget (honestly we were trying to get off cheap). I felt like we were on an HGTV show with a long list of must haves and a laughable budget.

We did find one place we liked. It was a plain set of buildings with modest apartments, but we could deal with the size. Plus it came with a garage that we could store things in. The best part was that it was about a 10 minute walk from the school. I emailed the agent with an offer, and the landlord basically said no because we have kids. That was a huge disappointment.

Miles took this picture

Since then, we've widened our search a bit to include some suburban type properties. These offer much more space, as well as small yards (gardens). And with three young kids, a detached or semi detached house sounds more favorable than being on the second floor of a small apartment. My kids like to run. And squeal. And run. But I admit to feeling disappointed at the thought of living in the suburbs.

So we just have to make up our minds. Do we want to live in the city or suburbs?

City:
Close to everything
Access to the lovely park, which has a huge play area, and events throughout the year
I can walk the kids to school
I can walk nearly everywhere (this is important because driving in the middle of the city terrifies me)
I can easily meet up with people
Wow, this driving thing influences me more than I'd realized.

But the cons are there too.
Very small accommodations (seriously, it's not uncommon for a third bedroom to be 7'x8', or sometimes smaller)
Some places haven't seemed well suited for young children
It's more expensive
It's not like we're going out to eat a lot once we move in, so how close do we have to be to restaurants?

Suburbs:
Larger living spaces
More for your money
More families (with more than one child)
Quiet
Storage space
I don't have to walk around in horrible weather

And the cons would be...
There aren't stores and restaurants around. Just houses.
I will have to learn to drive quickly, and drive much more often
I will have to drive into town for everything
We will need two vehicles
Will it be harder for me to make friends?

We have a few more places to look at, but we really need to decide asap. Cross your fingers that we make the decision that's right for us!

Travel Day

Since our travel plans were changed pretty last minute, we decided to spend our last night in Denver at the hotel attached to the airport. No fighting traffic, and we could sleep in (until 3:30 am).
We stayed at the Westin DIA, which was beautiful. I wish we had had time to enjoy the fluffy beds!

Here is the swanky lounge

And the view


Saturday morning we  ran over to the airport at 5 am. Because of our massive amount of luggage (we checked 11 pieces!), it took forever to just get our boarding passes. Then the lines for security were horrible. By the time we got to the gate, we barely had enough time for Miles to hit the restroom before we boarded the first plane.  I thought that it had to get better, right?


Our seats were scattered on this flight, but we did at least end up sitting by the kids. I sat by Lily, with Clara on my lap, and Matt sat with Miles. The girls were great on this leg of the trip, and the man next to Lily complimented her behavior. Overall, this flight was a win (once we boarded).

We landed in Philadelphia, and I guess it had to be around noon. We had a 5 hour layover, but after the craziness of the morning, we did not want to leave the airport. We got a bite to eat, bought some Dramamine for the kids, and let them play in the play area for a while. I thought I had taken a picture of that, but I don't find any.
Now, when we had first booked our travel for one direct flight from Denver to London, I had requested a cot for Clara. A shelf thing folds down from the wall, and the cot attaches so baby can sleep. Of course, now that our arrangements were changed, the cot was already taken. So I got the pleasure of holding a 10 month old the entire 6+ hour flight. At least she slept, which is more than I can say for myself.

Some cool artwork at the Philadelphia airport


The flight from Philly to London was a little less fun than the first. Miles slept the entire time from the Dramamine (judge if you want, I'm trying to get them used to being 6 hours ahead!). Clara slept a lot, and only had one short fussy time. The lady sitting next to me was so helpful and understanding with the kids. That was so nice. It was hard for me to sleep while holding Clara, and I only managed a couple of small catnaps. I did listen to an audiobook, which was nice, and had a cup of wine.

We landed at Heathrow about 9 am, I think. It could've been an hour either way, with my current memory. And our flight to Leeds was due to leave in one hour. I had no time to reenact the opening of Love, Actually in my head. We had to go through security again, fill out a customs declaration or something, and have our visas checked. Then we literally ran to our gate to be the last ones boarding our final flight. Lily had a fit or two on the way (she hadn't slept much overnight), and Miles had an outburst or two. Luckily, this was the shortest flight, at only about 40 minutes long.
I do want to mention that the people at Heathrow were among the nicest people I've encountered. A couple of the security ladies seemed really grouchy, but once they saw Clara they were very sweet to us all. Plus, after getting into the airport, Lily was scared and refusing to step onto the escalator. Matt was ahead, and I was holding Clara, so a wonderful woman picked her up and carried her during the whole ride. I was so grateful.

Upon landing in Leeds, the kids made it clear that they. were. done. Honestly, after nearly 24 hours, I didn't blame them. We picked up our luggage (minus two small pieces that were gate checked. They hadn't made it), and blew right through customs.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll save our car shenanigans and first full day for tomorrow.

Here is a sneak peek though (the entrance to an English park)