Five-minute Friday word for this week: PLAN

We are just embarking on a major move away from the City and into the countryside in the UK.  Along with other members of the family, we have discussed this idea for a number of years and always had reasons why we wouldn’t or couldn’t do it.  It was a dream that I thought would never become a reality.

During the last summer we began looking in earnest and decided that we would move south of London.  Easy, I thought but this was possibly the hardest part.  We weren’t moving for work, we didn’t need to be anywhere in a hurry or meet any deadlines, we just had a dream of a different quality of life.  For a number of weekends we drove around looking at properties and realised that we really didn’t know what we were looking for.  Moving from the city we were taken up in the dream of living in ‘chocolate box style cottages’.  They look wonderful on the outside but never felt like homes or met our requirements in terms of required space, particularly the garden.  In London we have a small garden and we all felt that we needed space to breathe, enjoy the fresh air and for Jazz, our family dog, to have space to run and play and enjoy more freedom that she currently has.

The time came to plan.  What did we want, what were the essentials and non negotiable and what could we compromise on? It was surprising how varied the requirements were until we saw the house that we have chosen.  Our only problem was that as usual we had chosen to be unconventional by finding a house before we had sold ours.  Now the planning has to start.  Selling our house, having a survey carried out, deciding on a moving date, saying goodbyes to friends, packing, moving and finding a new job for my daughter and new customers for my work. 

If my mum had been around she would have sat me down and helped me to create countless lists to ensure that everything went well.  Just for you mum, I have started a ‘relocating’ journal to keep everything organised and make sure that we accomplish our goal whilst maintaining our sanity.   The adventure begins, within 6 months I hope that I will wake up and look out of our sitting room appreciating the view of open and uninterrupted countryside.

View of the Dorset countryside