Moving on up

 Hey there folks

Following up on my promise to keep y’all updated on our accommodation issues which I mentioned here.. I’m proud to say we’ve been able to secure a much better apartment, at less cost and more room than our doozy at the beautiful Harborne.

It’s been another whirlwind couple of months and we’ve had to juggle several ongoing issues… passing probation at work, settling down fully in Birmingham, paying off debt, trying to save for eventualities, Burial plans, and all other ongoing vagaries of life…. with the search for a new apartment.

Earlier in the year while trying to settle down, I had gone apartment hunting. Bruh, it’s not as bad as Naija and very well organized but still can be very tasking and draining. After some hits and plenty misses, we eventually settled for a nice 2 bed apartment in Harborne which is a very lovely area. However, it didn’t take long for disenchantment to set in after realizing that there were some major issues which we had overlooked in the desperation to get settled back then. Anyway I think I’ve mentioned all these before and will just move on jare….

The disappointment spurred our decision to move as soon as possible and trust Chioma, my wife can be a force of nature sometimes. Lol…once that decision had been made, the Apartment Ultimate search commenced. We scoured all the renting sites and saw many possible options, some we really liked and most we missed out on. She took it in stride; honestly, as frustrating as it was for both of us, I have to give her the major credit for her persistence.

It turns out that due to her constant inquiries and emails to the operators of the Evenbrook estate where our friends (Chidi and Sandra) live, they reached out to her once an apartment there became available. It came just in the nick of time as well, because we had eventually settled for a very reasonable two-bedroom option in Edgbaston named Augustus Court. We’d even put down a holding deposit and wanted to start making plans to move when the offer from the Evenbrook guys came along.

It was a complete no-brainer.

The Evenbrook option is a lovely two-story, three-bedroom flat in a massive (really massive) gated estate with several blocks of flats and very well-maintained facilities. To satisfy my Igbo blood and seal the deal, this much better apartment came at a lower rental price than Augustus Court!!

Duuh…again, an absolute no-brainer.

We forfeited our holding fee (Grrr!! 😠) and sent a very nice thanks-but-no-thank-you mail to the other guys running the Augustus Court show.

Ladies and gents, after an absolutely hectic move-in process, I’m proud to say we successfully moved into our new apartment where I’m currently typing the draft for this post.

It’s a beautiful flat and even though I was not too enamored with some aspects of it initially, after a lot of shopping (Amazon, Shein, and Dunelm need to give us shirts, shares or something..) We’ve managed to transform it into a very lovely apartment indeed! Still very much a work in progress but suffice to say, we did good. Turns out that there’s plenty you can achieve with grit, determination, and a bit of luck from the fates. We’re now residents of Pytchley House in Brown’s Green Estate Birmingham.

So many positives to (literally) take home

It's a beautiful area, we have wonderful friends very close by, we don’t need to deal with negligent landlords (The Estate is a well-run, efficient machine), it’s not too far away from my office, there’s more room now, the number of stairs (inside and outside) we have to climb will provide much-needed exercise, and the rent and other cheaper facilities will help us save more money in the long run.

So, there you have it. When you have time, come over for a visit..