My tenancy at my current home ends the end of July, which means I am back to house hunting again. It’s proving to be stressful, with few properties in my budget in the areas I want, and with those few properties getting snapped up very quickly. I went to visit my new city last week. Due to limited funds I decided to take the bus there and back again, two and a half hours there, two hours back, just £10 plus minor booking fees. Rather a bargain. Also due to limited funds, and a lack of willingness to repeat the trip numerous times, I packed in as many appointments as I could that one day. This was a mistake in many ways. My first appointment was at 11am, which meant I would have to get to the city center by 10am in order to get to its suburbs on time for the viewing. This meant I had to wake up at 5am to leave the house at 6am to get the bus to get to my city center to get the bus to the new city center. As you could expect, this was no fun at all. But I succeeded in waking up and meeting every bus. It was an uneventful set of bus journeys and I got the city at 10am, right on time. I bought a greasy breakfast as a treat and sat to wait to get the next bus. Only to receive a call telling me my appointment had been cancelled. I was too tired and it was too crowded to really talk, so I couldn’t chew them out for this, but I sent them very bad thoughts the rest of the day.
I had a feeling then that this day going to go wrong. And it did. Go wrong. In all ways. I got the wrong bus, used up my money buying the day rider ticket for the wrong bus network, got lost trying to find my second appointment, was late to my third appointment due to messing up the buses again, was late the fourth appointment due to a combination of messing up the buses and getting lost. It was a big mess. I was confused, I was spending way more money on buses than I needed to, and probably more time too. I was cold and wet, it was so cold up north compared to the midlands that at one point I was shivering. Worse, none of the houses stood out to me. I ended up coming home, exhausted and disappointed. The only good thing about the day was the fact that my sister let me text her throughout in order to vent. Oh, but my phone went flat at some point in the day too (and it had my return bus journey ticket on it, although thankfully the service center was still open and they could print a ticket for me.) Navigating a new city and its bus network without gps is no fun. This was probably why that last appointment went so, so wrong.
I thought to settle on one of the houses, but I reluctantly agreed with my sister to try and find something else. So I’m going back this Saturday and am hoping that neither of the places I picked to view gets nabbed before I can get to them, and that one of them proves to be the one. This is proving to be much worse than the last time I looked for a rental. Then I went on one trip, and found this house I’m in now. Perhaps the fact that it was my first time helped? Beginners luck? Or maybe it was just that my standards were low as I was coming from university dorms. Now I am in a house I like and an area I like and comparing everything to it. I try not to be fussy, but there are certain things I don’t want to compromise on. If I’m going to be living in a new city, starting a new job, I need a place I feel comfortable in, so that I can make it into a safe place to retreat to after a long day. My home is my fortress against the world.
It is nerve-wracking to think of moving home soon when I don’t yet have anywhere to later move out to, with my job is starting in September.
Since then I have gotten sick so have spent the past few days in a daze. I need to be better though as it’s my birthday tomorrow (well, later today as posting this past midnight), and I have some things planned. My dad is coming to visit tomorrow and I am excited. Soon, I shall meet up with my sister too. So it’s not all bad, as long as I don’t think too hard about next month, or any of the months after that.