It
isn’t only John Lennon who has this experience. My sweet little bungalow beside
the sea was what I was planning for. We had a price agreed. We went window
shopping for carpets, wardrobes, kitchen appliances and the rest. It was fun. We
planned the rooms, measured up for the furniture, thought about central
heating, bathroom fitments and a wood-burning fire for the cosy little sitting
room and planned our colour schemes...
Then
came the survey. Of course we knew there were some issues. We had noticed a
number of things that needed refurbishment and improvement. We had budgeted for
them and achieved a good price settlement with the vendors. But then came the
surveyor’s report: that was what
happened to us while we were busy with our plans! Suddenly the price we had
agreed seemed like less of a bargain. But we refused to give up. We fought
tooth and nail to keep our bungalow. We drove up there, three hours up the
motorway, three hours across less easy terrain. We booked into a holiday
cottage. We organised tradesmen: builders, central heating engineers, woodworm
specialists and electricians and we got estimates. We added up the figures. We
spoke to the estate agent. We sent messages back and forth to the vendor. We
reached deadlock. Life happened to us and we didn’t like it. No price
agreement. No bungalow.
And
then life happened to us again. It was a roller coaster of a week! Just when we
thought it was all over and we had wasted our journey another house appeared on
the property market. We lurched from deep depression to euphoria and back
again. It was a long shot. We had looked at dozens of houses and most of them
turned out to be unsuitable. But the little house seemed to be waiting for us.
The owner had just reduced the price because he was desperate to sell. Now the
cottage was in our price bracket. We went to look at the outside and were
pleasantly surprised: only three miles from the sea and with glorious
countryside all round. We rang the agent. Could we visit sometime in the next
couple of days? She rang us back. Mr. _____ was in and keen to see us. We could
visit right now. So he showed us around the property. It was a bit small –
cottages in our price range are. It was on a main road. But the cottage was in
good order. He had most of the space we needed. He had a fully fitted kitchen.
He had heating. He had good quality fitted carpets in a neutral colour. He had
kitchen appliances that we needed which he wanted to sell us – and even a
wardrobe of the type we were looking for! Suddenly the plans we had been busy
making began to change. We wouldn’t need all those plans here. We wouldn’t need
to disrupt our lives for the next six months with building projects, woodworm
treatment and starting from scratch. Life seemed to have happened to us and, as
it often does, negated all those frantic plans we had been making.
Now
we’re on target for another house purchase. We’ve had the survey. It’s OK. We’re
just hoping that this turns out to be the course life takes for us. Over the
years we’ve become pretty pro-active. We like to do our best to make things
happen. (‘God helps those who help themselves’, as they used to say). But
sometimes, when you’ve done all you can do, it becomes impossible to make life
happen and it just takes it into its head to happen to you. I’m hoping this
cottage is going to happen to us now because I’m a little tired of making
plans!
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