We moved to Havant in May 1987, when Claire was just over a year old.
The Fareham flat had worked for two adults. With a pram, cot and the equipment attached to one child, movement required advance planning. We began looking at houses before we had agreed that we could afford one.
The Havant house was a three-bedroom semi-detached. The estate agent described the third bedroom as suitable for a child or office. Alan measured it and said a desk would prevent the door opening fully.
‘A small desk,’ the agent said.
The house had a front room, dining room, kitchen and garden. The bathroom was upstairs. After three years of sharing a laundry room, I was most interested in the space beside the kitchen where our own washing machine could go.
Alan checked the loft, boiler and fuse box. I followed Claire from room to room while she tried each door. We viewed two more houses after that, then returned.
The mortgage payment was higher than our rent. We went through our figures several times. I was no longer earning a regular wage, though I planned to do typing from home when I could. Alan’s pay covered the bills if we remained careful.
We bought the house.
On moving day, the Chevette carried clothes and kitchen things. A hired van carried the furniture. Claire travelled with me and slept through the part where the wardrobe would not turn at the top of the stairs.
The previous owners had left curtains in two rooms. We kept them. They also left a shed containing one broken chair and a tin of paint with no label. Alan opened the paint, looked at it and closed it again.
For the first week, boxes filled the smallest bedroom. We called it the spare room, though nobody could have stayed in it.
The garden was manageable. That was Alan’s word. He cut the grass the first Saturday and found that manageable still required most of the morning.
Claire had her own bedroom. On the first night, I checked her twice before going to bed. Alan checked once and said he had only gone in to close the window.
We had a mortgage, a garden and a room we did not yet need.
The boxes stayed there until I was expecting Michael.