Beginnings

IMG_0885 New View, a photo by Lillput on Flickr.

It felt like a bit of an impulse purchase - you know, like the packet of fruit pastilles you pick up in the supermarket when you went for milk and toilet rolls.

Truth is, this purchase has been brewing for a little while and I'd be fooling myself if I tried to claim otherwise.

I've been living in my house, largely on my own for over five years now and my continued occupation of a three storey, semi-detatched, mid-Victorian villa has been increasingly hard to justify to myself.

This home belongs to another life, another time.

Victorian houses need near constant coaxing and tweaking to keep them from turning on you and I simply can't keep up with it any more.

Added to my lack of inclination to maintain the house is that I'm spending less time here because I've other places I want to spent a significant part of my time.

A while ago, my friend CJ said I'd know if and when the time came to move on.

He was right - the time has come.

I've never lived anywhere but Bristol and I'd never particularly thought about whether that was a good or bad thing.
Of course, of late I've been getting acquainted with Hitchin and then Eastbourne and it had been dawning on me that living somewhere new and getting to know it, the way I know Bristol, would definitely be a Good Thing.

So - a plan was formed. Leaving Bristol altogether is simply not on at the moment so I'd need to keep a base here.
It's possible that ExtraVerte will have some work to do in Eastbourne; I really like the town and I'm making some good community contacts there and well as having some "borrowed" family there for good measure.

Finding somewhere in Bristol which was convenient for my lifestyle (extensive rail travel, no car, no desire for home improvements) may have been a tricky thing.

I saw "The Eye" on Temple Quay built and it's had a bit of a perilous story so far but the estate agent put a card through my door which took me to the website.
I booked an appointment to view it almost hoping that I'd hate it and then I could let the plan to move go off the boil for a bit.

But I liked it. A lot.

I refused to sign up immediately but booked viewing for other places in town...and hated them all.

By the time I could take S to have a look (to point out all the faults and flaws that I'd missed) all but one apartment on my preferred side of the building had been sold.

Then something odd happened - S said "I can see you living here.
We agreed that the location (notwithstanding the slightly irritating lack of nearby parking for the few times he brings a car to Bristol) was perfect.

Less than five minutes on foot to the station, 15 minutes from town and in a quiet area.

The show flat was on the first floor and my friend GBH thought that lower was better on the simple grounds of keeping the water nicely in view.

But the only flat left was on the 10th Floor.

So - last Wednesday I was taken to the 10th Floor (in fetching hi-viz jacket, mingling with the builders) to see how "my" flat would feel.

And the picture shows you.

I'm sold.

There are views to Totterdown and beyond to Dundry, you can see the cut and Wills' Tower. Even the roof of the office building opposite is pretty pleasant.

So I've signed on the dotted line; I've had estate agents appraise my house and I've started to price up storage space and house removals.

It's really happening.

Whilst the hideous detail of the amount of effort that's going to be involved is revealing itself to me, I'm more than a little bit excited.

So if I'm even less available for beers and photowalks for the next few months, please forgive me...I'm likely to be packing books, or cleaning things.

Here's to the next chapter...