Our UK Home

It took us a couple of days to fully recover from the jet lag.  By Friday we were both feeling pretty good.  On Thursday and Friday we went house-hunting with our amazing realtor Beverly.  She has been amazing!  We were so fortunate to have her to guide us around.  We saw about 9 homes and I would say that half of them would have worked nicely for us.  So it was a very difficult decision.  We narrowed it down to 3 homes, two in a town called Mickleover and 1 in a newer, more upscale community called Allestree.  The 2 Mickleover homes were very similar...nicely kept house, nice land lord, small yard.  The Allestree house was much larger and newly renovated...it actually hadn't been completed yet.  After lots of thinking Friday afternoon and meeting the current renter of one of the Mickleover homes, we decided to choose the Whistlestop, Mickleover home.  It happens to be almost completely furnished for us which will make the transition into the home much easier, and likely sooner than either of the other 2 homes.  So here's a picture of the outside of the house:

This is a 5-bedroom house, with all the bedrooms upstairs.  We are excited to have lots of room for visitors. It has a large eat-in kitchen that stretches the back side of the house on the first floor.  Also on the first floor is a living room, dining room and small office.  The only drawback is that the yard is really small, which is pretty standard for Micklover homes.  The house is on a dead end street with several families in the neighborhood.  It's a short walk or drive to downtown Mickleover where there is a 24 hour supermarket, bank and several shops.  It's a short 10 minute drive to the schools that we expect the children to attend and there may be a possibility of them riding the bus to and from school.

Here are some pictures of the kitchen where I expect to spend a lot of my time.  One of the interesting things about kitchens in the UK is that they have small refrigerators...imagine something a little bigger than your college dorm room size!  Yes, I know it seems crazy especially for a family of our size.  We are hoping to negotiate with the landlord to get a second refrigerator for the garage.

This home is a short walk or drive from downtown Micklover, where there is a 24-hour grocery store (similar to a Walmart but smaller), a bank, and several private shops.  It will definitely be an adjustment for us, living in more of a city-like environment, but that's all part of the adventure!