5 things you learn when hunting for a home

As I am relocating to one of my favourite places in the world this September I have started the task of finding myself a gorgeous little apartment I can call my own. I've taken to pining over pinterest ideas of what my new home will look like, anticipating craftiness and vintage finds to make it unique and quirky. What I didn't anticipate was how tedious and tiring I would find actually sifting through the dozens of flats which should only be used as on location spots for horror movies.

Things I have learnt today traipsing around the South West include:

1. In town centres, parking is a privilege only the rich can afford. You can expect to pay around £100 extra on rent per month just to park outside a flat grottier than 12 Grimmauld Place. 
2. Size matters. I've said it before but this time I'm talking property. I saw places even a Hobbit would struggle to move around in. Claustrophobia central.
3. Online photographs of an "immaculate" flat will not do justice to the reality of the place. 
4. Blinding headaches are par for the course.
5. Same goes for mouldy fridges and dirty toilet bowls.

Fabulous?

Or drabulous??

Wish me luck for my next batch of viewings which I am yet to book through fear of the same experience!!

2014 IS my year!

Since 2011 I have been telling anyone who would listen that 2014 would be my year. I just had this gut feeling.

I knew 2012 would be a write off as I had only just finished university, was back living with my Dad and had only just started my first real job after four long years in University.

2013 ends in the number 13. Enough said.

So at the beginning of this year I told myself that if I wanted 2014 to be my year, I would need to be proactive and make it happen.

I turned into a yes person and took the trip of a lifetime to Washington and Vancouver at Easter to visit my best friends boyfriend, met some of his amazing friends and family and saw some of the most breathtaking scenery.

It was the best trip I have ever been on and it made me realise that I had let myself get stuck in a rut; still living in my home town and surrounded by people who know everything about me, I felt like I was living in a fish bowl.

I began applying for jobs elsewhere and even had an interview in Luton, which was dreary, drab and depressing. The job would have been a step sideways and I would have been miles from home and with no friends nearby.

Luckily I didn't get the job. The evening that they told me I had been unsuccessful, I happened to browse through jobs on PR Week, a website I hadn't thought to search on before. I am not a huge believer in fate, but if I had been offered that job in Luton and I hadn't visited that site, I would not have seen my dream job in my dream location with only two days left to apply.

After a great interview I was offered the job. Three weeks later, today I have FINALLY received written confirmation that my references had checked out so I was able to hand my notice in to my current employer.

As of Monday 8th September I will be a PR & Communications Officer in Taunton! A promotion and I get to move to the South West, one of my favourite places in the world! I will be closer to my best friend, and will be escaping the fish bowl of Caerphilly!

And it is only August, so come on 2014 what else have you got up your sleeve?