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!!!