TO LET

In the last post, I admitted we should have done a pre-visit and learned more about the housing situation here before moving to London.  However, even though we rushed over here, we landed in a wonderful temporary accommodation for the 1st five weeks.

We've been here a year, and now we're moving again.  This time into a place that we are excited about!  As with a lot of people who relocate, we had to settle for something because of the time crunch and only one day to view properties.  We were not well-informed and personally we don't feel our relocation consultant was very helpful.

Here are a few do's and don'ts regarding rental housing in London.

DO:

• Know that "for rent" is known as "to let" in London - start those google searches!
• Get all the help that you can ~ contact agencies on your own, they can help you.  
• Accept that London's prices in the nicer areas are going to depress you. 
• Try to find a contact locally - not your relocation consultant! - who can give you some advice
• Visit and talk to parents at the school(s) you are considering
• Consider temporary housing (something for the first month, for example) in the area where you'd like to relocate
• Understand that most lettings are posted approximately 60 days before the date that they are available (because tenants usually need to give 60 days notice) ~ therefore it is best to do your looking 60 days prior to your desired move in date.
• Try ALL the on-off switches, appliances and utilities in the home before agreeing to sign a lease, and be sure you've seen ALL the areas of the property (garages, gardens, etc)
• Prepare to put one and a half month's rent (of your own money without the supporting company's help) down for a deposit

DON'T:

• Feel pressured to choose something after the first day of looking at houses (our relocation consultant put the pressure on!).
• Choose something without really understanding the street and immediate area surrounding the property...
• Hesitate to knock on doors and talk to neighbors in an area where you're interested!
• Forget to really measure to make sure your furniture will fit!
• Trust the rental agents, unfortunately ~  some are excellent, but some are not (ie we were told we were in a different borough of London than we actually are, and told we'd have the garage but we don't). 
• Assume that your children will be able to "play" outside of your home ~ ask the neighbors about the general feel of children in the neighborhood ~ there are still plenty of people who believe children should be seen and not heard and should only play in the parks.
• Feel like you must live right next to or very close to the school if busing is an option; most children in central London schools come from a very wide area
• Assume you'll get your deposit back ~ we've heard some who get 100% back and others almost nothing.  
• Compare your housing allowance with other ex-pats ~ our situation was fixed and non-negotiable, but others I know here were able to negotiate for more or refused to come over until the company agreed to more housing allowance.

Resources:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/
http://www.findaproperty.com/
http://www.arlingtonestates.co.uk/
http://www.behrandbutchoff.com/

Get a copy of this book:   Living and Working in London, 5th Edition: A Survival Handbook by Graeme Chesters, David Hampshire 

What would we do differently, if we did it all again?

OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY AS EXPATS!!
Time to look back...
 
~ it's time to admit we made mistakes, and feel the gratitude for all the things that went well.
~ dig out some drafts of blogs I began those first few months we were here but never completed because life was complicated at the time.

DOESN'T THIS LOOK LIKE FUN????

 So, what have we learned?  What would we do differently?

Our first mistake, not entirely our fault, was coming over perhaps too quickly.  My husband’s company needed him here immediately, and for two months, he commuted back and forth (gone for 10 days at a time), so that he could get started.  This was an tricky time for both of us.  He hated being away, the job was exhausting and overwhelming and yes indeed they really did need someone to do this work, very badly in fact.  But at the same time he was required to continue with roles he was assigned here in the US, which made for a great deal of stress and workload.  Meanwhile I was running the household solo, trying to prepare for an upcoming move, and this was not easy either.

It was because of that rough time that we said we just need to get over there.  We actually just wanted our family unit together. 

Because David had been gone so much, we decided to forgoe the “pre-visit” trip of looking into school and housing.  We had truly narrowed our focus to a small area in London, and there just isn’t that much available in the budget we were working with, so what was the point?  Dave was exhausted from all the back and forth, and the kids were already quite disrupted; to leave them for a stretch of days with sitters and grandparetns seemed an unhealthy choice.

In retrospect, we should have done it!!
And I guess although it would have been painful, I think the children should have completed the school year in MN.

We should have come about 6 weeks prior to our move to try to secure housing and visit schools.  I wish we had done it.  I guess I had the sense we could figure it out on the spot, and that Dave's schedule was such that it seemed really hard to squeeze it into the calendar. 

The other thing we should have done was to take the issue of school applications very seriously.  We put them together as best we could, quickly, thinking, our kids are good, decent, and get good marks, they’ll get in.  We felt assured they’d get in somewhere. 

Finally, when we did get here, I made the mistake of giving one school (which was our top choice) an email address I don’t use too often, so I actually missed some important communication from them.

And finding housing here...yikes, we knew finding housing in London for a family of five would be difficult, and we knew sacrifices would be made - less space, perhaps not in an ideal location, etc. 

