IN 2007, after some months of house hunting, I bought a house after seeing it once – before my husband had even viewed it (although he said I could go ahead), in an area we knew nothing about, where we knew no one and at the other end of the city from where we had been renting.
I look back now and I think about how profoundly that decision has influenced my family’s lives. It determined where the children went to school, the friends and acquaintances we made, the volunteering we have done and even where I work.