How many people are living in their forever home?

[jocelyn plummer]

Oh Pip&Mims. how I sympathise with your story--12 years ago we made a move to our forever home, as we thought; unfortunately circumstances dictated 2 further moves, the penultimate one generating similar thoughts of regrets to yours--then, suddenly out of the blue came the just moved into downsize, which is already showing signs of making a brilliant forever home, thanks to the knowledge, skills and hefty profits gained along the line. We have already blotted out the previous misadventure and cannot, after 3 weeks, even remember what it was like to live in that house, let alone the room layouts! Yes, the stamp duty , fees and removal costs on 3 removes over 12 years does sting a bit, but there are so many pluses that its not worth adding them up.

Good Luck with your find!

 

[mims&pip]

Oh Pip&Mims. how I sympathise with your story--12 years ago we made a move to our forever home, as we thought; unfortunately circumstances dictated 2 further moves, the penultimate one generating similar thoughts of regrets to yours--then, suddenly out of the blue came the just moved into downsize, which is already showing signs of making a brilliant forever home, thanks to the knowledge, skills and hefty profits gained along the line. We have already blotted out the previous misadventure and cannot, after 3 weeks, even remember what it was like to live in that house, let alone the room layouts! Yes, the stamp duty , fees and removal costs on 3 removes over 12 years does sting a bit, but there are so many pluses that its not worth adding them up.

Good Luck with your find!

Thank you Jocelyn

Do you know, Pip and I have said exactly the same thing about not remembering what living at our last house was like - in fact I keep referring to our previous house (not the *forever* one, but the one between them, IYSWIM :roll: ) when talking about where we moved from and we only completed on this house in mid December! Curious, isn't it the way we block things out?

Wishing you many happy years at your new home

Mims x

 

[Carol]

We moved into our 'retirement'' project, (we are in our early fifties) this week and am already planning our escape! Everything that could have been broken is, my woodburner skills are rusty, and it's so cold I can't get out into the garden we fell in love with! Forever house? Not yet!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Thank you Mims! Like you, we completed on January 17th 2015!!!!!!!

 

[Penners]

my woodburner skills are rusty

That's no problem, Carol. A good squirt with WD40 and a thorough scrub with a wire brush should bring them up a treat.

 

[essexbearhunter]

Forever home?
I hope so! It takes me so long to work out the perfect solution to anything that I don't think that I have enough time to do a second one LOL

Just before Christmas I finally found the perfect columns to go by the front door. Perfect proportions, great detailing and enough playfulness in mixing the acanthus leaves of a Corinthian capital with Victorian Gothic to stop them looking too grand for a small house. It has only taken 36 years to solve that one !

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/NjwAAOSwD0lUgZdB/$_57.JPG
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/NN0AAOSw7ThUgZdS/$_57.JPG

(I still have to design the porch top though )

 

[mims&pip]

We moved into our 'retirement'' project, (we are in our early fifties) this week and am already planning our escape! Everything that could have been broken is, my woodburner skills are rusty, and it's so cold I can't get out into the garden we fell in love with! Forever house? Not yet!

I feel for you Carol - when realisation dawns that the *perfect* home is anything but, it's an awful feeling....I do hope for your sake that it's just Winter Blues and that once Spring comes along you'll feel differently towards your new home Seems as though a few of us here have made mistakes when house purchasing

Whereabouts in East Wilts are you based? Our last house was between Salisbury and Shaftesbury, Dorset......

 

[LadyArowana]

Seems as though a few of us here have made mistakes when house purchasing ......

I am yet to totally find out if our house purchase was a good one or not because I only camped there off and on for 6m to get some work done for it to be rented out. At the time we were "shopping" for a place I thought it was a shame that I had to basically prepare with only internet resources as we were just going to have a couple of weeks in the UK to see things IRL. However I now think this was a blessing. It meant that I focused on things like looking at floor plans and locations and had more of a mental list of what was required, rather than being sidetracked by one lovely feature. There are always compromises, but if you have a list then you know what trade offs you are making. We didn't get a garage ( and no place to access building one ) but subsequently bought one a very short walk away. Perhaps the Chinese are onto something with Feng Shui and there ought to be a special geomancer for period properties to help us get it right

 

[Penners]

when realisation dawns that the *perfect* home is anything but, it's an awful feeling

There's no such thing as the "perfect" home - particularly if you want to live in a period property. You didn't design or build it, and even if you had you would still find, a few years down the road, that something you initially regarded as an ideal solution would turn out to be a flippin' nuisance. Every house is a compromise, and in my view if you fall out of love with your home because it's not absolutely perfect, you're condemning yourself to a lifetime of disappointments.

Always remember the PPUK version of Murphy's Law of Unintended Consequences: no matter how carefully you plan your home, you'll always end up with a plug socket behind the chest-of-drawers.

Appreciate the good stuff and shrug off the irritations.

Presumptuous lecture over.

 

[Keithj]

Agree.

If I were back in the 16th century, knowing what I know now, I would have specified some things differently for this house. However, those old blokes didn't do too badly, on the whole.

 

[Flyfisher]

Appreciate the good stuff and shrug off the irritations. . . . Seems like pretty good advice for life in general, never mind just period houses.

I reckon we're in our 'forever' house now, if only to avoid the upheaval of moving again. Plus, if we end up being buried in the garden then it really will be forever. :lol:

 

[Penners]

if we end up being buried in the garden then it really will be forever.

