House Hunters

For my friends in the US who are curious about our relocation and every step of the process, this is just for you. We're quickly learned that house hunting in this area is not an easy task.  Rental properties are in high demand.  The pool of desired renters is much higher than the pool of rental properties available.  This means acting fast!!

There are various types of rental property on the market.

a flat (an apartment) 

a detached house (a regular ole house in America) 

a semi-detached (something like a townhouse, but only attached by one side)

a terraced house (town house attached on both sides)

We're not even looking at flats.  We've been there, done that and time to move on.

One of about 5 flats we lived in, in Prague.  Ours was the light yellow building, middle right.

Our flat in Spain.  We were not on the top floor, but one down on the left side of the building.

Plus, there are so many more of the other options available that it's not even been necessary to look closely at flats.  We've mostly seen detached and semi-detached properties at this point.  A few terraced houses have popped up in our search, but the layout or location has not been ideal.

Properties are normally very close together.  Sometimes there is space to walk between buildings and sometimes not. Detached houses in a neighborhood are still going to sit very close together and may not have much of a yard, unless you live in the country.

The term "yard" is actually not used here.  Every advert I've seen refers to it as a garden.  Most gardens are small, maybe the size of a room in a house, although some are quite large.  We've seen all kinds of variations of gardens.  Some are a decent size and some are nothing more than a bricked area.  We're ok with that.  We'd just be happy with some kind of outdoor space.

Our house in Vienna, with a sprawling yard (or rather garden)

Last week we looked at 2 properties.  We were ready to take the second place.  The kitchen and bathrooms were a bit tired (out-dated), giving me some reservations about the place, but I chalked it up to being things I could live with in the long run.  Little did we know it would not be that easy.

The landlord, an elderly couple, wanted to meet us.  No problem there.  We'd met landlords before and had good relationships with them in the past.  However, the meeting was rather strained.  I'll just say this couple was very fussy and I felt like we were having to defend ourselves as good people the entire time we met!!

We left feeling very drained and somewhat defeated.  We decided this was not a good match for us.  I'm afraid I would have been on edge the entire time we lived there, worrying about every little thing!
Even though I felt beat down after that encounter, we were ok with the outcome.  I mentioned before that we were looking to live in Horsham.  At one point we decided to widen our search a bit and that's what took us to look at the "fussy landlord" house, located in the neighboring town of Crawley.

We felt it was the Lord's way of showing us He wanted us in Horsham.  We have some friends in Horsham and there are some ministry opportunities that we are really interested in being a part of.

It gave us a peace that we needed to be patient, knowing that God has just the right place for us in Horsham.   Some things are progressing and as soon as I am able I will share more.  Hopefully, we'll have a home soon! Signed, the happy house hunter!