flowerfairy - we sold our house (just before the big upturn in house prices!) but then my husband had to take early retirement through ill health and so we lived off the money from the house for a couple of years. At first we had an expensive housing association house in the village where I was born, 10 miles or so from here... but I got on the council list and this house was offered us within 6 months. If I'd known it, I'd have moved back home YEARS ago! Our house is one of only 4 in the middle of nowhere and we have huge gardens front and back. We're hoping to buy it in the next year or so with the full discount. Our house is about 100 yards from the river and right opposite a very beautiful pond, so we can't ever be overlooked and we have the most stunning view. The view at the back is just as good - nothing but fields for 20 miles and the Yorkshire Wolds in the distance. Ironic that it's a council house because it is in the sort of situation people would pay a million or more to live in. We could never have afforded to live here, normally. We have a long drive, parking for numerous cars, we have a caravan out the back and a big chalet style shed - on their own bigger than the garden we had in the city . In the city we had to get the council to give us a disabled space on the road outside our house... Then the drunk neighbour's family got abusive because they wanted to park in it when they visited him, as he was 'disabled'... Sometimes took us half an hour to find a parking spot and we'd end up parking a ten min walk from our own house... No fun with two toddlers in pushchairs and other kids....
My kids go to an idyllic village church school and are in classes of 12 or 15 (35 in B'ham). Although we had to lose every penny from our house, if we hadn't we wouldn't be here now. And I was a bit put off home ownership by the fact we had a private house but a violent drunk next door. Whenever we lived in council houses, we always had lovely neighbours. Our neighbours here are fantastic too, although all the houses except our's are bought now. If I could never buy this house, I'd rather be a council tenant here than own my own house where we were (off Kings Heath High St). The week we moved into our 'own' home, there was a girl abducted and raped from the top of our street. The week we moved in there was a policeman chasing through our garden - and all the neighbour's - chasing a scally. I used to teach in B'ham too and had such bad experiences in the schools, I didn't want my kids to be there when the eldest hit 11. In the end, we decided to 'lose it all' to get out. It was the best thing we ever did. (We couldn't buy a house up here because by that time, my husband was no longer working and I was at home with our disabled son).
Although if we buy this, we could sell it on for a massive profit, we don't want to ever move, we love it so much. None of the neighbours want to move, either so there's a lot of stability here.
I was in exactly your position, and although it was a tough thing to do - and it was our first home of our own as before that we'd rented well into our 30s - we were glad we did it.
imworhtit- so you are a fen tiger, huh? I love those books about the fens.
Sarahann - transplanted londoner indeed! You are always thinking about planting now, aren't you??!
I was born in Kent (not the garden of England bit - but near the Rochester way, in Welling - infamous only for the BNP or was it NF HQ?? Now in Hammersmith, West London - famous for -ooh! Riverside studios, errr the Jill Dando case (though in Fulham it was only up the road), BBC up the road in Shepherds Bush - I pass it on the way to my friend. Lots of nice parks too! Barnes is not far away with it's Wetlands centre full of ducks from all over the world - and loads of croaking frogs!
i was born in st.neots, cambridgeshire and moved here just over 20 years ago, and i love it..
we brought the children out to the fens when they were 5 and 7 we live in a very small village with a little school...
we brought a "do it up" in 1986 and we are still "doing it up"...
2frustrated - I know Gainford, I'm a Darlingtonian (is that a word?!)!
peacock_2 - I'm not sure yet! Got a placement year (as part of uni course) in Canary Wharf, so hopefully will be living somewhere near there. One of my friends has a house about 10 mins walk away, so that area would be perfect! Need to find somewhere affordable though, haha
wow phatphoenix you sound so happy now,wish I could speak to you off here and explain our situation,you sound like you have your head screwed on,not sure if I can PM you on here i will go off and see.
Last edited by flowerfairy2B; 04-26-2007 at 01:29 PM.
I'm just outside of Rochdale, moved down to Leighton Buzzard for about 4 years and then moved back again for a job. Should be moving in with my bf in Burnley later in the year!
I feel like I should chip in with more details. I was born in Warwickshire (Leamington), and grew up there - moving around in the Warwick/Stratford type area. I went to school in Stratford although I never actually lived there. Moved up to North Yorkshire when I was 16 and went to school in Ripon for a while.
I went to uni in Manchester and stayed there for 4 years (apart from a brief spell in the US - North Carolina), then back to Knaresborough for 3 years, and I've now been in Leeds for 4.
I live between Geneva and Lausanne in Switzerland, in a small village on the lake, but I'm Cumbrian (near Ambleside to be precise) born and bred. I went to university for 3 years in Chester and then lived in Oxford until I left the country nearly 20 years ago. Since then I've lived in Iceland for 2 years and Switzerland for 17.
But I'm British to my core And a northerner forever
Ooh, I'm Glasgwegian too, currently in Stirling but moving back to Glasvegas in a few weeks if all goes well. I'm sure Illinois can only be a million times better than Greenock! I'm feeling quite jealous, especially faced with the prospect of moving to Maryhill or Easterhouse....
