Home » London » Step Two – Find a Place to Live [Check!]

Wow.  So… so much for avoiding the massive posts.  To be fair, I’ve been quite busy so haven’t had time to take things as they come and write them down.

To be honest, most of the last few days hasn’t been particularly interesting – looking at untold numbers of flats in all parts of the city.  I guess the one plus side to flat hunting is that you get to see the city in which you are living.  Because I don’t think I ever would have ended up in Hackney on my own (and trust me, you wouldn’t either).  Tuesday through today was pretty much full-time flat hunting, with a slight break to pick up a job.  In London, it’s very common to flatshare.  This means you live in a house with other people you don’t know (at first) and it’s really hit or miss what you end up with.  There are flats from groups of all students who have group dinners and all live in the sitting room to groups of various aged professionals who live in a place without any sitting room at all and never see each other.  And that’s just the good range of options.  You can use your imagination.  In any case, I’ve seen quite the range.

The best part of the week was when, on Wednesday night, I had dinner at the home of this absolutely wonderful woman named Kim and her husband.  Kim is a good friend of my uncle and aunt from when she met my uncle while they were traveling the world themselves (like I’m doing now!).  They’ve stayed friends and Kim was kind enough to cook me my first home-cooked meal while in London (and what a relief that was after so long having eatten out!).  It was a very fabulous and a bit surreal experience.  I say surreal only in that on top of the delicious food and the champagne she was very liberal with (having found out it was my birthday only a few days previous), I had mentioned I was going to the Dierks Bentley concert later that summer and she insisted putting him on the digital radio during dinner.  So, I was just the slightest bit tipsy from champagne, in London, with people who knew my family but I had just met, eating a delicious homecooked meal, talking about classic literature, and listening to an American country music star.  I have to say, it was fantastic.

The only thing this week that could compare is the fact that tonight, after four solid days of searching, nearly 20 flats and some pretty dodgy experiences, I have finally found a flat.  I had been out all day and had come back to Mimi’s place to relax for a bit and have a quick dinner before my last look of the night.  I was so disappointed in not having found a good place yet, and exhausted after a week of running about the city, I almost bailed on the last viewing but finally dragged myself out to go see.

The flat is owned by a landlord who lives out of the city but currently inhabited by a 24 year old girl named Ann who works as a radio broadcast producer for the BBC.  She runs a Girl Scouts troop, loves Doctor Who and Harry Potter, is very tidy, a bit of a techno-geek, despises smoking, and has been nearly as panicky about finding a flatmate as I have been about finding a flat.  I planned to stop in for five minutes then run back to relax and ended up staying for two and a half hours chatting with Ann.  I’m moving in tomorrow.

The flat is in a perfect location, in Hammersmith, which is a neighborhood on the west side of the city, north of the river.  It’s a really posh neighborhood and almost all residental families but with a really fantastic scattering of shops and pubs and restaurants in the area too.  It’s going to be about a 45 min commute to work, but that’s about standard for the city (some places were a lot worse!!) and it’s very reasonably priced given the area.  I have my own double room, we share a (huge!) bathroom and there’s a giant sitting area with attached kitchen and eating area.  The flat is a bit plain at the moment but we can decorate it as we like.

I’m so so happy and I’m really glad I went with my gut instict and agreed to move in (and to keep looking before!).  It just feels like the right move and by this time tomorrow I’ll be in my own place!  In the morning, I’m going to do a bit of shopping for proper bed linins and such but other than that, it’s all furnished!  Ann is actually out all weekend so I have the flat to myself to get settled and prepare for work next week.

Hopefully over the weekend I’ll have some time to related some of the funnier stories of my flat hunt experience but for now, I’m happy to have someplace safe, comfortable and best of all, friendly to live!  I’m getting well-earned night’s rest.
Two weeks and I’m set with a job and a flat.  How ace am I?