What a week!

Crikey - what a week it's been... I think I'm still catching my breath! First up we spent the weekend house-hunting in Kemsing and Otford down in Kent. We didn't expect much from the new properties we were looking at - but one was a real surprise. A compact but well-maintained three bed, with an amazing garden - huge, south-facing, private and backing onto a stream and woodland. The kind of view you leave London for. We loved it. And we also had a second viewing of a house we'd seen last time and been a bit so-so about. This time around it really took our breath away - spacious, light, modern and with minimal work needing doing. It was also on at a very reasonable price, so we've put an offer in (subject to our sale) and we wait to hear what the vendor makes of it.

It's also been a busy week with our flat - a few more viewings and two buyers keen to proceed. One unfortunately doesn't quite match the criteria the housing association insists upon, but has asked to be kept in the loop should we go to open market. The other passes all the checks and has a mortgage in principle agreement, and is coming back on Saturday with her sister to view the property. Signs are encouraging.

We are reaching the end of our time marketing the flat through the housing association and then we try our hand on the open market, so we have Foxtons coming round on Friday to assess the flat. Yes - I know, they are the spawn of the devil and probably the worst of a bad bunch. However, they've just opened an office in Borough and desperately need properties to sell, so they are offering 0% commission to the first 200 people to sign up with them. This would save the boy and I nearly £5k on the next best offer we've had from an estate agent, and that is a serious amount of money for us so we have to wrestle with our principles and make the compromise.

So - in reality we are no further on than we were a few weeks ago - but it feels very much like we are taking pigeon steps in the right direction. We're not to know what the next few days and weeks hold - will our offer be accepted? Will we sell our flat? Will we need to go to open market? - but what we do know is there is interest out there for our beautiful pad, and we can afford what we want in the location we want - and this is really good news for us, whatever twists and turns lie ahead as we begin our escape to the country.