Finding home.

They say home is where your heart is. Mine is in my throat.

The house I wrote of two weeks ago, that we thought would suit our needs so well? We almost got it. The landlady, after an entire two weeks of dithering, said she wouldn't get a gas cooker but she would replace the shower. And we hadn't found anything else, and we needed to get it sorted out quickly. But we didn't want to take it without at least looking at other places. I know that area fairly well and have done lots of London househunting in 9 years here, but I was fairly sure we wouldn't get anything better. Future Housemate was less certain. I didn't want her to make a decision she'd regret, and one of the estate agents we visited said he had a property that might be suitable--just listed that afternoon. So I went off to an appointment to get my muscles squished (just sometimes, routine maintenance of this body of mine is actually pleasurable) and left Sweetie and Future Housemate in the wilds of Upper Suburbia to view the house.

Thank God we'd not committed anything but our fickle hearts to the other one! This house is much better. There is more garden, and the garden is more cultivable. The furniture is not quite to our taste but the landlord is willing to take away anything we don't need. The shower is suitable as-is and the kitchen is much better; there is a very sexy brand new 5-ring gas hob. There is space for Future Housemate to have a study, separate to my studio. The location is not quite as spectacular in some ways; it's 15 minutes to my very dear friend, rather than 2, and a good 5-10 minutes to either shops or parkland. But the price is good, it is spacious, and the landlord seems decisive and accomodating, which is good news.

And it comes with a piano, which solves another problem of mine. It's a piano that needs quite a lot of work, and I don't know if it will be ultimately suitable for my needs even after considerable refurbishment. It hasn't even been tuned in about 8 years (every 6 months is best). But it will do for now, and means I don't need to make the really annoying decisions for a while.

So on Saturday we signed paperwork and paid an initial deposit and if the landlord accepts our offer we will have a home.

A home.

(On our way to the station we ran into another friend who is moving to the area. Upper Suburbia is quite desirable among my set, it seems.)