Living in our current home is a temporary state of affairs for us.We have already been here one whole year...time flies. Once all the work is completed we will - almost definitely - sell the house & move on. Of course, on a day to day basis we are treating the house as a permanent home for us & our children but we are unlikely to be here for years.I have said this before of course, about our previous home....and that turned into 7 years ;)It will be different this time though, our children are growing up & I want them to settle somewhere. I got to thinking today about the act of moving house...which seems to come fairly naturally to me, I'm not sure that I've ever lived anywhere that I couldn't bear to leave....some moves feel natural & inevitable, a bit like relationships I guess.I wouldn't want to move every year....but on the other hand, there are so many places that I would love to try living in. 
London is a collection of so many interesting & beautiful neighbourhoods, there is such a great variety.... I grew up in south London but have been based in north London for years now - I love both. I've never lived in the east or west parts of the cities though and, when I visit friends in those areas, I invariably wish that I'd spent some time there during my post Uni years when I spent several years in London flat/house-sharing....that was the time I should have done it of course, once you have children & they start school, you can't move around like you might once have done. Writing this post made me count up all the homes that I've lived in....I was quite surprised to find that the grand total is....22.Not as many as some people but possibly quite a few more than others. My husband has only lived in 7. My list includes time spent in Pennsylvania working at a summer camp, in Westchester, NY as an au pair & France as a student.My favorite house is probably the beautiful three storey house on very desirable Clapham Common West Side which I shared with 3 other girls when I worked in the City....I also loved the tiny apartment on Hampstead's Heath Street, such a fabulous location & I started dating my husband the first weekend that I moved in there, so it will always have great memories for me. 
My mother has lived in the same home for around 35 years & my husband first moved in to our current home 36 years ago (for those of you who don't know, our current home once belonged to my in-laws). Whilst I love the idea of having such a strong connection with a house, I think that my history of moving quite a lot means that I still have quite a few moves in me....my desire to live in NYC for six months or so is something I've spoken about many times & is something that I'll do one day. I can picture all my homes when I think about them, a connection to a happy home - and nearly all of them were - never leaves you, I think.I guess when you have a good reason for moving on....more space, a new baby or travelling, then that enables you to move on leaving the good memories intact. The gorgeous house in Clapham, once so happy, changed completely when two of the original tenants moved out & two (crazy) new people moved in....it no longer felt like home. And so I went to America.For a year or so back in London, I shared with someone that I had met at summer camp in America but who I didn't really know that well....of course I didn't find this out until I had to share a flat with her & her unemployed boyfriend & her ever-present parents. That was the last time that I shared with anyone, my next move was to a flat of my own. Having pondered this today, I have come to the conclusion that it is places that capture my heart, not necessarily houses. I will always love New York City & I could live in a tent in the beach in Villefranche Sur Mer & still be happy. Every time I visit Wales, I feel such a strong emotional pull towards it despite not having lived there since I was 6 years old....and yet London is probably where I will always live, where my family will always be. How many homes have you lived in, are you a mover or a stayer? :) 
