House Hunting

We started talking about moving to London almost 2 years ago now. Both of us were excited generally about the idea of living abroad, but didn't know much at all about the city itself. We had each visited as tourists- me in middle school and him a few years ago on a work trip - but we'd barely left the touristy areas, so we had no idea where we would want to live.

Summer Trip
So over the summer, we dropped off the kiddo at my mother in law's and hopped a plane to come explore London for a few days. The idea was to see the city and decide if we actually wanted to live here before committing to a job - but also to check out the neighborhoods and get a sense of where we would want to live.

these are just the boroughs - there are dozens of neighborhoods in each borough. 

London has hundreds of neighborhoods and is spread across a huge area, so picking one was really daunting. We googled for best neighborhoods to live in, best restaurants, and best places for families, etc - to start a list of neighborhood suggestions. Then using rightmove.com - the website that lists everything for rent - we could get a good idea of what we could afford in each of the neighborhoods. We had a plan to see a couple each day for three days - enough to get a decent sense of what kind of options there would be.

a running tour of some of the neighborhoods

one of many really nice markets

After the quick trip this summer, we learned a lot, even though we didn't see any actual houses:

• Firstly, the Tube is much narrower and older than the metro we're used to, so motion sickness was a big problem for me. That meant a short, direct commute was very important, and a walking commute would be ideal. 
• Secondly - the parks are amazing here. There are a few huge ones, and then smaller ones scattered everywhere. Trying to be near one of the big ones would be great for running for us and for playgrounds for the kiddo.
• Thirdly - every neighborhood has a "high street", meaning the strip where all the businesses and restaurants are, some are absolutely charming, others are gross. 

Computer Searches
Once we were back home in DC, I started mapping out the important factors to figure out what our target areas were. We knew the location of Spouso's job, so I could figure out what the average commute would be in general radii away from that location. Since I don't have a job yet, it was trickier for me - but I found that the organizations I would like to work for are all clustered in two locations - so I used them to figure out general commute times. Shooting for a 30 min commute for each of us, and the recommendations we already had - that helped  narrow it down to 3 different areas - Islington, Hampstead, and Clapham. 

my commuting map and target neighborhoods

One thing I noticed from all my online searches was that a lot of the houses were tall and narrow. I assumed it was because they were larger homes that had been chopped up recently, but then read that this is how they were originally built in the late 1600s after the great London fire. At that time, land was already pricey, but labor was cheap - so many families had live-in servants. The houses were built 4 stories tall -  with the basement having the kitchen and a bedroom for the cook, and the top floor having another bedroom for the kids and one for the nanny. The middle 2 floors were for the family's living space, so they tend to be nicer - with hardwoods and fireplaces, while the basement and top floor are sparse. So we hoped in our house hunt to get a house that had a workable layout, but still had some of the original features like molding and fireplaces. 

Viewing Day
One of the moving benefits was a consultant to help us find a place. The deal was that they would arrange one long day of lots and lots of viewings, with the expectation that we would pick one at the end of the day. We had high hopes that were quickly dashed, as it became clear this person wouldn't be very helpful. Instead of offering any feedback on our neighborhood ideas, they just booked appointments in each of them- setting us up for a lot of travel time but no reassurance that we were on the right track. They pulled together a schedule of 11 viewings for the next day. Some were clearly horrible and just not us - we are not modern glass-wall kind of people - so we cancelled a bunch of them. Then we went back online to find other houses we wanted to add to the list, scheduled those directly, and those realtors added on a bunch more. 

We ended up seeing a total of 8 places in a super long day. It was exhausting, but much better than expected.  The kiddo skipped his nap but carried on like a trouper. He ran around each of them trying to find his bedroom. He also liked to pretend he had the key in his pocket while we waited for someone to come unlock the door and let us in. This was one of the days I had been dreading for months, so I was thrilled it went better than expected. 

a typical small basement galley kitchen

checking out the fireplaces

rare closet storage - about as good as it gets

my white whale - a fireplace in the bathroom

fun features by the front door

damage from a broken pipe

storage in the eaves

fun crown molding

Of the 8 houses we saw, we learned a lot, but didn't find any clear winner. It became apparent that we were going to have to look at much bigger houses than we expected in order to fit our large American furniture (mostly just the dining table and buffet). It was also clear that most houses didn't have closets or extra storage, which would be a problem. Not surprisingly, we were still torn on neighborhoods. There was one place that was really nice in a great location in the Islington neighborhood, where we would have much shorter commutes. There was another place further south that's bigger and cheaper, closer to big parks but further outside of the city. We went back for a second trip to see each of them again, and ended up seeing another 4 over the next few days. After viewing 12 total and dozens more online - we knew we had good sense of the market, and were ready to start making offers. 

Putting in Offers

Renting housing here is much more like buying a house in the US. The list price is completely negotiable, so there's a chance you can get it for way less, but also a chance you'll have to pay way more if there are other offers. Things also move very quickly, so there's not a lot of time to mull it over.

• The first one we tried to put an offer on turned out to already have another offer. Since it was already over our budget and we were hoping to get a deal, we just gave up. 
• The first one we actually put an offer on was quickly rejected because it was had a better offer. They didn't even give us a chance to up our bid. 
• The second offer took a little longer, since they seemed to be waiting for a better offer to come in. Thankfully it didn't, and they eventually gave it to us! 

We Got One!

Ironically, I took hundreds of photos of all the houses we didn't get, and none of the one we did. It's 4 bedroom, big enough for our furniture and with some closet space and extra storage areas. It has a small yard and kitchen, hardwood floors, and a few fireplaces and older features, but thankfully only 3 floors. It's south of the river near a park in the area of town known as "Nappy Valley," so lots of other young families and kid-friendly stuff. The commute is longer than I was hoping, but I think I was finally worn down and came to understand that we weren't going to be able to afford anything much closer. 

Now we're in the process of finalizing everything, so we can move in next week. We have a deposit down, but until everyone's actually signed the lease, there's a chance it could still fall apart. Fingers are crossed that this all comes together, since we are really running out of time in our temporary apartment and our boxes and furniture will arrive soon.