Moving home - is it normal to have doubts?

[StormyLovesOdd]

So..... we currently rent and have been here for 18 years, the house is just the way I want it but it'll never be ours as it's rented. This house has been me and DHs only home together, we got married from this house, had our child from here, etc etc. Were very lucky that we have inherited some money so we've been able to buy a new home. We're due to move in next month.

The new house is lovely, only a few years old, on a much nicer street than our current house, it ticks all the boxes and when we viewed it we all loved it BUT I'm having so many doubts and sleepless nights over it now . Is this normal? Does everyone feel like this when they move, I'm not excited at all, in fact I'm dreading all the work and organising the move is going to mean

I have felt that way every time we have moved, despite on paper the move being absolutely the right thing to do. Took a few months each time to settle in but it was the right decision and I don’t regret any of our houses. It’s the most expensive thing you’ll probably ever do (children might cost more but it’s much less starkly obvious than a house price) and it is a lot of faffing around actually moving so I think it’s natural to have doubts.

Triang - thank you, that helps. I think (hope) I'm just overthinking it all. We've made a few bad decisions in the past and i keep wondering if this is another mistake and my inner voice is trying to tell me something.

Yes, I’ve felt like that about some houses we’ve moved to. Especially as you’ve lived in your current one for a long time.

I woke up the morning after we moved to one house and wept. I didn’t want to leave that house when we moved.

It’s a lot of money and it can be overwhelming, but it will feel like home when you have your things sorted and your routines back.

It's post-purchase panic, and it's so very normal. Big changes like that are scary!

I feel the same! I remember crying the day we moved into our current house 9 years ago thinking it was all a mistake. We hear today if we have been accepted on our new place. We fully transformed our current house, blood sweat, tears, 2 children. Half of me is dreading going, but I know how amazing our new place will be after some work. Closer to most things we need!!!

Emotions just run high when it’s such a big change and gamble!

Thank you for this thread! We are in the process of buying a house, we have just put an offer on it and I haven't slept well for the last few nights. We are in a flat with 2 kids so it makes sense to move to a house, but I still worry! It's nice to see I am not the only one

I get very emotionally attached to properties, and was more sad about leaving my flat than leaving my ex in my last breakup.

It's normal, your home is a huge part of your life - particularly at the moment, so you want to be sure you're in the right one.

One thing I would say is that owning a home is much better than renting as you get older as you don't want rent hanging over your head when you're relying on a pension - so this alone should give you confidence that you're making a good decision :).

The day we got the keys to our house I cried. I hated it and thought we had made a massive mistake. And then I cried a month later when we moved out of our flat into the house as I was so sad to leave it. I love our house now though

We bought our 'forever' home a few years ago. At the time we didn't sell the one we were moving out of so we got the keys to the new place on the Thursday and I went over to clean.

Thoroughly enjoyed myself until DH suggested we bring the bed over and spend the night. I was horrified at the thought. Took me about two days of faffing with cleaning and painting to finally work up to actually living here.

It's very normal.

Thank you everyone. It's very good to hear that this is all normal.

We'll have our new home and the keys to our current home for a few weeks after the completion date . DH keeps suggesting that we book the van so we can move on "this" date and I keep I'm putting it off .

I didn't realise how attached I was - I was literally stroking the wall in my lounge last night and telling the house I was going to miss it I hadn't even had any wine LOL.

I'm making a list in my head of why it's a good move. It's the only sensible option, no point at all in continuing to pay rent when we can buy a house and it's not that I don't love the new house, just that I'll miss this one at first.

Whoever said it'll feel like home once we move all our stuff in is right I think.

I think it’s completely normal. At least I hope so as I’m about to be doing the same!

We’ve moved lots of times as we lived overseas but all our houses were rented. Moved back to UK ten years ago and bought our current house which we completely renovated. The kitchen in particular works so well as DH designed it incredibly logically and it just works.

We are moving to a similar sized house which is only a year old. Looks great but was built to sell so it’s missing all the bells and whistles as it were.

It’s a nicer area and has a lot more going for it in lots of ways but I’m at the “what are we doing?” stage.

We had an offer accepted for a house yesterday. I'm bricking it. For the past 10 years we lived in a succession of military houses... Now this one is our own. We will live in one place for 10+ years.

I'm terrified and excited.

Peridot - we'll have to have a hand hold for reassurance, sounds like your move is a good one.

It's going to be so strange when we move, we've been here so long I can literally walk around the house in the dark and know exactly where everything is.

I didn't realise how hard this was going to be

Definitely ready to handhold! I think as well as familiarity our houses are homes that hold so many memories of our lives. We form an emotional attachment.

Moving from our first bought home was a wrench for me but after a couple of weeks I didn't miss it at all. We are moving from this one very soon and I'm looking forward to it. I think in part because I managed to get over moving from the first one I know I'll be ok. I'm also not attached to this one. It sounds like a great move for you and if it's not the right fit you can sell and move again.

Moving is always stressful.
I love my little house, a new beginning after my divorce, it wasn’t ‘t the way I wanted it, for years to come

Yes, totally.

I look back and shudder at how stressful it was. We lived for 14 years in our old house. Both children were born there (literally for my daughter as she was a home birth) and we had such happy times there. I had this general feeling of doom that the new house was going to make us unhappy.

We've lived here 2 year now and it feels like home. I never had any regrets but it did take a good few months to feel like that and to stop the feeling that we were living in someone else's house.

The first Christmas in the new house was odd (we moved there in the August we'd been there a few months) as all our Christmas associations were in the old house. It was also the first year my daughter fully didn't believe in Father Christmas so she got upset that it didn't feel Christmassy.

I love my house now. I really think the cliche that home is where the heart is is very true. Your new house will become your home.