Midweek Musings: We lost the house

So it turns out I must be cursed. Surely it can't be normal to have the vendor of a house you're buying pull out of the sale TWO DAYS before you're meant to exchange, TWICE? But alas, that's what's happened to us. We found out yesterday that, after months of messing us about, the elderly lady we'd been buying our little midcentury house in Wimbledon from had decided once and for all that she didn't want to move after all, and pulled out. She'd already had a little 'wobble' as she'd called it, a few weeks ago, but we'd been to view it again and she'd reassured us that she did indeed want to move and that she was happy to sell it to us, with exchange set for this Thursday (I think she liked the idea that it was going to a young family).

She was supposed to be buying a brand new retirement home just around the corner, but the developers had been very very pushy with her, trying to get her to move sooner than she wanted to, and I think in the end the whole thing became far too stressful for her. We also found out yesterday that she's 93! (she lives alone) so it is an incredible amount of upheaval to deal with at her age. I can't be cross with her.

But my, are we disappointed. What a waste of time, and stress, and money. And like I said, this isn't the first time this has happened to me - it happened about five years ago when I was trying to buy a house in Tooting Bec - my house was under offer at the time when the woman I was buying from pulled out, and in the end I had no choice but to go into rented accommodation to make sure the sale didn't collapse. It worked out OK in the end (and is how I came to live in my current flat), but it was literally a year and a half of hassle and aggro, and I remember that trying to find somewhere to rent with a week's notice was one of the most stressful things I'd ever had to deal with. I suppose I should be grateful that this time we're not homeless at least.

Anyway, you'll forgive me for this slightly sombre post. I am so so sick of house hunting now, it feels as though we've been doing it forever, and it's constantly two steps forward, eight steps back. I just want a home, godammit, and somewhere for Daphne to sit outside in the summer! I know in comparisons to millions of others we're lucky to have my flat but we're just so on top of each other all the time, especially as we both work from home, and there's just simply not enough space.

So yes. Boo. Sigh. Sob. Onwards. Etc.