Over the summer, especially on our holiday to France, we had a lot of time to think about houses and adventures and what we want from life. It was such a lovely holiday. We stayed for a bit with Dan's French grandparents who live in northern France near Rennes.
Mamie and Papy (the grandparents) are some of the most content people we know. They sit out in their garden which is like a little wood and read all afternoon. Dan said how much he would love to have that French life style....I pointed out that this is a bit unrealistic, they are retired and it's the summer. Imagine us living in France in the winter, Dan working every day, me not being able to speak French and being away from friends.
I could learn French and we could move there but it is quite a massive commitment. We'd have to be there long term we couldn't just go there for 2 years and then sack it off that would be pointless. Apparently it takes 4 years to learn a language properly. So then we had this idea about buying some sort of caravan or motorhome. I mean a VW retro split-screen campervan would obviously be a lot cooler but probably a lot less practical. We spoke to an old cycling couple who had a motorhome and they were saying if you can afford one while your kids are young they are a brilliant investment.
We started thinking about all the possibilities, like if Dan could earn money through the invisible in the air internet instead of the in a pc in a grey office internet, then we could go wherever we liked. Then my sister Sarah started showing me youtube clips of a family in America with 9 children who have a massive RV and travelled round America for 18 months home schooling them. I mean that looked crazy, but lets say in 3 or 4 years time when we might have two kids out of the baby stage. I could travel round Europe for a bit.
So then we booked ourself onto the camping and caravaning show at the NEC because we're secretly 60. Then we started looking at cheaper houses with big drives so that we could afford to get a caravan and have somewhere to put it. And guess what we found one! This week we had an offer accepted on a house in Gateacre/ Belle Vale.
It's got 4 beds, (and by that I mean it's got 4 bedrooms and no beds at all) a dining room, a lounge, a kitchen and utility room and a big garden. It's very near Gateacre, a lovely old villagey part of Liverpool, and it's also near Belle Vale a not so lovely scally area of Liverpool. But the fact it's officialy in Belle Vale is why it was affordable for us. It needs a bit of work but nothing major like if you were blind it would be fine i.e. no holes in roofs but a lot of bumpy wall paper and grubby looking carpets. If you want to be nosy here's the link: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55798933.html
So either we could do it up and make it look nice, or we could live with it looking a bit shabby without the chic and buy a caravan type thing.
Hopefully it will all work out this time and we'll all live happily ever after and I won't have to send anymore sculptures depicting my anger to estate agents.
P.S Here's a few of my fave holiday snaps:
