To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, ‘hello there’. It’s your friendly neighbourhood Rosie, back from two months away. Simply put, whoooooooops…
I didn’t plan to be gone this long. I had only planned a two week break from the end of May and beginning of June; not even a time period long enough for me to warrant putting out a little “Blog on a break! Be back soon!” message. So, what happened? Why the radio silence? Well…
I bought a house!
I should say, we bought a house – that is, my fiance Rory and I. It’s a gorgeous Victorian terrace in Hampshire, built in 1889, and I’m still giddy at the thought that I own it (or is that giddiness at the thought of how much debt I am in? Let’s go with the former). We first saw the property at the beginning of January, got the keys at the very end of May, and moved in towards the first half of June. And I say ‘gorgeous Victorian terrace’. It will be gorgeous. It just might take some time. Well, a lot of time. And elbow grease. And money. But we always knew it was going to be a project property; in fact, that was the main reason we bought it and we were fully prepared for that. What we weren’t prepared for was the state the previous owners left it in…
Reader, I will do you a massive favour and will not put any true ‘before’ pictures in this post. I couldn’t put you through that. But I’ll give you a little idea of what we walked into. In brief, it had not been cleaned. And I don’t mean like ‘oh nooo, it hasn’t been professionally cleaned!’. I mean ‘oh good Lord, I don’t think the kitchen has been cleaned since it was put in twelve years ago.’ The downstairs carpets were full of cat pee and fleas. FLEAS! The lounge was yellow with tobacco and weed fumes. Neither bathrooms were cleaned; and I mean shower, bath, sinks, and toilets. The grime was inches thick in the kitchen – my dad had to use a chisel to clean the oven. The previous owners had left the fridge and dishwasher turned off in the property, full of food and dirty plates, for eight weeks. Suddenly, the two weeks we had before the move became about making it a livable, non-biohazardous house, as opposed to starting sparkly DIY projects. Which, in turn, meant we have been playing catch up on everything else. Come home from work? Unpack boxes. Wake up on a weekend? Put together some flatpack furniture. It’s been exhausting. But once we moved in in June, and the sofas and bed were in place, I felt happy. And I haven’t stopped feeling happy since – including such variations as stressed-happy, concerned-about-the-chimney-happy, and this-place-is-going-to-look-gorgeous-in-ten-years-happy.
Do keep an eye out because I’m planning on writing more about our whole buying a house experience! I already have some post ideas about how we’ve been renovating, DIYs we’ve done, and experience in getting a mortgage. However, do let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like me to chat about too.
I thought the extra work we had to do on the house would be the only spanner in the works for a while. But, of course, what is life without another trick up its sleeve? However, this was a particularly good spanner in the works – I got a new job! For the past three years, I’ve been working in Higher Education and I love it – my only goal in life is to make a positive change, so working in HE aligns so well with that. However, I’m a creative and bustling soul, so working in the admin side of HE wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. So when a job opportunity opened up at my current workplace in an events capacity, I took my shot. I got to the interview stage, delivered a banging presentation, had a tour and BAM – I didn’t get it. Rejection is all well and good and a natural part of life, but this rejection hit me right where it hurts. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and I was told I didn’t get the role because there simply was someone with just a few more years in the industry than me. So, I took that on the chin and moved on. Untiiiil, I had a phone call to say ‘the other person dropped out; would you like the job?’. UM YES PLEASE, THANK YOU.
Considering my employer is still implementing a lot of work from home, and I’ve been at the same place of employment for a while, I didn’t think the change in jobs would be too drastic or stressful. Whilst I was mostly right, I was beyond wrong about the stress levels. My entire four-week notice period was in the busiest time period of the year for admin; exam boards, baby. And then I started my new job in the busiest time period for events; running an open day!
So, with both the new house and new job, I feel fully thrown in head first into a world of newness and business.
But, of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It just meant that everything else in my life, from blogging to self-care (and wedding planning!), has had to take a back seat. Now we’ve been in the house for over a month, and in my new job for just under a month, I am feeling so much more settled.
Whilst I’ve learnt so much from these past two months of head-rattling-ly, busy life (including ‘oh no, if something breaks, I am the landlord’ and ‘more than one cup of coffee is BAD, don’t do it, you’ll regret it’), my main take-away has been that I miss blogging. This time away has shown how important it is to me on a personal and creative level. I love the joy it brings me, how it centres my mind, and the community that comes with it! I think you can already tell I’m excited to jump back into it. So, for the past two weeks, I’ve been typing away, getting posts lined up about all things lifestyle, literature, mid-size, health, and so much more. Got anything you want me to talk about? Any questions about the house or other life stuff? Hit me up in the comments or on social media and let me know! I can’t wait to get back into the swing of things.
Rosie x
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