Short-term Interim Stopgap

We have been in the United Kingdom for 21 days.  In some ways, it feels like months and in others ways, it feels like hours.

We made it through quarantine, which is probably a post in and of itself.  

The kids started school, which is definitely a post in and of itself.

We've made it through innumerable challenges. And, in the time of Covid, no good plan or challenge goes unpunished. And so it is with us.

We had plans to stay in our cottage, South Lodge, for about a month. In that time, we would quarantine and look for a long term (3-6 month) rental to stay in until we find a house.  Surely, we could find something in four weeks. A flat, a house, a cottage? Anything?

No, not really.

Well, realistically there were places to rent; just not any for a family of 5 and a dog. If anyone needs a 1 or 2-bedroom apartment (often in an attic) where pets are not allowed, I can point you in the right direction with ease. There are plenty of those; even some with a little green space for dogs. Every now and then there's a 3-bedroom bungalow or cottage. They are usually smaller than what we are in now and outside a livable distance to school. (We are currently 40 minutes away from the school.) Finding a large 3 bedroom or a 4 bedroom house proved to be . . . annoying, frustrating, depressing, disheartening, and a plethora of other emotions, but not completely impossible; if we were willing to waive some wants.

We found . . . you can count them on one hand . . . 2; one online and one through an agent.

Crawford

The first, we called Crawford because it was in the little village of Crawford about 20 minutes north of Moffat along the easily traveled M74. Online and around the outside, it was a great big dream come true. Five bedrooms, a cinema room, 3 full bathrooms, living room, dining room, and a beautiful kitchen with a little yard (garden) for the dog.  It was even partially furnished. Being at the north end of the village, without a house directly across the street, the view out the front looked out over a little valley full of sheep and the Clyde River. Even better, it was only 20 minutes to the school; about half the time from where we are now. It was slightly above the price range we wanted, but not impossibly too much.

We went to visit it while the kids were in school, prepared to sign, and move in this week. 

Mold & Stains

Clearly that did not happen. We knew it wasn't going to go well when we walked in the front door and the agent showing it to us, who was very friendly, said that it was her first time seeing the property and was stunned that they were allowing it to be shown. It had some issues that would take some time to deal with so it was not move-in ready. The downstairs was gorgeous. The utility room and the upstairs were filthy messes which included a massive black mold problem, a damp issue, and a horribly huge carpet stain in the master suite. 

The agent couldn't answer any of our basic questions; like, How long before it's ready? Would they be willing to come down on the price? Did it come with a dryer? (The agent, by the way, agreed with us; it wasn't worth the price in it's current state; even fixed up, it would be 200-300 less.) It struck us both as odd, so E&W later asked our realtor to look into it. Here, you have to have a "renter's number" in order to rent property to others. Our realtor found that the owner's of the property had an invalid number.

Needless to say, we kept the appointment to see the next property, Patervan Farmhouse.

The view from Patervan Farmhouse

Patervan was a little further away, in the hills outside of Moffat, on a scenic road to Edinburgh. You have to cross the River Tweed at the bottom of the drive to get to it. We'd been told about it early on as having a Broughton address, so we got out of the cottage during quarantine to quarantine in the car by driving to Broughton. It was far too far away and we were discouraged. But now, with the dream house not so dreamy, we made our way to it anyway. Luckily, it was alot further south than Broughton, making it only 25 minutes to the school. 

We drove there in the POURING rain and as we arrived, the sun came out to make the little yellow farmhouse a bright ray of sunshine. The view was spectacular.

Patervan is a "character property". It has ALOT of charm as well as 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and a giant yard, not to mention a smaller fenced one, for a dog to run gloriously through. There's even a creek at the back of the house. It's owned by and was shown to us by a fabulous, take-no-crap woman named Caroline. She is converting it for her son and his family, but he won't move into it for a year or more, so she wants to rent it out in the meantime. Lucky for us. 

The Front Door at Patervan

And, yes, you read that correctly. She is currently "converting" it. It's not move-in ready. At. All. It needs flooring and paint and final touches. Our first question, "When will it be done?" was answered immediately; the end of September. In fact, she answered all our questions and was simply wonderful.  We had more faith that the farmhouse would get done before Crawford ever did.  Clearly, we leaned towards Patervan.

But that left us with a problem.  No where to live between South Lodge and Patervan. We went back to Anthony, our landlord at South Lodge, but to no avail.  He has other renters for South Lodge after the 13th. He regretfully can't switch them (or us) to another property because the other rentals on the farm are all booked. There is a two bedroom, one bathroom cottage which E&W considered long enough to suggest it to me, but I'm sure the look on my face said it all. And, if it didn't, me blurting out, "Are you *&%$@* insane?" did, but desperation makes you think funny things. The truth is, we just can't go smaller. Well, we could, but then people would go insane and others would die and that wouldn't be pretty. And I'm still wondering, who did he think would be sleeping on the couch? 

There was a final rental on the farm but it is a stunning 5-star farmhouse that rents for 3000 more than Crawford. Ouch. 

So the desperate search for a short-term interim stopgap rental began. In earnest. Coming up empty did not make us pretty people. We searched AirBnB and VRBO and other similar sites. We considered a lot of crazy ideas, like finding two smaller rentals near one another and splitting our day between them; bedrooms in one; living space in another. We got a little scared and a lot moody.  Just to not feel completely vulnerable and wiped out, we agreed a hotel would work and would be our (rather expensive and therefore final) backup plan.

Then, as I drove to school to get the kids, E&W called and said that he thought he'd found a hard-to-get holiday property that had suddenly opened up (we guess because of a cancellation). 

Aldersyde, the pinkish one with red trim

Aldersyde Holiday House. In the HEART of Moffat; literally just off the end of the public "square" (High Street), and within walking distance to the school. Bigger than where we are now, furnished, four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and allowed pets (even if you have to walk a distance to . . . well, walk her). Three weeks in it would cost close to the same as 2 months in Patervan Farmhouse. Horrified, wide-eyed, and thrilled, we rented it through October 8th. We wanted to give Caroline plenty of time to get the Farmhouse finished and if it's finished on time, we can take our time furnishing it. 

Because, that's right, Patervan Farmhouse is not furnished and our furniture (what was left of it after the great purge) is somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean.

Welcome to our next challenge on the game show we call Life.