One of the first steps taken after putting in our Visa application was Finding a Place to Live. It was exciting to think that we had an opportunity to choose a new city to live in, free of any outside influences. Being that we had previously travelled to London, as well as being the most widely known city in the U.K., we started our search there.
We have two French bulldogs, Chevy and Sterling Mallory Archer. So, finding a dog friendly place to rent was the top priority. We also were going to be starting fresh. Which meant, no furniture. So, a furnished rental was necessary. Location to the things we needed on a day to day basis, like grocers and restaurants were very important, as we had no plans to invest in a car. There were many reasons for this that I will cover in a future post. With Hayley working in the fitness industry, a gym was the last major consideration.
There were places that looked very appealing, modern buildings with all the amenities we wanted.
However, London would have not been kind to our pocketbook. The cost of renting a studio apartment was much higher than we were comfortable with. Never mind the fact that we would be downsizing already and a studio would have been a tight squeeze for Hayley, myself and our boys.
So we expanded our search while finding a new place to live.
First moving down the south coast, we did spend quite a bit of time looking at Cardiff, in Wales. While it was appealing in some regards, there wasn’t anything that jumped out at us and said “This is the place!”.
So we continued our search on finding a place to live, moving up north of London. The pricing did improve, but we were after something that fit the lifestyle we wanted to maintain. In addition, give us the financial flexibility to travel frequently.
As the search bubble widened so did our options, this was encouraging.
It started to feel like what we were after was out there after all. After a couple of days Hayley stumbled across Sheffield, a city in South Yorkshire located on the doorstep of the incredible Peak District. The city is full of green space and boasts “more trees than people”.
Sheffield is an hours drive from the Manchester airport which is an excellent jump off point. This would allow us to fly almost anywhere our adventures might take us. Coupled with a well connected train station, this would make it easy to travel car free throughout the U.K.
More investigation began to reveal some notable comparisons to our hometown of Hamilton in Canada. Both cities were major players in the steel industry and both are trying to find new identities following the exit of heavy industry over the last 30 years. Sheffield is the birthplace of modern steel making techniques and stainless steel. So, while Sheffield had about 600 years more of industrial experience, both were the “Steel Towns” of their respective countries.
Work was a consideration as well.
I wasn’t ready to totally walk away from the industrial sector as a backup plan. So, I took notice of the remaining steel makers still remaining in Sheffield. More and more this started feeling like the place that we would start our journey. Signs began to pop up. We found the Sheffield name on things in our home; knives in a drawer (cutlery and tools were major exports) and tools in the garage.
It felt as though the universe was telling us that “This is the place!”. The next step was to find our new home.
The search for a reasonably priced, dog friendly, fully furnished and well located building with a gym in Sheffield had began. The internet is a powerful tool if you know how to word your search. At first the search results seemed discouraging, would we be able to find a flat for us and our boys? How many of these criteria would we have to be willing to work around?
I had recalled coming across a property by Grainger PLC during our search in London that seemed to tick all the boxes. Were we lucky enough that there was something similar in Sheffield? I took to their website and lo and behold; they had a property. This became the standard for what we based the rest of our searched on.
There were others that we found, they all had elements of what we wanted but didn’t necessarily have all of them. We had a trip planned in mid-January to go to Sheffield and physically tour the city and the potential candidates for our new home. Thanks to the Omicron variant, it was nearly impossible to execute this trip. The covid testing alone; one to leave Canada, one to enter the U.K. and one to get back to Canada was going to be very expensive. Combine this with quarantining while waiting for the Day 2 test upon arrival and it would have left us with only a couple of days to actually get out into the city. This made very little sense to us. So, we cancelled our plans and received credit for the flights that we had booked.
Hayley and I were about to place a lot of trust in the universe and the internet.
The agents that we had been talking to about the different properties were now our main source of information. We created a spreadsheet, taking note of all the amenities of the buildings and their location to various points of interest in the city. Remember, there was no car in the plan. So reasonable walking distance to everything we needed was key.
Our search for finding a new place to live had whittled down to four properties.
Two that had all the requirements and two that would be suitable second choices. But, the Grainger building was the prize. I had been in contact with a rep that covered the two buildings that served as backups. She was friendly but the communication was sporadic. There videos sent to back up the photos online, however the flats seemed to be lacking in wow factor. The other front runner with Grainger was just finishing construction and not ready for tenancy quite yet. As we had a timeline to stick to with a projected closing date of March 1st, this wasn’t the best option.
When I received an email response to my enquiry into Brook Place, the property owned by Grainger, I was informed that the building was fully rented. They also were operating at a six to eight week window for new tenants. Disappointed that our number one pick was not necessarily going to be open for us to rent within our desired timeframe, we continued our search.
This is the point that I met Jack.
I am not sure whether I would subscribe to the cliche of “destiny”, but it was definitely no accident. I was told later that Jack was not the original rep whose inbox received my request. But, for whatever reason it was passed on to him. A few days after the initial feedback Jack reached out for more information and to offer viewings when an apartment became available. He confirmed that pets were indeed allowed and encouraged, they had actually just opened up a terrace exclusively for pets!
We were sent floor plans and the approximate monthly costs. This was encouraging! The only issue was availability. We were willing to bridge any gap with a short term rental if we could secure a flat in this building. A few days later Jack reached out to us to inform us that a one bedroom had become available for the middle of January.
Unfortunately it was far too soon for us to commit. Our Visa wouldn’t be active until mid-February and understandably, the apartment couldn’t be held for 6 weeks. Still, we wait.
Less than a week later another apartment was available, it was at the higher end of our price range, but manageable and the timeframe was within two weeks of our expected move date. Things were looking up! That flat, unfortunately was not meant to be for us, it slipped through our fingers.
A current tenant was requesting to move into a different unit and was given priority, but now that apartment was up for grabs! It should be noted that the day this took place, was also the day that I received my Visa. We jumped at the opportunity and scooped it up! Jack had delivered!
Within two weeks we had secured a new place to call home.
The application process was easy and quick. Jack and his fellow coworkers walked us through the entire process and checked our references. Once the money transfer was completed we officially had a place to call home.
The universe had delivered. The next step after finding a new place to live: The Move.