Movin' right along.

I don't know if everyone knows already, but as Dad mentioned in his comment on the previous post, we are moving. We really, really like our current flat and landlord and neighborhood, and we really love Clevedon, but we've been here over two years so we're up for a change, and we think it would be nice to have a bit more space.

We looked around Clevedon, Portishead and Weston-Super-Mare, since they are still good for our jobs and nice locations. We did think about moving a bit closer for work, but it's hard to find an area that we like that is closer for both of us, plus we've been so spoiled living near the sea, and we're not quite ready to give that up yet.

So after about a week or two of tracking places online we lined up a couple of viewings, and a few days later we made the decision to move into one of the first places we saw, in Weston-Super-Mare. The commute is a bit longer, but it's a sandy beach (though the water is only there half of the time) and Mark has fond memories of Weston. We do both like Weston - it has a real "British seaside" feel - and it's a bigger town so there are some things that we will be within walking distance of that we just don't have in Clevedon (like a train station) or that aren't so near (like a grocery store). We will be losing our proximity to a lovely Italian provisioner and bakery. But there will be a bigger selection of restaurants (including our all time favorite Thai restaurant, which Mom and Dad have visited). And more that do delivery. Woo hoo!

The flat itself is three bedrooms with two and a half bathrooms. We're on the first floor (which may be the second floor to you guys - I can't remember any more how we Americans talk about multistory buildings...) and the inside has been renovated not too long ago, so it's all in pretty good condition and the kitchen is bigger, which is nice. Still no huge "American style" fridge (as they call them here), but we will finally have a dishwasher. Oh, the luxury!

We pick up the keys on Thursday afternoon and then Mark and I are both taking Friday off so we'll do most of the moving then. We'll take pictures and I'll post them all up when we have internet again, which may take a week or two because we need to activate a new phone line in the new flat. But in the meantime, here is a picture of the outside (our flat is the one on the right hand side of of the picture):


We're pleased and looking forward to it. We've been packing for the last couple of weekends to get ready. A while ago Mark was driving and happened to hear a bit of a program that was talking about how moving is one of the most stressful things you can do. So of course we tried to think of ways to attempt to minimize conflict. We devised an idea to divvy up the rooms between us for "management" - we can both help pack up whichever room, but whoever "manages" the room gets all the final say about how the items in that room should be packed - no quibbling. I'll leave you to work out who this plan was most meant to "contain," but I will say that actually it's working out pretty well so far. So far!