A friend of mine is looking to move house but can’t decide where – he seems to be at a real cross-roads in his life right now and has been asking us all for advice.
He’s just got divorced and has a child with his ex-wife in Bristol where he has been living for the past ten years, but since the split he’s decided he might need to spread his wings and leave the town which has quite a few negative memories now.
Of course, as he fully intends to see his son regularly, he can’t be based too far away so he’s decided to look at moving to the town where he went to university, Cardiff.
There are plus and minuses for each town. Cardiff has had a lot of regeneration and investment in recent years and is now a thriving, cosmopolitan city with plenty to offer in terms of shops, restaurants, nightlife, plus great beaches and countryside nearby. And I can see the attraction of starting again; I believe he’s had an offer of employment in Cardiff which is right up his street so that’s an added temptation.
But he already has a life and dozens of good friends in Bristol because he’s been there so long, and of course his son would be so much closer if he stayed in that area, so he would probably be able to see more of him and be more involved in his life.
He’s begun looking around at potential new homes online, hoping that an obvious difference in house prices and availability would help him make his mind up. So he’s been looking at houses for sale in Bristol and also houses for sale in Cardiff and has found quite a few lovely looking bargains in each place, which isn’t making his decision any easier.
I feel for him, but at the end of the day this is the sort of decision only he can make.