Settling into the United Kingdom

I have decided that moving house is a lot like having a baby...the anticipation of it is really exciting and simply wonderful (albeit a bit stressful as well) but at a certain point you realize that it is much LESS wonderfully exciting and much MORE painfully difficult than you imagined. Then you get settled in with the new house/baby and absolutely forget about your struggles. All of a sudden it seems like it really was a simple, wonderful thing that you could/would absolutely do again, in a heartbeat.

That being said, we are just about into the settled in portion of the move, where it will soon seem to have been a simple little thing to move ourselves, our 2 small children, and all of our worldly possessions (including toys that apparently breed whilst in captivity) across an ocean to another country.

The military seems to simultaneously make moving more and less difficult. They help out a lot, but require you to follow their rules and guidelines, whether they make sense or not. When asking why something needed to be done in a way that seemed overly troublesome, the response was simply, "because it has always been done that way."

I had imagined looking at several charming English cottages and picking the one that suited us best...bedrooms large enough for our beds, a kitchen with suitable appliances, a garden for the children to play in, close proximity to a decently rated primary school, not a remarkably long or difficult drive to the base for Chuckolate...things like that. I also wanted an older cottage, but it needs to have plenty of character and still have the modern conveniences (I can't really imagine how people hang their laundry to dry when its almost always damp!). Of course, what I hadn't really considered was that the military housing office (who claims that we are given 90 days to find a house) would actually only allow us 10 days, half of which were the 5 days between Christmas and New Years', when everyone was closed (including them).

We looked at numerous houses which fit some categories, but not others. One of my favorites was slightly above our limit and had horses for neighbors to one side and sheep as neighbors to the other side. I loved the idea of it, but wondered about the practicality of getting the children to school, last minute grocery shopping (not to mention take-out!) and what to do in an emergency, especially as deployments are likely and I could be on my own for awhile.

House and yard that I really liked...but decided against...

Finally, we looked at a house that wasn't what I had in mind (not a cute, hundred year old cottage) and it wasn't super modern or convenient (dryer in the garage?) but it ticked all the boxes, and our time was almost up, so we went for it. Then the problems began, with the letting agents claiming they hadn't realized we wanted to move in quickly (us saying As Soon As Possible didn't lead them to that conclusion apparently) and then the water pipes burst because they had been shut off with water still in them, which subsequently froze, then melted. Then the bathrooms flooded and had to be redone, but we were already paying for the hotel out of pocket by then, so we finally just moved in once the ensuite (aka master bathroom) was finished. We thought. Actually, the cold water tap didn't work, so we had to wash our hands with scalding water or use the shower. It was interesting, to say the least.
Now, however, we have 2.5 bathrooms all working, unless you consider having to pump the toilet handle before it will flush to be a problem. According to the landlord, its not. According to me, its not really, but it is too hard for the girls sometimes, and its no fun to find out hours later that they couldn't make it flush!

Our lease is only 6 months, so our mantra has been, "we can always move in 6 months." However, we've fallen in love with the squirrels and birds in the backyard, the fact that we live at the end of a cul-de-sac so the girls can ride bikes right in front of the house, the 20 minute walk to school, the big bay (maybe?I don't know the difference!) window in the living room that Sophia likes to sit in to read or watch for neighbors, and the conservatory that seems wonderful but is rather cold for the time being. Maybe in 6 months time we will forget about the trials of moving and find the charming English cottage that I hoped for, or maybe we'll decide that we're already home.