planning

We spent 2 or 3 years stalking property sites. Pouring over plans of Georgian ruins in Seapoint, sites in Skerries, blocks of flats in Bray. We planned business ideas of family farms and retreats in barns on the grounds of 10 acre estates miles from anywhere. We found chilly beautiful houses on lakes in Blessington and houses that should have come with a spore-hazard warning in Kildare. We considered West Cork, North Dublin, North, South, East, West Wicklow. But when we did the maths, the boring itty bitty maths, we were priced out of them all. Or we could just afford a place and both of us would have to work 6 days a week to pay the mortgage and where’s the point in that?

And then after 3 or so years of idle yet obsessive searching a house in Wexford winked at us. It was bright, spacious, warm, with plenty of garden, beech trees, a chicken coop, a hop to the sea and a wonderful separate studio for Brian. And the price meant we wouldn’t be slaves to repayments for the next 30 years.

And just like that, suddenly, mind bendingly suddenly, the house was ours, our apartment in Berlin was sold and another baby was on the way.