I can't believe you'll be that unpalatable to the local subsoil creepy-crawlies, FF!

 

[LadyArowana]

if we end up being buried in the garden then it really will be forever.

I can't believe you'll be that unpalatable to the local subsoil creepy-crawlies, FF!

Isn't he planning a solar powered cryogenic chamber?

 

[mims&pip]

when realisation dawns that the *perfect* home is anything but, it's an awful feeling

There's no such thing as the "perfect" home - particularly if you want to live in a period property. You didn't design or build it, and even if you had you would still find, a few years down the road, that something you initially regarded as an ideal solution would turn out to be a flippin' nuisance. Every house is a compromise, and in my view if you fall out of love with your home because it's not absolutely perfect, you're condemning yourself to a lifetime of disappointments.

Always remember the PPUK version of Murphy's Law of Unintended Consequences: no matter how carefully you plan your home, you'll always end up with a plug socket behind the chest-of-drawers.

Appreciate the good stuff and shrug off the irritations.

Presumptuous lecture over.

I agree completely, Penners

Although on both occasions when we have realised that our chosen house has been less than perfect, it has been primarily because of its *location* as opposed to anything fundamentally wrong with the property itself. That has been as a result of our insufficient legwork and research when deciding on which house to purchase - therefore we only have ourselves to blame :roll:

Of course, the houses themselves were not without fault(s), but as you so rightly state, the *perfect* home (period or otherwise imho) doesn't truly exist, however much money one is able to throw at it.

In an attempt to get what we deem to be perfect, we actually considered building our own house a few years back, but as it would have been a pastiche of an Arts & Crafts house without the wonderful history and just that *feeling* that comes with a genuine period home, we decided that wasn't for us.

With the exception of our last house, which really wasn't the right period for me personally, we have loved (to greater or lesser degrees) every house - and all have been period properties - we have owned, but in a couple of cases their attractions unfortunately couldn't overcome the negatives of their location.

With our new home we accept there are aspects that are less than perfect - some can be changed, such as the proliferation of woodchip wallpaper and inadequate supply of electrical sockets, some cannot, for example bedrooms three and four being smaller than we would have wished (really struggled to think of something we cannot change, so it's rather a lame one :roll: ).......

Otoh, there are so very many features we love, that the negatives are a small price to pay - this time I think I'm safe in saying "It's for keeps"

 

[Penners]

Although on both occasions when we have realised that our chosen house has been less than perfect, it has been primarily because of its *location* as opposed to anything fundamentally wrong with the property itself.

I reckon that location is as subject to the abovementioned PPUK law as anything else. No matter how perfect the area may seem, and however many times you visit to check it out, there will always be some gremlin lurking to catch you unawares.

Our current home is in about as perfect a location as you could imagine. We're in the depths of the Suffolk countryside, surrounded by fields and with a very few neighbouring properties located far enough away to give us complete peace, but near enough to make friends. In the summer, we can sit in our garden and not hear a single man-made sound.

However, we're in the midst of agriculture. And agriculture can be noisy. In the harvest season, huge combine harvesters growl down our little lane, and just at the moment the growing fields of rape and wheat are protected from the pigeons by gas cannons, redolent of the Somme!

But they're miniscule irritations compared with the wonderful peace and tranquillity that we enjoy 90% of the time.

 

[mims&pip]

Our current home is in about as perfect a location as you could imagine. We're in the depths of the Suffolk countryside, surrounded by fields and with a very few neighbouring properties located far enough away to give us complete peace, but near enough to make friends. In the summer, we can sit in our garden and not hear a single man-made sound.

It sounds idyllic Penners As I'm a non-driver though - and as much as I enjoy long walks - I find I prefer to have some *amenities* within close proximity, which when we were *out in the sticks* were sorely lacking.

On the subject of agricultural noise, our last house - the Georgian, thatched one - backed onto watercress beds. The garden was peaceful most of the time, but when they were harvesting the cress it was a different story :roll:

The main disturbance of our peace there though was the road out front, made worse by the closure of another local road due to landslide conditions and the subsequent diversion of aggregate lorries through our vilłage.....grrrr!

Curiously we are actually finding it quieter here, in a village lane on the edge of a city but with open countryside on our doorstep - the best of both worlds for me personally

Mims x

 

[LadyArowana]

Our current home is in about as perfect a location as you could imagine. We're in the depths of the Suffolk countryside, surrounded by fields and with a very few neighbouring properties located far enough away to give us complete peace, but near enough to make friends. In the summer, we can sit in our garden and not hear a single man-made sound.

I get scared just reading that :lol: 3 weeks in the countryside was about 2 1/2 weeks too long for me. Since I've been a grown up I have never lived anywhere that wasn't a capital city, and the current one is the smallest at 4million.

 

[Feltwell]

Each to their own, luckily! I spent just 3 months living in West Dulwich in London - just far too many people in far too little space for me. I suspect for most of us - city or countryside - we're happiest living in one and visiting t'other.

I love visiting London.

 

[Zebra]

Since I've been a grown up I have never lived anywhere that wasn't a capital city, and the current one is the smallest at 4million.

Are you a grown up? Oh dear, I fear I've formed rather the wrong impression, LadyA. :wink:

 

[Zebra]

I suspect for most of us - city or countryside - we're happiest living in one and visiting t'other.

I have the best of both here, I think. Fields and woods a two minute walk one way, and St Albans city centre a fifteen minute walk the other way.