Now for the good stuff.
Some things went remarkably well.  We were placed in temporary housing, in an apartment in Kensington.  We were literally across the street from Kensington Gardens.  Our kids fell in love with Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  I'm so grateful that we were able to spend 5 weeks in this area of London.  Our apartment, although small, was modern, clean, and we had clean towels and a daily housekeeping.  We had good internet connections and it was not far for David to take the tube to his office.  Most of all, the location, location, location was wonderful for exploring London. 

our temporary housing...can't complain!

We loved this beautiful building, despite being a big cramped...in some ways it was like being on a vacation

Ally looking out of her bedroom window - literally Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park were across the street.

Dad's office building on the Thames ~ Vinter's Place in "the City"

The kids in their glory - in Kensington Gardens - with our apartment building in the background.

Important addresses/contacts:
Overall Ex-pat management contact:  Brookfield Global Relocation Services Limited ~ Bailey Munro
Housing and Schools support contact:  Relocation Support Services Limited
Our temporary accommodation:  Apartment 10, 2-14 Prince of Wales Terrace, London, W8 5PE

Anticipation....

is killing me ~ just like the song goes....

We are moving - HOORAY.  I am over my head happy about the place that we got, it's going to make the next couple/few years here much more wonderful.

But we gotta wait...one month from tomorrow is move day! =)

We are lucky to be in St John's Wood...often referred to as "sedate", it's just perfect for families and happens to be where the school is located, and that is the big draw for international families and ex-pat families.  There are some great purpose-built blocks of flats that you can find at "reasonable?" prices, but to get into a house is tricky.  There are lots of mansions in this area (particularly inhabited by ambassadors and celebrities such as Sir Paul himself).  The prices are unlike anything I've seen anywhere, we are talking RIDICULOUS.  There are two new mansions in the area that are listed at 78 and 88 million pounds...over 100 million dollars ~ what, who can afford that?  I guess that is why most of the mansions are owned by countries or companies; most celebrities cannot even get into that range and in fact when you take a look at Paul McCartney's house it looks like absolutely nothing special. 

Our current little townhome has been a great starting point, we love being so near to Primrose Hill and Regent's Park.  The area is safe (I think partially due to the large number of ambassadors who have 24 hour guards or watchmen pacing in front of their homes) and I have become comfortable with allowing Jonah, and once in a while, Ally, walk short distances to friends' homes or to and from school.

But we're a bit cramped here. 

And if you remember, we weren't exactly happy with our move-in here, as there were several glitches - the biggest being that it was advertised with a garage and when we came to take the keys...sorry, no garage.  Oh and by the way you're actually in a different council than we said (double the council tax).  Oh and there's still furniture here that we aren't moving out.
What the...!?
Isn't this stuff illegal or something? 
Apparently not, our relocation agency couldn't seem to do anything about it, and the company had to pick up the tab for storage of our items that didn't fit into the house which we planned to store in the garage. 
Ugh, frustrations...

So when we got our lease renewal letter, asking whether or not we'd be renewing our lease for another year, it made us think, what else is out there?  Especially because we also know that we pay high compared to others in this complex of townhomes.  After some searching I identified a little area still in St Johns Wood but very close to Swiss Cottage where there are a number of townhomes that are reasonably priced and more spacious than where we are here.  Several were on the market, a couple needing serious updates.

When we saw one we really liked, we thought, why not offer and see what happens?

And that is how we got into this mess of moving!  We get to double our size. =) 
And for a mama who loves to have people at our house, and loves to have the kids have friends over, this is really going to be a fantastic upgrade.  It's certainly possible to have house guests now, but not without moving everyone around and having our kids sleep on our floor and such - trust me - it's not a big deal, and they don't mind at all - what kid doesn't like to crawl into their parents' room anyways.  But in our new place, it's so wonderful because there are these three very small bedrooms (one for each of the kiddos) and then a larger bedroom (which will be a playroom/guestroom). 

Did I mention I'll get double the refrigerator space as well??

Oh my good heavens I'm so excited and filled with anticipation about it!!

The bummers are moving away from wonderful neighbors I have met - of course we'll only be a 5-10 minute walk away, but we won't be right next door as we are now.  We'll give up some very nicely updated bathrooms to some outdated ones, and our proximity to the parks.  But we'll gain space (albeit choppy - no open floor plan, but we had to sacrifice some things) and proximity to transport, work, school and leisure centre/swim club.  It also seems like playing outside, in the street or whatever, is more accepted (there are A LOT of American families over there).  Here, it is not allowed.  =(

We've given up an April vacation in order to pay for the move (company doesn't help with local moves - it's our choice).  We'll be moving when the kids have 2 weeks off of school, which I think will be nice.  They haven't even seen the place yet!!  We hope to show them in the next couple weeks, but the current family just moved out a couple of days ago.  The kids are eager to have their own rooms =)

I am dying of anticipation for this move!!!