Why move?

On my previous post, Karen asked why we are looking to move house. Well, simply put, it's all Ewok's fault.

We live where we do, because it's halfway betweem my workplace and Wookiee's workplace. However because he uses public transport to get to work, it takes him around 2 hours each way. Now that I've decided not to go back to work, we don't need to live here, and it's fairer on Wookiee to move closer to where he works.

There is the additional factor of paying the mortgage. Without my salary, we (well he really) could afford to pay all the bills, etc... but there would literally be nothing left over. I know there are many many people who do live that way, but when you've been used to having a sizeable disposable income, it's very hard to be happy without it. As it is, we can move closer to Wookiee's workplace, find a house of a similar (maybe slightly smaller) size, for considerably less than this place, and possibly be mortgage free (or with just a tiny one).

The big sacrifice, for me, will be in location. We'll have to move to a city suburb, and I'm just not a city girl. However we can't afford to live in the countryside close to the city, it's all way out of our price range, and if we go too far out then it defeats the object of trying to reduce Wookiee's commute. There are a few places I think I could cope with, where there is still a lot of greenery and quiet secluded back streets, so that I can pretend I'm still in a village, rather than the suburb of one of the biggest cities in the country.

In an attempt to make the whole house selling and buying process slightly less traumatic, we've decided to move into rented for a short while. The downside is that it does mean moving house twice. However the upsides are that we remove the upward chain for the sale, and when we come to buy again, we'll effectively be first time buyers, add that to us possibly being cash buyers and that will put us in a very good bargaining position.