A Month of Getting "Settled"

After a busy month and a half of not working and getting ready to leave... and after quite a few hard goodbyes we finally took off on August 18th! It felt great to finally be on our way! Here we are nearly 7 weeks later and we can finally say we are starting to feel settled in!  It took quite some time as everything in the UK seem to be a process to get set up! The short version is that we encountered some frustrating obstacles and waiting periods when getting phones set up, dealing with banking issues, getting deliveries from IKEA, setting up utilities and painfully waiting about a month for internet and cable to be up and running! Oh yes and almost forgot... mastering the laundry situation here! We have a tiny dual washer and dryer located in our kitchen which is very loud and takes many hours to complete a load! However I've learned to love that I don't have to switch the clothes to the dryer between cycles.  I've gotten used to the fact that laundry is almost a daily duty... you just put it in and forget it! Also I finally discovered which type of liquid fabric softener to use so our hard water no longer causes our clothes to come out crunchy!

When we first arrived here we were set up in temporary housing for 2 weeks.  We arrived on a Monday and after day to straighten out our jet lag (it took much longer then that) we met on Wednesday with a relocation agent arranged by Brian's company to help us find a place to live.  Since Brian's office is to the west of London about 15 miles from central part of the city we had given her some areas that we wanted to see ahead of time which were located in the middle.  So we were lined up to see about 14 different flats that day.  I am convinced that the first few places we were brought to were purposely set up just to make the others later in the day seem nicer and lead us to ultimately choosing one that day.  Lets just say the first few were very small, outdated and not the cleanliest!  I had prepared myself for living somewhere smaller then at home but was honestly worried at this point! 

Luckily as the day went on they did get nicer.  Nothing was really jumping out though until we looked at the one we are currently living in! We are located in the area of London known as Chiswick.  Each area has what is called a "highstreet/road" essentially what we call a "main street" in the U.S.  Our flat is along the highstreet and above a shop.    We loved the area because there are tons of shops/restaurants and pubs within walking distance.  Also the "Tube" also known as the London Underground or as we say at home the subway is only 2 blocks from us making getting around very easy!  We really feel like we lucked out finding an updated flat, partially furnished, for the right price and in the location we had pictured perfectly in heads!  There are many other details that went along with the process but I'll spare you those and just get to the pictures! Our shipment arrived from the U.S. a few days after we moved in so it was great to have familiar things and start to make it feel like HOME!


Here it is...

Top of the entryway



Our bedroom

Hallway

Bathroom

Living room

                           

Open to the living room area

Kitchen

That's the tour! It's small and cozy but the good news is it doesn't take long to clean "the whole house!"