Ugh I keep starting blog posts and deleting them after one sentence...
See, first sentence, your days are likely numbered... if I can carry on writing you're safe, otherwise you're toast!
We're looking at property. We've had some good luck in finding what we want, and then bad luck in that we can't stretch to afford it... so now we're looking and may have something in the works. I don't want to jinx it, so I won't go into detail about our search, or any actual detail really, but I just want to put it out there because there is nothing I'm thinking about more than this right now.
I think that once you embark on buying a place, you learn something about the way you deal with this kind of situation - whether or not it may eventually break you. There are those who are able to stay very detached, keep their emotions in check (Ian) and then you get my type, who is moved in, standing over the sink in pajamas, eating a plum and looking dreamily out the window in the sun - in my head, after five minutes in someone else's kitchen. I mentally move myself in, and if I really like what I see, it eats me up inside while I wait until we get back in the car to hear what Ian thinks.
He's a lot more pragmatic, like he says, he knows when it's a NO. I see a maybe, perhaps, if we knocked down that wall and turned that kitchen into a bathroom, that cupboard into a whole bedroom, that JETSKI IN THE GARDEN THAT SOMEHOW FIT THROUGH THE WHOLE FLAT, INTO A GARDEN FEATURE WITH FOUNTAINS AND GNOMES?
We've seen some amazing places, and some absolute shockers. The things people do to the places they live absolutely astounds me - why would you put an enormous admin-requiring fishtank into your tiny living room? And put laminate flooring over period floorboards? And paint your living room the colour of dark seaweed?
We have plans, and solicitors, and are looking to spend more money than I want to think about too hard. These are heady times, friends, and I'm so glad I have such normal boyfriend to tell me to calm down about 50 times a day! Please hold thumbs for us.
This is a 
Good luck! Let me tell you, it's hard not having someone else to confer with...
Oh thanks Annie, we're very anxious to just get this done, let me tell you!
I am in awe that anyone can do this without a partner, it seems so impossible for me, must be a lot to bear for one. You're at least two times less neurotic than me though, so I think you'll probably have found it, completed and moved in long before we even get going!
Am keeping them crossed for you too x
Good luck and I will keep fingers and toes crossed for you :-) And I'll try to hold my thumbs at the same time.