Living as an expat out in Doha means living in a rented house. Or to be more accurate, a rented villa. Which we’ve turned into home with all the little touches – prints and photos on the walls that represent us and our family.
A home that we’re away from for the best part of twelve weeks as we flocked back to the UK for this years summer migration at my mums house. A long expat summer away from my co-parenting partner in crime who had to stay behind and work in order to keep his job naturally. Kind of imperative as he is the financial support for our whole family.
We’ve been lucky though, this year our summer is split up with my husband returning home at various points to see us. To break up that long hot summer away from each other, and to give him a little break from the heat, we’re just at the end of one such visit.
One where we again asked the question – do we want to come home? And the answer was still a resounding NO.
Though being home, in London in particular, has brought about the thought that we do want to look at owning a home in the country ready for when we do think about moving back.
A sense of permanence.
A link to home.
Excitedly searching through Rightmove, as you do, and planning BIG things in my head at each house, getting more and more excited stretching the imaginary (too high) budget higher.
Then my husband returned to Qatar, to find our air conditioning unit (essential in the Middle East) had leaked everywhere. EVERYWHERE. He walked in to find a puddle, and breathed a sigh of relief when he realised his telly was safe. He went to bed after ringing our compound maintenance who set a time to come out in the morning and fix the problem as per our rental agreement.
Easy.
No sweat.
A problem easily solved.
So I continued on scrolling through Rightmove. Though this time with a little less vigour – what would we do if something went wrong with the house I had my sights on buying in the UK? There would be no maintenance team on hand. My husband, god love him, is no DIY expert. He can hang a mean picture, perfectly straight and the exact same distance away from the ceiling as every other frame in our house, but if something major went wrong? Who would we call? And how would we not end up on Rogue Traders??
Enter Bidvine. Bidvine takes all of the hassle out of searching, you simply download their app or visit their website, fill in a few details and wait for the quotes to come in. With Bidvine you simply fill in a few simple questions then sit back and wait for up to five quotes to come to you, giving you the opportunity to find a professional who suits your needs without being inundated with choice. Because everyone has a story to tell about the best builder in the world, or indeed a horror story of the person you’ve just hired to work on your home.
So while there may not be a maintenance team on hand who are there to save the day when we do buy our family home here in the UK, but we will have the solution to find the best person to do the job in our pocket.
