Bewildering times!

Just when we thought it was all grinding to a halt, a few amazing houses started coming on the market... and literally hours after we had an amazing offer on our house! Sometimes it feels like everything is falling in to place. So we trekked out to look at three places yesterday in what seem like old haunts now. I really feel like I know these places which is great - because it means that we're getting a good feel of what is going to work and what isn't. And I don't feel like a total out of town newcomer every time I speak to someone who has lived there all of their lives.

So the first place was a slight wildcard. Only 0.25 acre, but amazing situation, just between Monmouth and Abergavenny. And after seeing it in all it's beautiful glory, I know that we need more than 0.25 acre to do what we need to do. Good to confirm it.

The next place was starting to tick all of the boxes on paper. An acre, direct access to miles of countryside, pretty good sized house, up a quiet track. Needed a bit of work but that's what we're going to have to do for something with everything else going for it. We got there super late after driving around and around the wrong bit of lane (which happened to be about 200 yards from a house we lost out on back in October - Now that was a beauty!), as snow had covered the landmarks we were told to look out for. So we had the grand total of 10 minutes inside the house, which was just about enough to have a squizz at the state of the electrics and get a feel for the place in general. It was a bit of a state but nothing major, and nothing we couldn't handle. But the house just didn't have the light and airy feel that has made us fall in love with places in the past, as the views out of the windows were trees trees trees. In a forest, what do you expect girl! Well, when you know the drop off down to a stunning Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is at the foot of your garden (but with huge trees blocking it) you kind of feel sad that you're not going to get to see it every day when you wake up.

anyway. It could be lovely I know with a little work, shame about the views. The land is flat and pretty perfect for what we need, but completely churned up by boar noses and little muntjac hooves.. Not such a bad thing really... So we're going to offer on it, at what we can afford, and not stress if it doesn't happen. We know now that something will happen and we are making steps to make it happen.

On to the last place. As usual after this amount of time on the road, my phone dies and we lose signal so the sat nav doesn't work. I downloaded directions before we left but somehow that is not loading either. So we head towards property Number 3 in the relative dark, frustrated and ready to go home, though I know vaguely where it is so we battle on. Again, super late (so sorry vendors), we would have made it in time if we hadn't missed the turning thrice and had to loop round a dual carriageway to get back to it each time.

so the issue with this place is that I thought it was down a longer track. turns out the garden is right next to the A40, and the road noise is quite loud. Not exactly what we need for a retreat. But the house was a stunner. The owner is rightfully proud of what he has done to that place and it was truly inspiring. Not a wasted journey at all and it was wonderful to see what you can do if a renovation is handled well.

Just need to recondition C to not lose it every time he gets his DIY on, and we can do the same with our dream home... soon.... Please!

the realisation also hit me this week that we've got to do it all before April or wait until October... Crumbs, as Penfold would say.