House saga

The house has taken a ridiculously long time, even by English
standards, and we still haven't exchanged contracts. However, we
haven't been spending the time idly. We've been spinning in circles.

The kitchen -- with its 30's era galley, 50's era linoleum, and 80's
era cabinets -- needs to be renovated immediately, and so we talked
about doing a ground-floor extension as well, to give us more space
and light. However, we also mentioned wanting to do a loft conversion
someday, to give us an extra bedroom, and everyone told us to do the
loft conversion first.

The reason is that, in England, you can extend a house by up to 10%
without requiring planning permission, and our local council is
aparently notorius for denying loft conversions. Thus, we should do
the loft conversion first, and then get permission to do the ground
floor extension.

Which is fine, except the kitchen still needs to be renovated
immediately. So we scrapped our original plans and started talking
about what we could do in the original space. The big thing is
knocking down the wall between the kitchen and reception room, and
installing an island, to open it up and give us more counter space.
Saturday I met with an architect, who wasn't particularly helpful.
(She rushed through the house in 10 minutes and then said it would be
"fine.") As Jess put it, this won't be a "wow" factor, it will just
be functional. (It will also be much easier on the finances.)

Here is our current drawing. Of course, this doesn't factor in little
things like type of flooring, countertop, cabinetry, tiling,
appliances, range hood, sink, lighting, electrical points, water
lines, or waste lines. And I don't know what they need to do to take
out a wall. And it's not actually to scale. But other than that,
it's a great plan.

We also need to strip the walls (it is covered in anaglypta, a thick
vinyl wallpaper) and replaster the entire house. While we're at it,
we're going to re-wire the electric, since it looks like that hasn't
been done in 70 years, and then of course we'll need to paint
everything. (No doubt Jess and I will do the painting ourselves,
although I haven't told Jess yet.)

It still won't be until mid-February before we have the keys, so we
have time to get more quotes and line up a contractor but honestly, I
can't wait.

Click to enlarge

Year in review

I started 2010 hating my job, frustrated with England, missing my
family, and struggling with Jessica.  My work permit was expiring in
April and I was seriously considering moving back to California (or
worse, Georgia).

Then in March everything fell into place.  I changed jobs and joined a
real company, with real people and real projects.  Spring came and I
realised how much the winter had been affecting me (in part because
I'd been stuck inside working from home the entire time).  My uncle
got better, which had really been worrying me.  I started And no doubt
in part because of all of the above, Jess and I stopped fighting and
started working together.  And believe me, it was fantastic.

In May, we decided to take the next step: Buy a house together.  By
August, we were despairing of ever finding a place we liked.  London
is full of beautiful houses, all way out of our price range.  What was
affordable were tiny terrace houses on ugly streets and backing onto
railroad tracks.  We must have looked at 100 houses, if not more, and
didn't make a single offer.

In September, things changed again.  First, we got engaged, and did so
on a beautiful clear evening on the banks of the Thames.  Then we
found three -- three! -- houses we liked.  We made offers on all three
and one was accepted.  I told everyone we'd be closed by the end of
November.

Then our financing fell apart, thanks to our idiot mortgage advisor,
and we basically had to start over.  And our solicitor took forever to
do the property searches.  And generally buying a house in England
sucks.  So now it's mid-December and we'll be lucky to close by the
end of January.

But of course that's only half the story, because the property hasn't
been updated since 1978, and the kitchen since the 1960s.  In addition
to the electrical, we want to add a single-story extension to the
back, and create an open plan dining area.  It's going to be lovely,
but it won't be March until we can move in.

In the meantime, we're desperately searching for a wedding venue that
isn't, technically, a wedding venue.  In England, the wedding laws are
pretty bizarre: You can have a Christian ceremony in your local
Anglican church, you can have a Jewish wedding anywhere, or you can
have a civil wedding (like a justice of the peace) at a venue licensed
by the State.  We don't want a Christian wedding, we can't have a
Jewish wedding, and a civil wedding is so rigid, I actually find it
offensive.

So we'll do the civil wedding privately, and have a larger ceremony
for friends and family.  Hence the need for a non-wedding venue.
Obviously we don't have a date yet, but we're looking at May or June.
(I want June 15, as that is the day we met, but Jess is more
pragmatic.)

The rest of the year was rather uneventful, with the exception of
Jessica's new nephew. (Welcome, Asher!)  In August, Jess was going to
visit them in Chicago while I was going to California to visit my
family, but then we were both bumped off our flights (the joys of
traveling standby) and so we spent the weekend in Amsterdam instead.
(Frustratingly, I have a friend in Amsterdam who I've been trying to
see all year -- but when we got there, my phone was dead, so I
couldn't get her phone number, and of course I'd brought a US
converter, not a European one, so I couldn't charge it, and we never
did meet up.)

Otherwise, we just had a few small trips -- New Year's in Wales,
weekends in Paris and Madrid, the Bristol balloon fiesta, and
Edinburgh fringe.  We were planning on spending two weeks in
California over the holidays, but then I got put on a ridiculously
busy project, and won't be able to go anywhere until March.  (Jess, on
the other hand, has already booked a week in the sun with a friend of
hers for January.  Not that I'm jealous or anything.)

So that's my year.  If judged by the difference between the beginning
and the end, it was probably the best year of my life.  (And I'm
looking to break the record next year.)

New year

It's a new year and I have 42 vacation days + 9 holidays. That's almost 2.5 months!!  Do still you wonder why I moved to England?

To be fair, 7 of those were carried over from last year, as I'd planned to spend a couple of weeks in California.  Unfortunately, due to project commitments, I only got to spend 3 days there.  (4 if you count the fact that I missed my plane...again.)

And 10 of those I'm 'buying' as part of 'flex' -- which is kind of like unpaid leave, except I don't pay tax, so somehow I come out ahead.  (I still haven't figured out the tax system here, obviously.)

And 1 of those holidays is for the Royal Wedding, April 29.  Still, 8 holidays isn't bad -- you yanks only get 6, unless you work in government.

Plus 5 weeks vacation here isn't just normal, it's the law!  The basic calculation is 5.6 days x the number of days you work per week, so 5 days per week = 28 days per year.  (That includes public holidays, though.)

So enjoy your 2 week holiday this year, and I'll understand if I get over to see you more than you come over to see me. :-)