Regrets ...

Have you ever regretted things that you did not do? I did ... and then no small things like, "Oh why don't I just have bought the yellow shirt instead of the blue", but no ... I mean BIG things!

My boyfriend and I got to know each other in 2012, and in 2013 we had the idea to buy a house in the province of Zeeland. We had looked on the internet and found several houses that did suit us. All of them cute little houses, with large pieces of land for an affordable price! Because of course the latter is important. They were all houses that had to be refurbished, but we didn't mind that one tiny bit.

Start for a new life?

So in June 2013 we went with all four shepherds in my friend's small Peugeot 201 and drove to Provincie Zeeland. We went to see the houses from the outside and just spend a nice day in the beautiful coastal province.

And well ... we had a wonderful day, without a doubt. The most picturesque places, small cozy houses visited and enjoyed the Westerschelde in various places, enjoyed the sea in Vlissingen and when we tired but satisfied to our own North Brabant ride back was a very adventure where we even the inside mirror of the car lost to the enthusiasm of four shepherd dogs.

We just didn't dare.

But what I regret then is that we did not continue! We did not buy a house, we did not dare to take the step to request a transfer to another province, which at that time would have been possible for both of us! With the jobs we both had at time it was a real possibility. But we didn't ... And often I wonder, did I still have a job, and therefore had an income if we had taken that step? Now a move to another province has almost become an impossibility. The financial risks are now even much much bigger then at that time.

Maybe a houseboat?

The next opportunity we thought about was a houseboat in 's-Hertogenbosch. On a beautiful spot there in a beautiful water in a beautiful location was a houseboat, also affordable for us. With also a 400m2 fruit yard on the shore that you could use as your garden. The rent for this at the municipality was 300 euros per year ... which of course is almost a joke when you look at the prices of land everywhere. So we have also seriously thought about that ... only the disadvantage for us was that the berth had no permanent assignment but that there was a tolerance policy. Now five years later that tolerance policy is still in place but there are also permanent permits issued ... Again a moment of "If we just had do it! That would had made a pretty big difference in finances and we had lived on and on the water nicely".

Finally we make a decision.

In 2015 we finally made the decision to move. To a farmhouse in a village, somewhere in the countryside ... and we have quite some space, but not as much as we could have had in our earlier plans. But that all was okay to us. And I honestly must admit, until half a year ago I live very happily in this place. Although the maintenance is lacking, and the house owner doesn't seem to care a bit about it. But ... the worst is still, in both the other options we had no immediate neighbors.

Now we do have them, and now let just those neighbors that we have now be the factor that I first regret to start something that we have done .

The place is beautiful, the house is beautiful ... but the neighbours ... they stress me out more and more every day.